Innehållsförteckning för April 2020 från Digital Camera Magazine

Bring out the best from your captures with our essential guide getting the most from raw files – James Paterson is on hand with 12 pages of expert advice (p42). Shooting in raw is what we definitely recommend if you try any of the all-new projects in Photo Active (p14), while other inspiration this month includes the photographic storytelling practised by Alec Soth (p8) and the work of the Hollywood actor turned photographer Jeff Bridges (p134). Camera College (p56) has everything you could ever need to know about image stabilisation, and you’ll find six new image editing tutorials, from page 71. Kit reviews this issue include in-depth tests of two major new DSLRs, the Nikon D780 and Canon’s EOS-1D X MkIII, plus we reveal the best photobooks for presenting your…

71 MINUTES OF VIDEO SHOULDER BAG ADVICE How to choose the right bag for you Whenever you see this logo, you can find related content on this issue’s video disc. FILE & VIDEO Download the disc: www.bit.ly/dc227disc STEP BY STEP New looks for your photos GET THE LOOK Four ways to bring out detail TOOL SCHOOL Explore Photoshop’s Filter Gallery RAW WAR Two ways to enhance a cityscape APERTURE The basics in three minutes FUNDAMENTALS Create a vintage effect in Lightroom JUST FOR FUN Turn a portrait into a sketch…

10 things to shoot, edit or create this month, including perfect headshots, fast food and action figures In this project we are going to achieve some distinctive images by capturing reflections that are made by natural light. You’ll experiment with abstraction, isolating a reflection to create a different view. Your observational skills and ability to spot opportunities are key tools for taking this kind of photograph. Using a tripod to steady your camera, you can frame the shot and proceed using your camera’s manual mode. You need this full level of control, as this type of shot can easily be overexposed, losing important detail. During editing, we will enhance the image to make sure the background is dark and the light is the main subject. 1 Set up the shot Find…

Gary Rivers came to photography through a lifelong interest in action figures. His Instagram feed is a feast of meticulously staged cinematic shots – some recreating film scenes, some wholly new. What led you to become a toy photographer? I had a very active imagination as a child, which still continues today. Some of my earliest memories were receiving Star Wars figures for Christmas. From a very young age, I’ve always loved action figures, and I’ve never really stopped collecting them. Then Instagram came along; it was easy to find groups of like-minded people. I initially used the platform to show off my toy collection. I eventually started to see more and more people photographing their figures outside, or posed in a diorama to look like a real scene. When…

Walk into any restaurant at any time and you’ll instantly be presented with a range of stunningly edible delights. Photographing food is a carefully considered art, and it can feel like a very difficult subject to get right at first, although we did lend a guiding hand in February’s cover feature (issue 225). All you need to get some great images of food is an entry level or enthusiast camera, or even a decent cameraphone: just grab whatever works best and start snapping. The background you photograph food against is just as important as the food itself. Use something that will create a mood or tone, rather than just a blank, white area. Some people use a rustic tablecloth or even some textured wood to place their items on. Successful…

JPEGs often look initially look better than raws because they are enhanced, sharpened and saturated in-camera to give you something approaching the finished image. As such, they’re meant for those who are happy to let their camera make decisions for them on how their images should look. Raws, as the name suggests, are unprocessed images. They can initially look rather flat, especially when placed side-to-side with a JPEG counterpart. But the flatness is intentional: it’s a starting point. Camera makers know raw shooters want to make their own decisions about the look of their images.…

Adjustment Brush Perhaps the best tonal tool in Camera Raw, the Adjustment Brush lets you paint over an area to isolate it, then change only that area. Graduated Filter This lets you make transitional tonal changes. For example, you can darken part of a frame in the same way as a lens-mounted neutral-density grad – useful for balancing out a sky. Radial Filter This is like the Graduated Filter, but it creates circular rather than linear transitions. Drag a circle over part of the image, then use the tonal sliders to alter the area outside or inside of the circle.…

IN CAMERA RAW… Select several photos in Bridge, then rightclick them and choose Open In Camera Raw. Now either highlight them all in the filmstrip (Ctrl/Cmd+A) and begin editing to alter the entire set; or edit one photo, then select the rest and go to the top-left menu to choose Sync Settings. IN BRIDGE… After editing a single photo in Camera Raw, you can copy the edits to other photos in Bridge. Simply right-click the edited image and choose Develop Settings > Copy Settings. Then select several photos, right-click them and choose Develop Settings > Paste Settings. IN LIGHTROOM CLASSIC… Make changes to a single image using the Develop Module, then simply select other photos and click the Sync button in the bottom-right. You could also use the Presets Panel…

