Indholdsfortegnelse for No. 279 i Digital Photographer

Digital cameras are extremely powerful pieces of kit and there’s an endless array of images we can capture with them. However, there is always a danger that we forget about the core image elements that people like to see in a photograph. Stripping things back to the basics is often a great way to reset your visual goals. As such, be sure to read our feature on using shutter speed in creative ways. It might seem like a simple camera setting but, if you’re looking to refresh your photo style, exposure duration can be a perfect place to start. Find this feature on p24 of the issue. Next, don’t miss our 13-page guide to creative black-and-white photography – a classic method of stripping images back to the essentials. From p36,…

Nikon has announced a new full-frame superzoom for its Z-mount mirrorless: the Nikkor Z 28-400mm f/4-8 VR. The lens is designed for use on full-frame cameras, however, its size, weight and price mean that you will also be able to use it on APS-C DX Nikon cameras, such as the Z 50 and Z fc, where its focal length is effectively 42-600mm. Superzooms offer an all-in-one solution, with wide-angle and telephoto focal lengths in a single lens. The longest-range superzoom previously available for Nikon cameras was the Tamron 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD for Nikon F-mount DX-format DSLRs. The Nikkor Z 28-400mm f/4-8 VR excels in close-up photography, with a minimum focus distance of just 0.2m at the widest angle and 1.2m at the maximum telephoto position, while it also…

DJI’s Avata 2 boasts a new 1/1.3-inch CMOS camera with the ability to capture HDR video at up to 4K 60fps or 2.7K 100fps. It has the option of a D-Log M mode for postproduction. It features O4 radio which offers latency as low as 24ms. Alongside the new FPV quadcopter, DJI is bringing a full suite of accessories, including the new DJI Goggles 3 – a change to the previous model places the battery in the band and cameras in the device for pass-through. The other big change is in the DJI RC Motion 3 controller, which is now smaller and lighter. The design is partly to accommodate the arrival of a new ‘Easy ACRO’ feature, which enables some classic FPV stunts at the push of a button. “DJI…

Shutter speed control might seem like a basic skill for a more advanced photographer. It is one of the first aspects of camera work that we learn when starting out in photography and, therefore, it might be easy to assume there isn’t much more you need to know about controlling the duration of your exposures. However, besides simply moderating how much light enters the camera, learning the various creative uses of shutter speed settings can open up a world of advanced imagery for use in any situation. As with most camera setups, it’s possible to get stuck in an artistic rut, using the same settings over and over, capturing similar images on each of our shoots. Sometimes, making simple changes to our choice of long or short exposure, subject matter…

AFTER A captivating photograph needs to have depth, layers and visual appeal but it should also stand out by presenting an interesting subject or by using different photographic approaches to showcase creative techniques. Here, using reflections can offer an opportunity to show a different aspect of everyday scenes. Reflections can be found everywhere, both indoors and outdoors, through windows, mirrors or water, such as the surface of a lake, river or the sea. Even small and inconspicuous puddles on the streets around your home have the potential to create a unique view. Water is a versatile surface to work with; it is flexible and adds depth, creating distortions and sometimes double exposure effects without the need to work extended shutter speed settings. In this respect, puddles are great to work…

Infrared light is present all around us but is invisible to the human eye. Capturing infrared light images requires specialised camera equipment that only records the red wavelengths. This createsdistinctive-looking images – green or yellow objects are transformed into red tones, while blue and cyan subjects appear darker. If you don’t have an infrared camera, here’s how to simulate this style in Affinity Photo 2.0. What you’ll be using Black and White Adjustment Layer Invert Adjustment Layer Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer HSL Adjustment Layer Selective Colour Layer 1 Work on brightness To achieve the infrared look, start by adjusting the colour brightness. Add a Black and White Adjustment Layer on top of the Background Layer and change the Blend mode from Normal to Luminosity. Decrease the Blue and…

Feeling flat I photograph very repetitive subjects in a basic studio setup and I’m not feeling fulfilled by the work. I’ve worked really hard to get to where I am and to build my client base so I don’t want to throw it all away but it’s not as much fun as I imagined. Do other photographers feel like this? Anonymous There is an assumption that being a photographer is a glamorous lifestyle full of exciting photo shoots, but that simply isn’t the case. Much of being a professional photographer is doing work that isn’t exciting but pays the bills. If that’s not the path you want to take, only you can change it. My advice would be not to completely cut off your breadand-butter money but to try and…

