Innehållsförteckning för July 2022 från Digital Camera Magazine

You may have placed your elements perfectly and balanced the light across the scene, but a slightly blurred capture will take the gloss off any cracking composition and well-judged exposure. Modern digital cameras and lenses can capture astonishing levels of clarity, so exploiting it is the theme of this month’s shooting sharper shots feature (page 48). Learn how to banish the dreaded camera shake, master supporting your camera, cope with subject movement and more. There are plenty of other techniques to learn throughout this issue in Photo Active (p16) and Camera College (p58), and you’ll see panning in a whole new way in our One to One pro masterclass with Michal Pospisil (p8). Also this month, we challenge two readers to a street fashion Shootout (p88) and take the DJI…

ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcamera world.com/dc257 Enter the URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc257 into the destination bar of your internet browser – we’re using Google Chrome, but other browsers work in a similar way. Please do not enter it in any search field or search bar. This will take you to a page on our website. LOOK FOR THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK You’ll find all the gifts and videos to accompany this issue of Digital Camera via the ‘Download the disc for Digital Camera 257’ link. Click or right-click on the link and your download will start, delivered from our own file server. It may take a few minutes. ACCESS YOUR FILES Open the. zip In your Downloads folder, or wherever you chose to download your files to, double-click the dc257-disc.zip file icon. Then when…

We are Andrea and René, a German-Czech couple that have been intensely travelling in Africa for the last 14 years. Both Andrea and I are passionate about African culture and tribes, the wildlife and those fascinating, breathtaking landscapes. One country that we documented a lot is the Sudan – indeed, a very photogenic country. We set our feet onto the African continent for the first time in 2008. We had decided to jump right into an adventure by driving across Africa from north to south in our own vehicle, and from that moment on we were enthralled. Africa is breathtaking, fascinating, beautiful, mind-boggling and unforgettable. As the saying goes, ‘Once Africa, always Africa’, and we can confirm that. In those many years of independent travel through this continent, we tried…

I finally made it out of the UK and have just returned from a speaking gig with an international cruise line – which was, I have to admit, quite fun work. I have been banging on over the last couple of years about the great photo opportunities there are to be had close to home, which I still stand by. However, I have to say that it was an invigorating delight for my eyes to experience new places, people and best of all, light. I was taking photos like crazy, and my creativity felt unleashed and invigorated – I was out of control! I was soaking up everything from new topographies, architectural details, street shots, little vignettes of daily life and of course capturing the character of some of the…

As a photographer, if there’s one bar you have to hit, it’s the ability to capture a sharp shot – and that means an image with crisp, well-defined edges on the subject or area you want to be sharp. By ‘sharp’, we mean that there’s no trace of blur or double-image ghosting on the in-focus area. With today’s sophisticated and quick autofocus systems, this doesn’t sound like it should be too much of a challenge, but if you have critically inspected your images, you may have noticed that a significant percentage are not pin-sharp in the places where they should be. This lack of sharpness occurs for various technical reasons, all of which we will explore over the coming pages. But along with the reasons why that crispness is lacking,…

There’s nothing worse than discovering that your shots aren’t critically sharp, especially if you only find out when you’re at home with no opportunity to reshoot the scene. Knowing the right focusing mode for the situation is the key factor to ensuring your images are sharp, and it’s a minefield ready to catch you out! Not only do you need the right focusing mode, but you also need to focus at the right place within your scene to get the most amount of sharpness in front of and behind that point. But get it right, and your images will display that important critical sharpness you’re after. PRO ADVICE HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST FOCUSING MODE FOR THE JOB All modern DSLRs and mirrorless cameras feature a range of focusing modes.…

A particular problem with shooting in summer is that large parts of the day are filled with hard light that creates very bright highlights and very dark shadows. You can end up with the ‘dynamic range’ of a scene being too great to capture in a single exposure, with bright areas that are blown out and pure white, or shadows that are pure black and featureless – or sometimes a blend of both. There are several options for working around this problem. You can just focus on making sure the highlights are well exposed and allow the shadows to fall where they will, then try to bring the detail back in the dark areas when you process your pictures in software. Alternatively, you can take some steps to reduce the…