In its original format, a raw file is rarely any use to anybody but yourself. So after perfecting the look of the image in your raw processor, the next stage is to output the file in another format. We’ve spent much of this feature trashing JPEGs, but the format is perfectly fine for outputted photos, because you can go back to the raw for further edits, then save as a JPEG again. TIFF is a higher-quality option. OUTPUT AS A JPEG 8-bit JPEGs can hold 16.7 million colours, while the eye can perceive around 7-10 million (and screens are mostly 8-bit), S JPEG is a perfectly fine format for outputting your images. Saving as a JPEG at this point will give you a small file size, which is perfect for…

In a camera with IBIS, the sensor ‘floats’, with electromagnets being used to adjust its position when vibrations are detected. Sony, Panasonic and Olympus have been at the forefront of IBIS development, but Nikon and Canon have traditionally used lens-based stabilisation; after all, in the days of film it was more practical to move a group of lens elements than move a roll of 35mm in the camera. Canon’s new EOS R5 and Nikon’s Z cameras do feature IBIS, though. High-end IBIS systems offer what’s known as five-axis stabilisation, meaning they can correct for vibrations in five directions: vertical and horizontal shifts, and pitch, yaw and roll. Some cameras can only achieve this with the help of specific lenses. For example, the Nikon Z 6 offers five-axis in-camera Vibration Reduction…

Image stabilisation used to be found where it was seen to have the biggest benefit – heavy, high magnification telephoto lenses – but now it’s included in everything from kit lenses to macro lenses. It is rare to find it built into fast lenses – those that have very wide maximum apertures, such as f/1.4 and f/1.8 – but attach one of these to a compatible camera that features IBIS, and you get a tempting combination of both a large aperture and stabilisation when you need it. One advantage that lens stabilisers have over IBIS is that they can be switched on or off using a physical switch rather than having to dip into a menu. Although some lenses have a simple on/off setting, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the…

Image stabilisers are rated in stops, which is a measure of exposure. One stop is equivalent to the shutter speed being either doubled or halved. So going from 1/30 sec to 1/60 sec is one stop faster, and going from 1/30 sec to 1/15 sec is one stop slower. When a lens or camera says it offers up to five stops of stabilisation, this means the effect (on camera shake) is equivalent to using a shutter speed five stops faster than is set on the camera. The rule of thumb for sharp handheld shots is that the shutter speed should be no slower than the focal length of the lens – so 1/500 sec for a 500mm lens. With a five-stop stabiliser, in theory that could drop to 1/15 sec…

Right now, Liam Wong is probably better-known in the video game community than he is in photographic circles – although that may change fast. He was hired as Ubisoft Montreal’s youngest art director in 2013, where he defined the look for the smash-hit title Far Cry 4 and other Ubisoft releases. During a 2014 press tour for Far Cry 4, Liam visited Tokyo for the first time and found himself inspired by the city’s style and architecture. After saving up for his first DSLR, he returned to the city the following year to learn as he shot. A chance encounter in a bookshop with legendary concept artist Syd Mead’s Kronolog showed Liam the potential of synthesising his new love for photography with his videogame aesthetic. Developing and sharing his work…

The Filter Gallery is a creative hub for an abundance of effects in Photoshop. If you’re looking for a different look or a fun treatment, you’ll find plenty of vibrant options here that let you take your image in all kinds of interesting directions. Broadly speaking, these are creative effects filters rather than the more pragmatic filters found in the Blur Gallery or the Liquify Filter. They can be used, for example, to give your image a pencil sketch look, a painterly finish or a pattern-like texture. However, its versatility can also be a negative. All the filters in the Filter Gallery work by altering pixels using universal algorithms, so the effect isn’t tailored towards the content of the image, but rather the make-up of the pixel values. As such,…

This water reflection shot has been overexposed by a stop or so, but because it’s a raw file, there’s a good chance I can get some detail back using Lightroom. To start, let’s crop the photo a small amount just to tighten up the composition, paying close attention to the corners 1. Now I can work on the reflection 2 by taking the Highlights slider back to -100, then nipping the Exposure slider back to -30. The colours will still look flat, but I’ll sort that later. In the HSL Panel, I choose Luminance and individually darken the Orange, Green and Blue sliders to balance the overall exposure and then switch to Saturation and boost each of those same three colour channels 3. It will still lack a little bit…

Nikon D750 £1,179/$1,499 The D750 is showing its age compared with the D780, but for regular stills photography, there’s not that much between them. Reviewed: issue 158 Canon EOS 6D Mk II £1,479/$1,599 The Canon 6D Mark II is cheaper than the D780 and has a vari-angle screen, but the D780 has a classier feel and 4K video. Reviewed: issue 194 Sony Alpha 7 Mk III £1,999/$1,999 The Alpha 7 III is still the most accessible, versatile and affordable of all of Sony’s full-frame mirrorless camera models. Reviewed: issue 203…

