Innehållsförteckning för March 2015 från Digital Camera Magazine

Don’t let the short, cold winter days get you down – as long as the light is good, you can still get great shots of historic buildings. This wonderful shot of the city walls surrounding Dubrovnik, Croatia, was taken at sunset by Jeff Friesen, and shows that composition and exposure is much more important than the time of year. “Walking around Dubrovnik provides endless photo opportunities, as both the city and the surrounding scenery are stunning,” notes Jeff. “I’m sure pictures similar to mine are taken all the time, but it’s the dramatic lighting that makes the difference. “I like the way the circular wall made acurving visual path to the circular sentry tower.It was a stormy day, but the sun came out andprovided dramatic lighting on the clouds.I increased…

Using Lightroom 5? Did you know that it’s possible to change the splash screen that first appears when you open the program? That’s right: you can replace that roll call of Silicon Valley coding champions with something much more interesting, like a favourite photo or company branding. (Sorry, Emily Fu and Brian Kruse: we’re sure you actually are very interesting inreal life.) Craig McCormick (www.destructivepixels.com) has posted an excellent video at www.bit.ly/dc161splash that shows how to do it, but it’s actually quite a simple process… Get started today * Select a new splash screenimage (JPEG or PNG format, upto 900 x 600 pixels in size). * Find your splash screen folder. It’s at Users/[user name]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Splash Screen if you’re a Mac user, or Users/[user name]/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Lightroom/Splash Screen if you’re using Windows.…

MISSION FACTFILE Who: AmbroiseTézenas, a landscape and documentary photographer based in Paris. What: Ambroise mainly doeseditorial photography, primarilyfor New York-based magazines,and commercial assignmentswith his agent Talent&Partner.For his ’dark tourism’ project,I Was Here, Ambroise visitedglobal hotspots of death anddestruction, includingAuschwitz, the Kennedy assassination trail in Dallas, and Khmer Rouge prisons. Kit list: For I Was Here,Ambroise used a large-formatSinar and a Toyo 45, both ofwhich he says are very easyto travel with. He just used asingle lens, a 120mm. Ambroiseuses a PhaseOne P45+ back forcommercial assignments. More info: www.ambroisetezenas.com Why did you decide to do a book about ’dark tourism’? I decided a few years ago to explore darktourism [without worrying about whetherit would become a book]. With a long-termproject, it’s important to know where youneed to start, not where you…

Whether you’re just starting out in photography or you’re an experienced shooter who’s hit a creative brick wall, you can take inspiration from this bumper collection of photography ideas. You’ll find some classic projects mixed with fresh challenges that will help you take your photography to the next level, from fun photo assignments you can polish off in a weekend to longerterm projects that could feed your photography for years to come. Try something new today – and don’t forget to share your results with us… 1Self-portrait project Never again will you be able to say that there’s nothing to shoot Starting a self-portrait project – one that shows more artistry and originality than a set of social media selfies – can be richly rewarding. It also has no limitations:…

1 Camera support Start by mounting your camera on a tripod. It’s important you keep the camera in the same position throughout the sequence of shots, so you can easily edit them together. A tripod also enables you to shoot using a slow shutter speed, so you can keep your ISO setting low to eliminate noise. At this stage, you also need to be thinking about light and check for any distracting shadows. We popped in a reflector and wedged it in place to eliminate distractions. 2 Manual control It’s best to shoot in Manual mode, so you’re in complete control. When it comes to the editing stage later, you’ll want your images to match up exactly, so it’s best to keep the exposure settings the same throughout the shoot.…

The Specs The Leica D-Lux (Typ 109) is a rather unusual camera. Thanks to a working agreement between Leica and Panasonic, it’s almost identical to the Panasonic LX100, one of our favourite cameras of 2014. There is a price premium to pay for the Leica model, but this also brings a three-year warranty, and Lightroom 5 is included on a disc in the product box. For those unfamiliar with the LX100, the sensor is a Four Thirdstype; according to Panasonic, it’s the same 16MP sensor used in the Panasonic GX7, but it only uses a maximum of 12.5 million pixels (in 4:3 mode). As it’s a multi-aspect ratio sensor, 3:2 and 16:9 images use pixels that lie outside the area used by the camera in 4:3 mode. This sensor is…