1 ‘Felixstowe Self Defences’ by Les Cornwell “These are the sea defences at Cobbold’s Point near Felixstowe. I shot this image on a very misty day, which combined with a long exposure and conversion to monochrome created the ethereal, minimalistic feel I was looking for.” Digital Camera says: Superb, Les, one of the best images we’ve featured in the reader’s gallery. There are really no words we can offer to improve this. Expertly captured with a high-class edit to finish. 2 ‘Spinning in the Lavender’ by Louise Harmston “I took this photo last summer on a visit to a lavender farm just outside London. It was a very sunny day, so I backlit this shot of my daughter, capturing the sun in her hair as she was spinning around.” Digital…

When editing images, there are two main ways to apply adjustments: globally and locally. Global adjustments refer to those that affect the whole image, while localised adjustments target specific parts. Localised adjustments can be made using a variety of approaches, each with distinct advantages and disadvantages, so they’re best used depending on what you’re aiming for. With the image used for these tutorials, there are two predominant colours – blue and yellow – making it easier to apply colour channel techniques without overcomplicating them. All the techniques work well with images featuring more complex scenes, but you may need to use Layer Masking to target the effects more precisely. With this in mind, consider these techniques complete, but also as a starting point for further experimentation on the other. 1…

Challenge 1 Bill Pitcher This month we’re hitting the streets of Bath for a street fashion Shootout with a twist: the outfits have to be sourced from charity shops, on a £20 maximum budget. Both model and photographer teams were dispatched to the photogenic Georgian city’s Westgate Street to root out some bargains. We paired Bill with Alexie Kalenga and left them to it for 20 minutes. With no less than three charity shops within a stone’s throw, including The British Heart Foundation, Mind and Cancer Research UK, Team Bill would certainly not be faced with a lack of choice while shopping for pre-owned outfits. When the time was up, Bill and Alexie showed off their new wares: a fetching blue and white dress for £5, and a belt to…

How to fix a too-tight crop Q I have a photo where the subject is too close to the edge of the frame. Is there an easy way to create more room in front of it? Lesley Butler A You can do what you’re asking using Photoshop’s Add Canvas facility, but what it can achieve is limited because you have to ‘borrow’ new pixels from elsewhere within the frame. If you have a shot where the background area you are ‘copying’ is blurred and you only want to add a small area of extra canvas then you can get a good result. Take your image into Photoshop and after copying the layer (Cmd/Ctrl+J), go to Image > Canvas size. In the dialogue box, click on the middle left-hand box if you want…

APS-C comes to EOS R Canon launches two crop-sensor models for its mirrorless RF mount system, and a pair of lenses – the RF-S 18-45mm f/4.5-6.3 and RF-S 18-150mm-f/3.5-6.3 The wait is finally over – almost four years after launching its mirrorless RF mount, initially for full-frame sensor cameras, Canon has added APS-C sensor models to the line-up. This is great news for wildlife and sports shooters, as the 1.6x crop factor of the APS-C sensor produces a longer effective focal length, making subjects larger in the frame. The EOS R7 is built around a 32.5MP sensor which offers shooting speeds of up to 15fps mechanically and 30fps electronically. The R7 is Canon’s first APS-C camera to offer in-body image stabilisation and includes the R system’s very latest autofocus technology;…

Camera drones have, ahem, really taken off in recent years, and while the quality of the images and footage they produce has only travelled vertically upwards, weight restrictions have required a little navigating. To operate a drone that weighs over 250g in the UK, for example, you have to pass a theory test to acquire a Flyer ID, and also register for an Operator ID. Under this threshold, only an Operator ID is required. This is why the DJI Mini Pro 3 – our lead review – is such big news. Weighing 249kg, it has brought pro-quality camera drone capabilities to a bigger market. With a 48MP CMOS sensor that can capture 4K video at 60p and a slew of cutting-edge tech, the Mini Pro 3 is going to be…

www.tamron.com The Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD G2 is something of a modern classic, reinvented. The original edition was excellent in every way, shoehorning a useful ‘standard’ zoom range and fast, constant f/2.8 aperture rating into a compact yet high-quality construction. Tamron’s ‘Generation 2’ lens adds new thrills and frills, making it an even more desirable option for Sony full-frame E-mount cameras, although it still lacks optical stabilization. First up in the features list is a redesigned optical layout, aiming to increase resolution and image quality. LD (Low Dispersion) and GM (Glass Moulded aspherical) elements are featured, along with high-tech coatings. Autofocus is also revamped, now based on a VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive) linear stepping motor. Another new feature is a USB C socket and smart functions that you…

www.manfrotto.com Manfrotto’s ‘190go!’ range is available in aluminium and carbon fibre, and with three-way or ball heads. The ‘M-lock system’ is claimed to enable quicker setup, although the nine clamps add to the time. The MK190GOC4-BHX edition on test combines Manfrotto’s latest design of carbon fibre tubing and the excellent XPRO ball head. The head has a beefier maximum load rating than the legs, at 10kg rather than 6kg. Four lockable leg angles are present, as is an ‘Easy Link’ threaded socket. Performance While it folds down small for a tripod that lacks swing-up legs, the maximum operating height of 159cm is the least generous on test. With a diameter of 16mm, the bottom leg sections are also the thinnest, and resistance to flexing isn’t impressive. Even so, the 190go!…