Last issue, we tested the most popular standard zoom lenses for Canon and Nikon DSLRs, which are bundled with DSLR bodies to form complete camera kits. We compared them with more exotic options, which are available if you buy your standard zoom separately. This month, it’s round two, as we compare kit and upgrade zooms for Fujifilm, Olympus and Panasonic crop-sensor cameras, as well as for Sony full-frame E-mount models. Kit lenses for crop-sensor mirrorless cameras often have a retractable design, making them particularly compact for stowing away, adding to the svelte attraction of this type of camera. Upgrade zooms tend to be larger and heavier, but usually have a constant aperture rating that’s generally about two f/stops faster at the long end of the zoom range. That’s great for…

£799/$898 No constant aperture, more zoom Compared with Panasonic’s retractable kit lens on test, C this one costs about three times the price and is a much more hands-on affair. Whereas the smaller lens lacks any control switches or even a manual focus ring, this one has AF/MF and stabiliser on/off switches for instant control, plus a smooth-action, electronically coupled focus ring. It doesn’t have a retractable design, and is somewhat larger and heavier, at 68 x 86mm and 320g, but still entirely manageable. Unlike all the other upgrade zooms on test, this lens doesn’t have a constant-aperture design that enables the widest aperture of f/2.8 throughout the zoom range. Performance Thanks to the inclusion of four aspherical and two ED elements, plus a three-stop stabiliser, image quality is highly…

Sony has served up some scintillating full-frame S mirrorless cameras over the last few years, but the 28-70mm kit lens fails to get the most out of them. By contrast, the 24-70mm G Master lens delivers superb sharpness, along with particularly beautiful bokeh for a standard zoom. The flipside is that the G Master is very pricey. (Now launching in Sony E-mount fit, the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art promises to be a real money-saver at around half the price.) The kit lenses from Fujifilm and Olympus both feature a retractable design with a motorised zoom mechanism. They also both deliver decent performance but the more upmarket Fujifilm XF16-55mm f/2.8 and Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro represent significant upgrades in handling and image quality, as well as a desirable constant…

It’s just after 9pm in the UK when I get put through to Jeff Bridges, who is at his offices in Los Angeles. The familiar drawl of ‘The Dude’ (his character from The Big Lebowski) says, “Hey Steve,” and we start a conversation about how this Academy Award-winning actor has a deep love for still images, as well as moving images. Bridges’ fascination for photography dates back to his teenage years. Like many who go on to become professional photographers, he started playing with his father’s camera. Not long after that, he saw a Widelux camera in action when a photographer came to his high school, armed with one of these swing-lens panoramic cameras, to shoot the class picture. The Widelux format had gone to the back of Bridges’ mind…

Alec Soth Award-winning photographer Alec has built an impeccable reputation for his photos, and has now launched a Magnum Learn online masterclass. Discover some of his tips on page 8. Jeff Bridges Actor and photographer Jeff fell in love with panoramic photographs years ago, and shoots photos on-set for every film he appears in. See his work on page 134. Jamie Bubb Portrait photographer One of Jamie’s photo projects sees him capturing vehicle owners with their prized possessions. He shares his portrait and car tips on page 34. Gary Rivers Action figure photographer Gary has built on his lifelong love of action figures to create small scale versions of fan-favourite movies, from Star Wars to Terminator. Meet him on page 30. Quintin Lake Roving photographer Quintin reaches a milestone in…

Alec Soth Photographer Based in Minnesota, Alec has authored over 25 books including Sleeping by the Mississippi, NIAGARA and Songbook, and is a member of Magnum Photos. magnumphotos.com/photographer/alec-soth With notable works including Sleeping by the Mississippi, Niagara and Broken Manual, the American photographer Alec Soth is widely celebrated for his distinctive – and often surprising – images. Halfway through the last decade, though, he stepped back from photography and spent a year making sculpture instead. Fortunately for his followers, this period was only a sabbatical from photography and gave Soth the space and time to recharge and recalibrate. In 2019, he returned with I Know How Furiously Your Heart is Beating, a work that stood out from much of his previous output. This collection of images is inspired by one…

Macro photography and flowers are like two peas in a pod! The two together just simply make sense. Flowers are incredibly intricate and detailed when you view them from a close perspective, and the variety of bold bright colours they provide makes them a popular subject. When it came to setting up this macro flower shot, I used a CD as my background, and set up an external flashgun to light it. (See the tips below for more information.) I put my camera into its manual mode and dialled the aperture down to f/11. To sync the shutter speed with the flashgun, I set the shutter speed to 1/200 sec, and I kept the ISO low at 100. As I had the flash positioned close to the flower, I balanced…

Architectural photography is all about using the composition to best show the features that make a building worth capturing. Understanding how to work with balance and geometry is a big part of it; the artistry and style you bring to a shot depend on your vision, as well as factors like time of day and the context. Every building you stand in, and every piece of public space you occupy, has been designed by someone. The architect, landscape architect or town planner has spent years thinking about how you experience a space, and how spaces will work in connection with each other. Knowing this, you can begin to decode the buildings that form the urban fabric around you. Look for clues in buildings. It’s no coincidence that the walls of…