Photography is now a widespread medium but in the digital world, the importance of preserving historical images for future generations has been overlooked. Although creating images hasn’t always been as easy as it is today, the invention of photography allowed people to record moments of time for eternity, offering us glimpses of life in the past. The task of preserving this history today falls to charities such as the National Trust. Established in 1895, the Trust now looks after 250,000 hectares of countryside, 780 miles of coastline and more than 500 historic properties across England, Wales and Northern Ireland; including their history, art and photographic collections. To bring these historical photographs to a wider audience, the National Trust has partnered with CEWE, Europe’s market leader in photographic books. With decades…

For our latest competition in association with Photocrowd, we challenged you to submit your best creative colour images. After working through all the entries, the winners have been selected. As a prize, the expert winners will receive a licence for Affinity Photo professional editing software. Congratulations to all of the winners – as usual, the standard of submitted images was extremely high and it was a difficult task to select the best ones. 1ST PLACE WINNER Little World Photographer ruxxna There is a lot to like about this image – the detail, colour and composition, which makes great use of negative space. Using three subjects is a well-known compositional trick, as the human brain reacts positively to elements that come in threes. The frame creates an unusual take on the…

Price: £1,599/$1,599 Website: fujifilm-x.com The sudden overnight popularity of the X100V took everyone in the camera world a little by surprise, but none more so than Fujifilm, which has spent the time since scrambling to get enough copies in the hands of all the people who want one. Launched in 2020 as the fifth iteration of Fujifilm’s premium compact camera, it wasn’t until almost two years later when TikTok influencers sent the price of the Fujifilm X100V skyrocketing and its supply chain into freefall. Hopefully, with some lessons learned and some more ambitious manufacturing targets, Fujifilm is back to give the X100 series another go with the Fujifilm X100VI. What’s changed with the X100VI from the previous model? Externally, not that much but when you have a viral success like…

PRICE: £4,059/$4,299 FOCUS DISTANCE: 0.67m WEIGHT: 551g DOWNLOAD TEST SHOTS https://bit.ly/DPH279 Build and handling To call the Hasselblad XCD 90V lens eagerly anticipated would be quite an understatement. X system users have been waiting patiently but their patience has now paid off. Not only do the V lenses share a matching aesthetic, but they also share matching practicalities – such as the same 72mm filter thread, to make your setup more uniformly useful, and the same gloriously tactile manual focus clutch that engages silky smooth fingertip focusing. Also common to the V series is the customisable control ring, which can toggle between clicked and de-clicked at the flick of a switch. Overall handling is superb and the build is right up there with the best. Performance Hasselblad has made some…

Photographer: Chris Owen @chris_owen_photography Image location: Eithinog Nature Reserve, Bangor, Wales Type of commission: Personal Shot details: Canon R7, Canon EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM , 1/40 sec, f/11, ISO 100 Accessories: Tripod, shutter release cable About the shot: All around the world, bridges have long been a popular subject for photographers – their dimensions, construction details and geometric shapes offer many possibilities. Chris Owen, a photographer based in Wales, chose to capture the Menai Suspension Bridge, which spans the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and mainland Wales. Built in 1826, it was the world’s first major suspension bridge. “The bridge improved transport links by connecting Holyhead to London. It’s now a grade 1 listed structure and can be viewed from the Eithinog Nature Reserve in Bangor, the…

Black-and-white photography is, technically, the oldest genre in the field, dating back to the inception of early photographic technology in the 19th century. However, despite the advances in colour film processing, the practice of eliminating colours has remained popular as a style choice, offering plenty of opportunities to experiment. With the advantages of digital cameras, monochrome photography has adapted new techniques and ways of processing images, yet working solely with greyscale tonality remains a complex task. Blackand-white photographs have a timeless quality and offer a unique perspective on reality. Being limited to shades of grey only shifts the focus to the subject and certain characteristics in the scene become more prominent. However, what some may not realise is that colour still plays a significant role in B&W photography. In the…

Marketing yourself as a photographer can be a pain point for many of us. All the usual questions pop up – how do you do marketing? How do you book your next client? How do you make yourself stand out from the crowd? Although understanding these questions and finding the answers can seem both difficult and daunting, finding the right information that hasn’t been buried in the depths of a treasure trove of experience can be equally hard. I always say that having a photography business is more about business than it is about photography. Of course, having the talent and skill is crucial for success but you need to think with a business head to get your work in front of the right clients and must think outside the…

Hi Maria, could you explain your project Little Faces Big Feelings? Little Faces Big Feelings is a poignant photographic collection documenting and highlighting the profound impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on children and young people worldwide. For the collection, I decided to bring together 16 female artists from internationally diverse backgrounds to shed light on the social and emotional challenges faced by children during the lockdowns and afterwards. This historic and pivotal time was hugely significant to humanity and it compelled me to reach out to others. My passion for history and psychology inspired me to gather images together that both celebrated the highs and documented the lows of this incarceration in our own homes. The images in the show capture the experiences and stories of young people navigating a…