THE ENTRY LIST 1 Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 £8.78 / $9.99 per month* www.adobe.com Most would contend that Photoshop is the best image editor bar none, but it’s now one of the best bargains too, thanks to its subscription plan. 2 Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 £81 / $100 www.adobe.com Adobe’s amateur-orientated image editor has a few new effects and a redesigned interface, but does it do enough to stay ahead of the rest? 3 Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 £8.78 / $9.99 per month* or £103 / $149 for permanent licence www.adobe.com With Apple’s Aperture on its way out, Lightroom is now the top pro image cataloging application, and Adobe’s subs offer makes it even more tempting. 4 Corel PaintShop Pro X7 £60 / $80 www.corel.com PaintShop Pro is one of…

One thing has become clear. If you want the best image cataloguing tool, the best raw converter and the best image-editor, you’re not going to find them in one program – but you might in one package. Available for a single subscription fee, the Photoshop CC and Lightroom 5 combination comes closest to a single do-it-all solution, especially since they work so well together. But that’s not quite the whole story. More photographers are shooting in raw to get the best possible quality. Here, DxO OpticsPro 10 and Capture One Pro 8 deliver the best images. The results Our top three image editors in a nutshell ADOBE PHOTOGRAPHY PLAN What’s good: You get the world’s best image editor and (possibly) the best imagecataloguing tool, all for under £9 per month.…

Enhancing portraits is all about making selective adjustments to certain areas of the face. It can be helpful to think of the face as a series of zones, each requiring a particular edit. You’ll lighten the eyes, soften the skin, boost the lips and sharpen the lashes. You might think the best place to make these changes is in Photoshop, but ACR also has a few powerful retouching tools. In fact, using ACR, it’s possible to perform a complete retouching workflow without even entering the main Photoshop interface. What’s more, by making tweaks in ACR rather than in Photoshop, you’ll ensure the best possible quality. And because ACR is so neatly organised, easy to navigate, and totally nondestructive, you may find it’s the ideal choice for enhancing your portraits. Sharpen…

Twilight Palouse Gabriel Tompkins www.500px.com/gabrieltompkins United States 1“The Palouse is one of the Pacific Northwest’s most photogenic locations. From Steptoe Butte it looks like a surreal wavy carpet, extending in all directions for miles. I had to act quickly after the sun set as the landscape immediately sank into a dark, hazy ocean of blue-green.” Nikon D90 with Nikkor 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR lens; 1/8 sec at f/8, ISO 200 Masked Tree Frog 2 “On a trip to Costa Rica, this frog was shot in shade trying to catch a nap. It’s less popular and colourful than the red-eyed tree frog, but has loads of character. I exposed for the rainforest background, then used fill-flash to highlight the detail.” Canon EOS 6D with 100-400mm lens; 1/500 sec at f5.6, ISO 250…

When you need to do some quick but effective product photography, you can do it with just your smartphone and a bit of ingenuity. TiloGockel proves this with his image of a knife, taken simply with an iPhone and some creative lighting. “First, put the phone on a tripod and use a cable release to ensure sharpness, or set the self timer,” Tilo explains. “For good depth-offield, you can stack some shots with different focus. Here, I stacked two shots – one for the blade and one for the handle – and combined the two later in Photoshop. Then I used an app called 645 Pro Mk III (jag.gr/645pro) to tweak the white balance and ISO and shot the knife against a slate tile.” You can do product shots with…

Unlike landscape photography, where you sometimes have to travel miles to get to a photogenic spot, interesting-looking people can usually be found easily. They make great subjects for portraits, with craggy, battered faces particularly suited to a moody black-and-white treatment. Fashion photographer Dave Kai Piper usuallyshoots beautiful people, but jumped at the chanceto take some character shots of a fearsomelookingbiker called Dink as part of a seminar forCambrian Photography and Sigma. “Whenphotographing anyone, from model to rock star tofamily to veteran biker, it is good to remember thatbeing photographed is a pretty intense thing formany people,” says Dave. “Starting shoots in familiar surroundings is always a winner; starting with little or no lighting and building up is good too.” If somebody in your town looks as striking as Dink, why…

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 From a younger reader… My name is Saffron, and photography ismy whole life! I recently purchased DigitalCamera, and I am proud to say that I waspleased with the content. I was also pleasedwith the photography dictionary: it wouldbe very helpful for now, and later on in lifewhen I am doing my photography A-level. Are you a photographer? Do you knowother famous photographers? It wouldmake my day if you could take a look atsome of my photography and maybe givesome feedback. Saffron, 13, photographer We think you have excellent potential and would advise you to keep up the hard work. Being a…