As you may have noticed, much of the work in this column originates from my global travels. However, taking inspiration from the 18th-century book A Journey Round my Room by Xavier de Maistre, I also like to explore the visual possibilities closer to home, even in my home. I live in an apartment, from which I have a wonderful view of several magnificent silver birch trees. Watching them change throughout the seasons and in a wide range of light and weather conditions is a delight. I also enjoy the pair of doves (I think) that roost in the tree from time to time; while their large deposits of droppings outside the building are annoying, I have grown fond of my fine feathered friends, and often look out for them. Naturally,…

1 Raws withstand heavy editing Astro photographs like this will rarely look like the finished article straight out-of-camera: they usually require heavy editing to enhance the delicate details. Raws can withstand far heavier editing than JPEGs, which are more likely to break up and posterise. 2 Preserving delicate colours In basic terms, JPEGs achieve their small file sizes by compressing colour information. For example, if 15 pixels each have a different tint of a similar colour they might be reduced to three coloured blocks of five pixels during compression. The extra colour information contained in a raw file can be crucial in astrophotography. 3 Extra detail When you shoot stars, the night sky can initially look rather dim, but raws hold a lot of information that isn’t immediately apparent. By…

Recovering overexposure The extra dynamic range a raw file holds over a JPEG means that blown-out highlights can still be rescued, as the cloud details in the sky here demonstrate. Recovering the JPEG has led to an unsightly colour shift and flat tones in the mountains. The recovered raw, while not perfect, is still vastly better. Recovering underexposure Shadow detail can usually be teased out to a greater extent than highlight detail. Even areas that initially look pitch-black can often yield astonishing detail. In this image (shot at ISO 1,600) the recovered shadows in both the raw and JPEG are very noisy, but the detail and colour held in the raw is far superior. Colour fixes Colour casts and white balance faults are easily fixed in raws, as you’re able…

1 Don’t get hung up on white balance It’s good practice to set the white balance before taking the shot, but lots of photographers are happy to shoot in raw with Auto White Balance enabled. This way the camera chooses the white balance – but you can always change it later if it results in a colour cast. 2 Don’t trust the histogram The histogram maps out image tones. If the graph intersects the sides before reaching ‘sea level’, it can mean clipped highlights or shadows. But the back-of-camera histogram is based on a JPEG, not the raw file, so clipped pixels may still be recoverable. It’s the same with exposure warning ‘blinkies’. 3 Expose to the right This shooting method involves capturing the most amount of light without clipping…

There’s a reason why raws are sometimes called ‘digital negatives’. Like an old film negative, a raw is a pristine version of your photo as your camera captured it. Impossible to save over or accidentally crop, it’s an impenetrable data file that can only ever be added to with other tiny bits of ‘sidecar’ data. This extra data sits alongside the original data, and defines how the file should look when opened in Camera Raw, Lightroom or your chosen raw editor. This method of photo editing is sometimes called ‘parametric editing’. Rather than altering the pixels that make up the image, you instead alter a set of parameters – saved in that tiny sidecar file – that affect how the image is presented. The beauty of parametric editing is that…

1 Fine-tune the conversion Colour can be very important for black-and-whites. When you convert an image to mono, you can control the brightness of different colour ranges with the Black and White sliders in Camera Raw or Lightroom. Here it lets us lift the trees to reveal extra detail in an area that initially lacked contrast. 2 Boost the contrast Black-and-whites can initially look a little flat. A boost in contrast with Curves can be very effective. Plotting an S-shaped curve line lightens the highlights and darkens the shadows, resulting in more contrast. The more pronounced the S, the greater the contrast. 3 Dodge and burn Black-and-whites can hold up to greater dodging (lightening an area) and burning (darkening an area) than colour photos. Here we’ve used the Camera Raw…

Pro: Use ‘any’ lens Although there may be some restrictions, IBIS can stabilise virtually any lens that doesn’t form when of you stabilisation. Pro: Performance boost Some IBIS can be enhanced by stabilised lenses; the Olympus stops of stability with Pro lenses. Pro: It’s quiet You can hear lens-based IS at work, and it may be picked up by a camera’s built-in mics when recording video. Not with IBIS. Con: Not great for teles The longer the focal length of the lens, the harder it is for IBIS to stabilise camera shake. Short lenses work fine, though.…

Pro: Visible effect You can see the effect of lens based image stabilisation in a DSLR’s optical viewfinder, as well as a mirrorless camera’s EVF. Pro: More control As you can see at the top of the page, you tend to get more control over the IS performance in a lens based system. Con: Slow lenses Stabilised lenses usually have slower maximum apertures, which can result in restrictions on shutter speeds. Con: Cost Lenses with IS units tend to cost more than their non-stabilised counterparts and, due to the extra elements inside, are heavier.…