GuruShots is billed as the world’s leading photography game. It’s an online platform that gives global exposure to people who love taking photos. GuruShots members start as Newbies and compete with other photographers to win challenges, increase their ranking on the site and eventually progress to ‘Guru’ status. Challenges are voted on by Gurus and the wider GuruShots community and there’s a fresh competition brief, such as the Night Photography challenge, every day. All the winners receive prizes from GuruShots’ sponsors, including Lowepro, Kodak and Lensbaby. For more information, visit www.gurushots.com…

104 Fujifilm X100VI After the unexpected success of the Fujifilm X100V, does this latest version bring some worthwhile upgrades to the table? 106 DxO PureRAW 4 Rod Lawton finds out whether this RAW processor can revive images from older cameras 96 Photo Kit Leaderboard Check out our exciting new Photo Kit Leaderboard feature – a real-time guide to all the best cameras, lenses and other photography accessories on the market 104 Fujifilm X100VI Can lighting strike twice? Gareth Bevan takes the successor to the viral sensation X100V for a test to see whether it lives up to the hype 108 Lenses Every month, we take two professional optics out into the field. This issue, we put the Canon RF 135mm f/1.8L IS USM and the Hasselblad XCD 90V lenses to…

Price: £115/$119 Website: shop.dxo.com/en/dxo-pureraw-4 If you use Lightroom, Capture One or a similar program to view and process your RAW files, you’ll have formed a good idea of the quality you can get from your images. But try DxO PureRAW 4 and you might just have to change your mind. Almost all image editing tools can now process RAW files, using the software’s own proprietary ‘demosaicing’ process to turn the red, green and blue sensor data into full-colour images. Some do this RAW processing better than others, however, and if you use Adobe Lightroom, for example, you might end up with a completely different idea of your camera’s image quality than if you use Capture One. Even the best photo editing software can have weaknesses, and sometimes that’s the RAW…

Price £439/$434 Website eu.wandrd.com With external dimensions of 54.6x33x22.9cm, the Wandrd Transit Carry-On Roller Bag is considered carry-on baggage for the likes of BA, where the maximum dimensions are 56x45x25cm, but if you’re travelling with a budget airline such as EasyJet (maximum carry-on dimensions are 45x36x20cm), you’ll have to put it in the hold. The Roller Bag opens like a clamshell with one side being more than large enough to accommodate the Essential+ Camera Cube at one end. The Cube has a volume of 6.8 litres and is big enough to hold a camera body and a couple of lenses, maybe four if they are small. That makes the Wandrd Transit Carry-On Roller Bag Photo Bundle a good option for an overnight stay somewhere you want to include a bit…

Sigma has launched its 50mm F1.2 DG DN | ART, which aims to produce no-compromise optical quality in a classic ‘standard’ focal length for full-frame Sony E-mount or L-mount cameras. Sigma says the new 50mm has a ‘lightweight’ design. At 745g, it is 30 per cent lighter than the Sigma 35mm F1.2 DG DN | ART, despite having a longer focal length and the same f/1.2 max aperture. The optical design includes 17 elements in 12 groups, including four aspherical ones. This complex design corrects spherical aberration, sagittal coma flare, axial chromatic aberration and what Sigma calls ‘double-line bokeh’ – not just for edge-to-edge sharpness but also for the best possible blur. The Sigma 50mm F1.2 DG DN | ART incorporates dual High-response Linear Actuator AF motors, driving a dedicated…

The Ricoh GR III (and GR IIIx) are pocket-sized ‘street’ cameras with APS-C sensors, fast AF and a loyal fanbase of their own. Given that there is no EVF and both cameras have a fixed lens with a modest f/2.8 maximum aperture, not everyone is a fan, but if you want a big-sensor camera that you can slide into a jacket or a trouser pocket, then they are amongst the best compacts for travel and street photography. The HDF in the name of the new cameras stands for Highlight Diffusion Filter, which is a genuine optical filter built into the shutter unit and replaces the built-in ND filter. When activated, it produces softened, spreading highlights which look very different to these cameras’ regular high-contrast, high-resolution rendering, giving your images a…

Words and images by: Raghuvamsh Chavali Difficulty level: Advanced Time taken: 3 hours Video is the rapidly developing genre of the moment – moving images seem to have taken over the content creation world and all of the major social media platforms have shifted their focus away from stills photography and towards video. However, there are some dramatic aspects of a scene that a still image can capture far more concisely. Luckily, there are techniques that can bridge the gap between video and photography, making the most of both creative outlets. The technique of interlacing frames isn’t just about taking stunning photos of birds in flight; it’s about mastering a skill that opens doors to a whole new realm of photographic expression. By stitching together multiple frames into a single,…