Martin Parr is one of the UK’s best known social, documentary and fine-art photographers, and is the current president of Magnum Photos. * His numerous projects and books include The Last Resort (1986), Common Sense (1999), Think of England (2000) and Black Country Stories (2014). * Martin has exhibited globally, with ’Parrworld’ opening in Munich in 2008 before touring the world for two years. * Martin has joined the roster of must-see speakers at the Photography Show in Birmingham – see page 47 for details.  While there are many reasons to attend March’s Photography Show in Birmingham, the chance to hear Martin Parr speak is as good as any. He would bristle at the plaudit, but he is a living national treasure of British photography, celebrated for his acute social…

VIDEO CAMERA GoPro Hero 4 > £369.99 / $499.99 > www.gopro.com > THE SPECS The action camera market is expanding at speed. The best-known name in the sector right now is GoPro, with the latest top-end incarnation being the Hero 4 Black, which replaces the Hero 3+ Black. Thanks to their small size and high-quality footage, GoPro cameras feature extensively at sports events, and they’re used by broadcasters like the BBC to capture spectacular wildlife footage. GoPro cameras offer a wide-angle view and are designed to be attached to something, rather than be handheld like conventional cameras. As such, there’s a vast range of mounts that enable the Hero 4 to be fixed to everything from a surfboard to a dog. FEATURES We’ve tested the GoPro Hero 4 Black, the…

Paint Shop Pro has become simpler and more novice-friendly over the years. It now presents an integrated workflow with three tabs: Manage, Adjust and Edit. The Manage tab takes care of your photo organisation. You can browse folders directly without having to import them, but you can also create virtual and smart collections. On the whole, it’s simple and straightforward to understand. The Adjust panel is for routine image enhancements, and offers a good selection of effects. These adjustments are not non-destructive, though – PaintShop Pro might look like Lightroom and PhotoDirector, but in fact it’s a traditional editor that edits your images directly, saving new versions of your files when it’s done. The Edit panel offers more advanced and manual controls, such as the levels, curves and colour adjustments…

Raw files processed through ACR can be opened into Photoshop as Smart Objects. This means that you have the option to bring the image from Photoshop back into ACR at any time, simply by double-clicking the Smart Object thumbnail in the Layers Panel. There are several advantages to working this way. First and foremost, it means you can change your mind about any edits made in ACR, such as a crop or sharpening settings. But it also opens up more creative possibilities. By duplicating the Smart Object layer, you can combine different treatments made in ACR using Blend Modes. Don’t worry if this sounds complicated, in practice it’s very easy. Within minutes you can transform a flat scene into a punchy, detailed landscape. Here’s how it’s done. Process a raw…

Don’t miss the winning images from the 2014 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, on display at the Astronomy Centre, Royal Observatory Greenwich, London, until 22 February. (Visit www.bit.ly/dc161astro for details.) There are lots of great images to inspire you to enter, including James Woodend’s winning shot of green aurora dancing across the Icelandic night sky. Other winning images on show include a view of the Earth taken from the edge of space with the help of a high altitude balloon, swirls of superheated gas on the sun’s surface, and a hybrid solar eclipse. Don’t assume you need expensive astro-photography gear to do well in the competition, however. The Northern Lights, for example, can be widely seen over Scandinavia. www.rmg.co.uk www.500px.com/ imagesinspiredbynature Get started today * Getting to Iceland, where…

Penelope Umbrico is fascinated by the sun, and has come up with lots of creative and inspirational ways of shooting it. It’s not just about pretty pictures, though. She did a search for ‘sunsets’ on Flickr and got 541,795 results. “I cropped just the suns from these pictures and uploaded them, making 4x6-inch machine prints from them.” she explains. “In much of my work, I address howdifferently an image functions on the internetthan in physical time/space, the shifts inmeaning around the subject depicted in theimage in both contexts, and what happens tothe image’s perceived value when transcribedfrom web-based to print-based media.” Whynot have a stab at shooting familiar objects inthought-provoking new ways, too? Penelope’s Sun/Screen exhibition is at thePhotographers Gallery until 3rd February; www.thephotographersgallery.org.uk www.penelopeumbrico.net Get started today Penelopeassembledherimagesfromthousands of…

1st & Crowd Vote* Eaton Park Tree Line BY MATTHEW DARTFORD Nikon D7000 with 16 -85 mm f/3.5-5.6 lens at 25mm;0.8 sec at f/16, ISO 100 Ben says Our atmospheric first-place entry is a worthy night-time winner. There are many technical aspects that make this this shot work, including the panoramic finish, the monochromatic cool tones, and the thick dense fog creating the perfect conditions. Matthew has done well to keep the trees silhouetted while exposing correctly for the light spilling out behind. This image has a cinematic quality: you feel the eerie scene could almost come to life. * Chosen by the community at Photocrowd 2nd Lone Tree, Milky Way and Shooting Stars BY PAUL APPLEBY Canon EO S 5D Mk II; 30 sec at ISO 3,2000 Claire says…