Although macro lenses often include image stabilisation, its effect actually decreases the closer that the lens gets to the subject. As a result, for 1:1 work it’s usually better to use the camera on a tripod. Besides, the chances are you’ll switch to manual focusing when shooting extreme close-ups, in which case keeping the camera locked in position will allow you to focus the lens with greater precision.…

ILLUSTRATION/DIGITAL ART Tony Moore, Omagh A Quiet Night In Tony shot this image in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Originally commisioned by a couple who wanted a photo of their new conservatory to hang on the wall, it’s a composite image where Tony makes good use of luminosity masks. The World Photographic Cup was founded in 2013 by The Federation of European Photographers and the Professional Photographers of America. Its goal is to unite photographers in a spirit of friendship and cooperation. www.worldphotographiccup.org Camera Canon EOS-1D X Mark II Lens EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Exposure 1/250 sec at f/8, ISO 320 2020 FINALIST WEDDING Sanjay Jogia, London American Beauty Sanjay showcases the amazing effort that goes into the hair, makeup, Indian Henna art and decor at an Indian wedding. Here…

Some time ago, I did a class on wet-plate photography. Wet-plate was the main form of photo creation in the American Civil War era, often practised by photographers in travelling wagons, pulled by horses. In this process, you create the plate, shoot the photo, and develop it within five minutes, before the plate dries. It requires either a long exposure or huge amounts of light. There are some notable qualities to the wet-plate look. They’re black and white, based on the silver halide chemistry of the day. They’re prone to breakdown from sunlight, so they fade. This can also yellow them. If you don’t apply a varnish, they’re also prone to scratches. The plates have to be mounted in the dark slide, so the corners are often not exposed. With…

Reader 1 Vidya Rada Camera: Nikon D750 Location: West London Vidya works in the software industry; she’s particularly interested in street and food photography, and enjoys going on photo walks with friends. She has always enjoyed taking photos around London, and other places she visits with her husband. Using a Nikon D750 with a Nikkor AF-S 50mm F/1.8G lens gives Vidya all the basic functionality required to capture street scenes as well as photographs of food – especially the bokeh she can achieve with this small but versatile setup. Instagram: @vidyarada Reader 2 Imran Mirza Camera: Canon EOS R Location: North London Having bought his first DSLR in 2009, Imran has recently been getting to grips with his new Canon EOS R – the brand’s first full-frame mirrorless camera –…

Quintin Lake Roving photographer Quintin is on a multi-year photo walk, circumnavigating the whole of the UK coast. www.theperimeter.uk Like Prague or Oxford, Edinburgh is so attractive that it’s hard to take a photo with any authorship – but it’s a joy to try in the four days I’m here. The creative challenge comes when cities are designed with consideration: the views, silhouettes and spatial relationships have been conceived so all one can do with the camera is portray the ideas of others, either more or less strongly. The city also hosts enough cashmere and tweed shops to stuff a whale-sized haggis. “Are we paying for this?” a dog walker asks me at Portobello as I’m taking a photo of an arch of twigs on the beach.” “I doubt it:…

Resolution (line widths/picture height) With peak resolution of 2,800 line widths/picture height, the Nikon D780’s resolving power is exactly as we’d expect for a full-frame 24-megapixel camera. Signal to noise ratio (decibels) The D780 is slightly noisier than the Canon and Sony cameras at low to medium ISO settings, but it offers the best high-ISO performance of this group. Dynamic range (EV) The Nikon D780 shows a marked improvement over the older D750, and narrowly beats the Sony A7 III, a camera with particularly good dynamic range. Digital Camera verdict There are no fireworks with the Nikon D780, no radical new technologies. It’s simply an excellent evolution of a great camera design.…

Resolution (line widths/picture height) The 1D X Mk III produces very sharp shots, but no amount of processing trickery can make a 20.1MP sensor equal a top-flight 24.2MP full-frame sensor. Signal to noise ratio (decibels) The 1D X III is marginally beaten by its predecessor. This could be symptomatic of Canon’s drive towards image sharpness causing grain and noise. Dynamic range (EV) The 1D X Mark II was already a stellar performer when it comes to dynamic range, so we’re not surprised that the new Mark III performs very similarly. Digital Camera verdict The EOS-1 D X Mark III does so much that no other camera can – it’s a genuine glimpse into the future of digital photography.…

£229/$299 Power to the people Available in black or silver, this Fujifilm kit lens isn’t A as tiny or featherweight as its Micro Four Thirds counterparts on test, but still boasts a space-saving retractable design. Like the competing Olympus EZ kit lens, the Fujinon has a motorised zoom mechanism. The lens automatically extends and retracts when you switch the camera on and off. Fast and slow zoom speeds are available, depending on how much you twist the zoom ring. It’s useful for video capture, but less than ideal for very precise adjustments while you’re shooting stills. Performance The minimum focus distance is unusually short at the wide-angle end of the zoom range. The electronically coupled focus ring works smoothly, and the stepping motor autofocus system is quick and quiet. Image…