There are plenty of reasons why you may not have been able to capture the desired shallow depth-of-field when shooting, but with the new and improved AI-powered tools in Lightroom, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. The recently added Lens Blur tool is an early access feature that allows you to defocus backgrounds and, although it isn’t yet perfect, it can produce impressive results. What you’ll be using Basic adjustment Lens Blur Blur Amount Bokeh Focus/Blur refinements 1 Process the image Using the Basic controls, such as the Tone Curve, Lens Corrections and Crop Tool, process your image so you have the best starting point possible. Doing your usual processing first makes the application of Lens Blur easier because you can then see how…

In the competitive world of automotive photography, innovation is key. But you never want your camera to get in the way of creativity, as professional photographer (and also musician, record producer, mix engineer... the list goes on) Rupert Cobb knows all too well. He often shoots from the sidelines of world-famous motor racing events, yet he captures his most unique and detailed car images at his drive-in infinity cove at Gun Hill Studios, near Lewes, UK. Rupert’s genius lies in blending inspiration with cutting-edge camera technology. Here, we’ll explore how he’s used the ground-breaking Fujifilm GFX100 II to redefine his workflow and image quality. Traditional medium-format cameras are slow and bulky, but the Fujifilm GFX100 II is fast and agile. Where medium format was once resigned to fine art photography…

Natural depth “My still-life images are inspired by naturally lit Old Masters and modern vivid still-life paintings,” says Ronni. “I am constantly learning how to be creative with natural light, it feels like an organically creative tool in my photography that complements my style.” By using natural light, Ronni has created depth within the frame. “I feel that I can be more creative and use it to my benefit by adding richness or using harsh light to bring out natural shadows for a bright and vibrant image,” she says. Old Master palette When setting the scene, the use of colours was key for Ronni to complement the Old Master-inspired photo she wanted to create. As she explains, the creative process began not with a camera but with a notebook and…

Photographer: Joshua Bailey Title: A lone snowdrop Location: Solihull, UK @joshbaileyphotography About the shot: “After recently moving to our new home in Solihull, near Birmingham, UK, I ventured out into the garden in search of something to photograph. After searching for some time, I noticed a small, delicate, lone snowdrop growing in the grass. This little flower was so beautiful that I couldn’t resist photographing it. The water droplets on the grass glistened in the sunlight, which added detail to the image. By using an f/2.8 aperture, I created a soft and blurry background, whilst keeping the detail and focus on the flower. The contrast between the white in the flower’s petals, the twinkle of the water droplets and the warm green colour of the grass all created a vibrant…

PRICE: £2,600/$2,099 FOCUS DISTANCE: 0.70m WEIGHT: 935g Build and handling Canon last released a 135mm professional portrait lens way back in April 1996 but has now, finally, released a sequel, albeit this time for a new mount. The RF version of the 135mm has grown in size from the EF version, with the optical image stabilisation and extra stop of aperture making this lens a bit larger than its predecessor. Cameras have also become smaller, making the setup with this lens front-heavy. The lens isn’t unwieldy to use, but it will be draining to carry it around your neck for a long day of shooting. The RF 135mm f/1.8L IS USM has Canon’s solid L-series build quality, which includes dust and moisture sealing, and a substantial premium polycarbonate build. Joining…

Price from £15/$15 Website 3leggedthing.com Wraps aren’t a new concept but they are an easy and convenient way of protecting delicate items such as cameras, lenses or filters when they are in a bag or sitting on a shelf. However, the new 3 Legged Thing Wrapz takes that idea to a new level. For example, the Wrapz are made from a special adhesive polymer with nanotechnology, unlike some wraps that have velcro pads. They have four layers, including a hook, loop, padding and waterproofing, meaning the two sides can grip each other instead of just small areas, making it easier to wrap around things. The padding also gives some protection when you have two or more items in a bag, while the waterproofing is handy if there’s a light shower…

Photography is both an art and a science and, as such, there are a plethora of confusing technical terms to get to grips with. Luckily, we don’t often need to think about this jargon, except perhaps when buying a new lens or investing in new tech. However, understanding how your camera works and what these terms mean can improve your appreciation of the medium, help you make better buying decisions and shoot better images as you progress. Here are some of the ones we wish we had known from the beginning. Acutance The subjective perception of the sharpness of a photographic image, as defined by the contrast between edges, independent of pixel resolution. Additive colour Colour created by mixing light from different light sources, starting with black, red, green and…