Reading Digital Camera 159, I was interested to see the ‘Flowers in Ice’ project [part of our 10 Creative Home Projects feature]. With my first SLR purchased in 2013 (a Nikon D7000), I have been on a massive learning curve. I try to have a project on the go to give me skills to practise. Last year my wife gave me a Nikkor 50mm 1.8D lens, and I thought I would try to freeze some sea shells in ice to get reflections in the sunshine. I had a few attempts experimenting with lighting and reflective surfaces. I never quite managed to get the image I had in my mind, but no doubt I will have another go in the next few months. Every time I take the camera out, I…

OFF -CA MERA FLASH What is off-camera flash? Off-camera flash – also referred to asstrobism – is simply the ability to removea flashgun from a fixed attachment on thecamera body, and fire it from a positionaway from the camera. Why bother with it? By freeing the flashgun from the camera,you open up a lot of creative possibilities.To explain all of them would require a lot ofpages in this issue – but in a nutshell, offcameraflash allows you to modify, throughdirection and distance, the way the lightaffects your subject.Using flash light to supplement or boostambient light when you’re out on locationcan help you take more effective photos.It is particularly popular for portraiture,allowing you to direct light more effectivelyand creatively over the face, as well ascapturing more detail within a scene. What…

The Specs Compact cameras withlarge sensors are verypopular at the moment.Within this field, theX100 series and itsfixed-length lens has a smaller, moreniche, audience, but is still admired. The latest incarnation in the seriesis the X100T, which is very similarto the preceding X100S. It has thesame 16 million pixel X-Trans CMOSII sensor and Fujinon 23mm (35mmequivalent) f/2 lens, as well as thesame EXR Processor II. FEATURES The X-Trans CMOS sensor featuresa unique design which uses a 6x6RGGB filter array pattern, with aneffectively random arrangement ofcolour filters within each block of36 photo receptors. Ultimately, thismeans that the sensor is less prone torendering moiré patterning in areas offine detail, and that’s why Fujifilm canget rid of the anti-aliasing filter forincreased detail and sharpness. Meet the rivals… The camerastaking on theFujifilm X100T Fujifilm X100S…

1 Cactus V6 Price: £50 / $70 Web: www.cactus-image.com Controlling multiple flashguns from one receiver is great for creative lighting effects, but not everyone is lucky enough to own a selection of flashguns from the same brand. The clever thing about the Cactus is that it can simultaneously control a whole range of different flashguns, including Canon, Nikon, Nissin and Sigma models. You’ll need two V6s to get started, which makes the combined price slightly less appealing, but the system offers an excellent 100-metre range and the ability to manage four flash groups over 16 channels. There’s also a simple but speedy control system. DIGITAL CAMERA What’s good: Cross-brand flashgun and camera compatibility. What’s bad: Won’t wirelessly transmit TTL metering signals. We say: If you’ve got a mix of flashguns,…

PhotoPlus’s similarity to Photoshop is obvious, right down to the screen layout, with a tools palette on the left, tool options on the top toolbar and stacked palettes including adjustments and layers on the right. But then the two programs diverge. PhotoPlus X7 has beginners in mind, and features an array of Studios for creating different photo effects. There’s a general-purpose PhotoFix Studio, for example, plus Makeover Studio, Black and White Studio, Warp Studio, Cutout Studio and Print Studio. This latest version adds support for Lab mode (useful for certain kinds of colour adjustment), lens corrections and a Clarity filter, which boosts local contrast for added definition. The Clone tool from earlier releases is improved, with an advanced live preview; the PhotoFix Studio has a Smart Brush tool for applying…

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Since the days of dodging and burning in the darkroom, making selective adjustments to different areas of your image has always been an essential skill for photographers. Before Photoshop CS4, adjustments made in ACR were limited in that you could only apply them to the entire image. But with the introduction of the Graduated Filter and Adjustment Brush, ACR suddenly became a whole lot more useful. In ACR version 7 (which comes as standard with CS6) the Adjustment Brush and Graduated Filter tools have been improved with extra options to adjust white balance, making it easy to selectively correct white balance and warm or cool an image. The tools have been used here to cool down the sky and add warmth to the land, and to tease out details in…