£699/$849 Boasts a constant aperture Coming in at three times the price of the Olympus C pancake zoom and four times the weight, this is very much the pro-grade big brother for Micro Four Thirds cameras. Indeed, the constant f/2.8 aperture rating makes this lens two f-stops faster than the Olympus pancake zoom at the long end of the zoom range. The weather-sealed build quality is excellent, while handling luxuries include a physical focus distance scale and a neat customisable Lens-Function button. Performance Optical highlights include two aspherical, one dual-surface aspherical, one ED aspherical, two ED and two HR elements, along with A Zero coating. Sharpness and contrast proved excellent in our real-world testing, although lab results weren’t overly inspiring. Sharpness Results for sharpness don’t look particularly good, but the…

£395/$398 A modest FE standard zoom This lens is a popular kit lens option with A7-series T bodies. It’s pretty compact and light for a full-frame compatible standard zoom lens, at 73 x 83mm and 295g, despite lacking a retractable design. It also includes a three-stop optical stabiliser, which comes in very useful on older-generation A7 bodies that lack in-camera stabilisation. Build quality feels good overall, and it has a dust/moisture resistant design, although without a rubber ring around the metal mounting plate. Performance Three aspherical elements and one ED element help to boost image quality and the seven-blade diaphragm is fairly well-rounded. Outright sharpness is disappointing, though, making it a bit of a mismatch with any of Sony’s full-frame cameras that bump up the megapixel count. Sharpness Sharpness isn’t…

Affinity Photo for iPad £19.99/$19.99 http://affinity.serif.com Platform: iPad | Presets library: No | Layers: Yes | Editing tools: Yes | Desktop software synchronisation: Yes Affinity Photo for iPad duplicates the A features and tools of the desktop edition remarkably well. The app is sold for a single one-off price (no subscription or in-app purchases), and you can synchronise files with the desktop version via Apple’s iCloud, Dropbox or Google Drive. It’s a similar system to Adobe’s, but uses third-party cloud services you can choose yourself, with no esoteric new file formats. The list of tools includes dodge and burn tools, inpainting (object removal), blurring, sharpening, extensive selection tools (lasso, magic wand, pen tool), selection refinements and no fewer than 22 different adjustment layers. Affinity Photo for iPad supports unlimited text,…

NEW-LOOK TIPS CARDS! 9 subjects Techniques Settings Kit list 9 all-new tips cards Our collectable shooting tips cards enable you to carry handy settings and suggestions around in your kit bag, ready for when you need them. This issue, get wallet-sized advice on the new bluebell season, high-key wildlife photos and capturing beauty. 20 FREE RAW PRESETS! to transform your images 20 raw presets Add these presets to Photoshop CC and transform your photos in seconds. Find them in the Gifts folder on the disc, then see page 72 for Jon Adams’ guide. Camera Shopper ebook Looking to buy a camera or a lens? There are plenty of reviews of new gear in this issue, but this 176-page PDF guide will give you reviews of even more SLRs, CSCs and…

Pastel is defined as a soft and delicate shade of colour. Although it can be used on any type of photo, this particular effect tends to work well on outdoor scenes with grass, sky and clouds. Pastels aren’t overly intense or elaborate: they simply add a clean, subtle and nostalgic look. You can easily make a pastel effect in Lightroom. Depending on how you shot your image these settings may vary, but they serve as a good guide to getting a similar effect. 1 Basic adjustments In the Develop Module, open up the Basic Panel. Increase the warmth of your image a little more than you normally would. Set Exposure +0.35, Contrast +10, Shadows +40, Blacks +15 and finally Vibrance +10. Reduce Saturation to -20. 2 Tone Curve and Split…

At heart, I’m a designer. I grew up drawing Judge Dredd, went to art college, and ended up studying illustration at degree level. Photography came into my life around 15 years ago, when I was working as a freelance graphic designer and I couldn’t find images I needed in stock libraries. So I bought a 4-megapixel compact and started shooting whatever I needed to incorporate into my design work. Photographing people felt awkward, so I stuck to inanimate objects for the first few years, mostly buildings. As my confidence grew, I became drawn to portraiture. Cars came onto the scene by accident, as I became interested in the obsessive relationships people have with their vehicles. I had a client who supplied tyres for vintage cars, I’m no petrolhead, but the…

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Memory cards Larger memory cards – 32GB and upwards – are a must for the raw shooter. A healthy write speed of 90MB/sec or more is helpful, too, as raws take longer to write to the card. Raw software Raws are useless without dedicated raw software to process them. Your camera will come with a raw processor, but many choose more advanced options like Lightroom or Camera Raw. Long term hardware There’s no getting round it: storing raws eats up hard drive space. You’ll need to invest in an external hard drive with at least a couple of terabytes of space, or consider solutions like NAS drives and online storage.…

RAW + JPEG If you like the quality of raw and the convenience of JPEG, why not capture both formats at once? This way, if you are happy with the look of the JPEG, you needn’t bother editing the raw, but it’s there if you need it. CAMERA BUFFERS After you press the shutter button, your camera needs to save the image on your memory card. This can take a split-second for a JPEG, but slightly longer for a raw. If you take another shot before the first has finished writing, then it is temporarily stored in the camera buffer. Shoot a third, and it joins the queue. So if you shoot rapid-fire image sequences, you need to ensure the buffer writes quickly. Memory cards with fast write speeds (at…

Raw photography means extra effort processing images. For simple edits, this might only take a few moments – but when it comes to screen time, raw often means more. If you know you’ll need to work on your image later, however, raw brings a finer level of quality. JPEGs might look fine straight-out-of-camera, but once you begin to perform edits – a boost in contrast, say, or a change to the brightness or an increase in saturation – the cracks may soon start to show. Banding can occur in tonal gradations, and artifacts may be amplified. Think of it this way: when you edit a JPEG, you’re working up an image that has effectively been worked up once before by your camera, which will have already made decisions on contrast,…

1 Choose a profile The Profile Browser is often the best place to begin editing your raw. The profiles in the Adobe Raw set have been optimised for different subjects – here the Portrait profile improves the skin tones. 2 Set black and white points By setting black and white points, you can control the tonal range. As a rule of thumb, you should bring them to a point just before clipped pixels appear. Alt/Option-drag the sliders to see clipping. 3 White Balance tool Use this to set white balance by clicking on a point that should be neutral, like a grey rock, a white wall or a dedicated 50% grey card. Click and drag to draw a box if you want to sample a wider area. 4 Apply sharpening…

Electronic image stabilisation is where vibrations are counteracted using software rather than physically moving internal parts of the lens or camera. It’s typically used for movie recording rather than stills shooting, as the process requires the sacrifice of some pixels – something that’s relatively straightforward when today’s ultra-high-resolution cameras actually have too many pixels for movies. It also doesn’t generate any audible noise, unlike lens stabilisation. Cropped image With electronic stabilisation technology, the image ends up being cropped to achieve the steady image – sometimes quite substantially if you’re doing stabilising in ‘post’ – so it’s more widely used in video. Achieving electronic stabilisation requires the image to be digitally cropped a little, with the spare pixels allowing each frame to be repositioned and aligned on the sensor in order…

There are many situations where stabilisation really makes a difference between a sharp shot and a soft one. It also gives you more options when it comes to exposure, allowing you to combine an optimum aperture, shutter speed and ISO that might otherwise give blurred results. There are a few times, however, where it may be better to switch it off altogether… 1 Low light As light levels drop, you’re going to encounter slower shutter speeds. If you don’t want to (or you can’t) open the aperture or increase the ISO, image stabilisation can enable you to shoot for longer. 2 Depth of field If you want to use a small aperture to increase the depth of field – such as when you’re shooting a landscape – then you’ll lose…

Raw files are a special kind of file format that come straight from the camera’s imaging chip, and are not subjected to any in-camera processing. In a JPEG, which is the other common file format cameras use, all the building blocks that make up an image – like colour, contrast and sharpness – are ‘fixed’ when you take the shot; but in a raw, they’re floating values, and can be adjusted later to change the look of the photo. Raw converters like Camera Raw or Lightroom allow you to adjust all the core values that create the look of a picture – but with hundreds of sliders, settings and tools, and a near-infinite array of possible outcomes, it’s not always easy to know where to start! Presets offer a great…

Even with the best lenses in the world, capable of resolving the most detail possible in high-resolution cameras, there are still ways you can improve the appearance of detail in your images. I’m not talking about absolute sharpness, but rather the use of colour-based enhancements to emphasise and accentuate the appearance of fine detail. The most obvious way you can increase detail is to sharpen images, but the problem here is that you can only sharpen an image so much before you begin to introduce artefacts and other forms of image degradation. It may sound contradictory, but there is only so much sharpening you can apply to any image, so to enhance detail and really make it stand out, you need to take some more novel approaches. Here are four…

Challenge 1 Vidya Rada Having decided to tackle Portobello Road Market from its top end, we walked across H from our rendezvous at Ladbroke Grove Underground station. Shooting in the middle of a working week, hordes of market-goers weren’t going to pose a problem for us, but there were still plenty of tourists and casual shoppers taking in this popular and quirky spot. Some of them would shortly go on to model for us, alongside local residents who were largely unfussed by our participants flitting around and scoping potential shots. From the start, Imran and Vidya each adopted a different approach. Vidya was happy to trust her 50mm fixed focal length, while Imran went for a little more versatility with his 24-105mm zoom. It wasn’t long before both were capturing…

1 What is a fast lens? The term ‘fast’ has nothing to do with the how quick the lens is at focusing or whether it’s used for action photography. In this sense, the word refers to the maximum aperture that lens can shoot at. A typical ‘fast’ lens will have an aperture of f/1.4, f/1.8 or f/2.8; this allows a lot of light in so that faster shutter speeds are possible, hence the phrase ‘fast lens’. 2 When would a fast lens be useful? Thanks to their wide maximum apertures, fast lenses are great in low-light situations, enabling you to get faster shutter speeds even in relatively dark conditions. They are also great for subjects like portraiture, where limited sharpness can be used creatively, to make sure the subject is…

EOS R family to expand Canon announces the development of a pro-spec full-frame mirrorless model and commits to 17 lenses by the end of 2020, including a new travel-friendly telephoto Eighteen months after making its first step E into the full-frame mirrorless market with the EOS R, the world’s number one camera manufacturer has announced the pro-spec EOS R5. In some ways, this is the camera many Canon aficionados wished the brand had unveiled in 2018. While capable, the EOS R was also compromised, so the EOS R5 really doesn’t hold back in the specification stakes. Its sensor size hasn’t been revealed, but the R5 gets in-body stabilisation and twin card slots. Canon promises a “step-change” in performance, with 12fps via the mechanical shutter and 20fps when using the electronic…

£2,199/$2,299 The last hurrah for the DSLR, or a sign of things to come? www.nikon.co.uk The launch of the Nikon D780 will reignite a long-running debate T about mirrorless versus DSLR cameras. It might even blur the boundaries. Like last year’s Canon EOS 90D, the Nikon D780 is staging a counter-attack against the advancing hordes of mirrorless cameras. It takes crucial mirrorless technology from Nikon’s Z 6 to produce a kind of hybrid camera that offers the best of both worlds: an optical through-the-lens viewfinder, but the high-performance Live View AF and video features of a mirrorless. Traditionally, DSLRs offer optical viewing but compromised (slow) Live View autofocus. Mirrorless cameras offer fast, hybrid on-sensor phase-detection AF but compromise with an electronic viewfinder (although many see it as an advantage, not…

£1,199/$1,299 The new standard for APS-C Sony cameras www.sony.co.uk Mount: Sony E (APS-C)Lens construction: 17 elements, 12 groupsAngle of view: 83-29 degreesDiaphragm blades: 9Minimum aperture: f/22Minimum focusing distance: 0.33mMaximum magnification ratio: 0.2xFilter size: 67mmDimensions: 73 x 100mmWeight: 494g Discerning full-frame shooters generally opt for a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens as their go-to zoom for general shooting. That’s great for Sony A7 and A9 cameras, D but what if you have an APS-C format A6000 series body? The new Sony E 16-55mm f/2.8 G is an almost exact equivalent, with an effective 24-82.5mm zoom range and the same f/2.8 constant aperture rating. It’s designed to give owners of one of the Sony A6000-series of mirrorless cameras a high-quality kit lens option. Just like the Sony E 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS, which was…

£949/$1,199 A couple of steps up the ladder At four times the price of the 15-45mm, the constant-aperture 16-55mm f/2.8 A zoom is the pick of the crop for anyone upgrading from their kit lens. Sure, it doesn’t feature optical stabilisation, but it does have a tough weather-sealed build, a rapid ‘linear motor’ autofocus system, a constant f/2.8 aperture and a control ring. It also gives a significantly wider maximum viewing angle than Fujifilm’s 18-55m lens (another upgrade possibility), equivalent to 24mm rather than 27mm in full-frame terms. Performance Three aspherical and three ED elements help to boost image quality, while dual HT-EBC and Nano-GI coatings do a great job of minimising ghosting and flare. Two f-stops faster than the 15-45mm kit lens at the long end of the zoom…

£1,799/$2,198 A big lens in every way This G Master lens is as good as it gets for an own-brand T Sony standard zoom. And so it should be, costing about five times the price of the 28-70mm kit lens. It’s not massively bigger or heavier than the Fujifilm f/2.8 lens on test, despite the Sony being designed for full-frame rather than APS-C format cameras. The weather-sealed construction feels sturdy, and switches are featured for AF/MF and a focus hold. There’s no optical stabiliser, but newer Sony full-frame cameras have in-body stabilisation instead. Performance Sharpness and contrast are fabulous, aided by the inclusion of one extreme aspherical, two regular aspherical, one Super ED, and one regular ED element in the optical path. Nano AR coating is also on hand to…

Bob Books £29.99, 26 pages www.bobbooks.co.uk Bob Books offers four different options B for creating your photo book. We tried the Bob Designer Software and the Online Book Creator. It took us a little while to wrap our heads around the design system, but we grew to really like it. You simply add as many images as you want on the page, then choose from a variety of different layouts to get the most aesthetically pleasing page. If you’re not sure, a ‘Suggest a layout’ button does it for you. A common theme across many of the photo books we’ve reviewed is oversaturation of the front cover image, but Bob Books was the worst culprit. Our original photo was graded with warm oranges; however the final cover print had an…