Today, we’re in the fast lane for a masterclass with avid motorsport photographer Michal Pospisil at the famous Silverstone racing circuit. Michal has invested significant time and energy during recent years to establish a distinctive style by using advanced panning techniques. Even though he has nailed what can be a tricky way of shooting, Michal showed his commitment to his art by arriving ahead of Digital Camera to capture the warm-up races for a couple of hours. By the time we rendezvous with Michal at the Luffield grandstand, the main race in today’s British GT Championships is just about to start. Surely one of the sunniest days of the year so far, it’s a joy for basking in as a spectator, but with bright sun and limited cloud cover, the…

Photography is a fairly new-found passion of mine, which is slightly surprising, as my parents have both been avid photographers for decades. Under a year ago, I asked my dad to teach me the basics and he lent me a camera. Since then I have found myself drawn to images of people like Alan Schaller, Mark Fearnley, Sean Tucker and Benjamin Brady, and their use of contrast and black and white. During April, I challenged myself to only shoot black and white. I found the limitations of doing this, while predominantly using a fixed-focal-length Ricoh GR III, strangely liberating; it led to me searching out interesting shapes and lighting. So why not get out there yourself and start shooting some street images? Instagram: @james.cranch Be patient Canary Wharf in London…

Motion blur is often used in sports or street photography, or when shooting nature scenes where we need to capture speed or some movement. However, there are dozens of other motion blur applications in photography, from surreal or dramatic photos to nostalgic or cinematic-like ones. To create a motion blur photo in-camera you will typically need to use a slower shutter speed, a smaller aperture and lower ISO, and also take care of stabilisation. I shot the image above at 1/500th of a second, so it is reasonably crisp. Now we’re going to look at a very simple way to create this look at the editing stage. This technique won’t scientifically represent actual motion blur as shot in camera, but it will be fun and create a slightly more dynamic…

1 Venture out even in unfavourable weather Sometimes it pays to go out when the weather doesn’t seem ideal. With this image, I had walked in the rain thinking it could be a lost cause, but fortune favours the brave – the rain stopped and the clouds at sunset helped create the wonderful colour. 2 Try using filters Many clever things can be achieved when editing a photograph, but I think it’s important to make the image as good as you can when capturing it. Filters such as polarisers can’t be replicated on a computer and neutral density filters can help blur clouds or water. 3 Carry a tripod Whether I am going abroad, up a mountain or by the sea, I always carry a tripod. Shots can be taken…

We need to acknowledge that compelling and engaging photos don’t have to be sharp! After all, if your aesthetic treatment of a shot requires fuzzy or indistinct areas then sharpness may not be the intended outcome. But nine times out of ten, most shots require some part of the image to be crisply defined, so if you discover on close examination that you’ve missed the mark, then one of the three reasons outlined here is likely to be the cause. We say ‘likely’ because it is possible that softness in a picture is due to hazy or misty climatic conditions, strong backlighting creating a ‘glow’ around the subject that doesn’t seem crisply defined, or the poor optical performance of a lens. We wouldn’t suggest you use the latter as an…

Maximum brightness Your camera might be able to automatically adjust the brightness of the LCD, but switching to manual and maxing out the setting will ensure that you always have the best possible view. It will drain the battery faster, so take a spare. Histogram view The screen brightness can give you a false impression of the exposure, so activate the live histogram when you’re taking a picture and/or the brightness histogram when you’re reviewing it. You can also activate the highlight warning. Highlight alert This is one of the quickest and easiest ways to judge exposure, and although it won’t indicate any problems with dark areas, it will cause potentially overexposed bright areas to blink on the display, which can be easier to see than the histogram. Electronic viewfinder…

A circular polarising filter is a useful accessory for blue sky days, as it will cut through glare and reflections, add contrast and boost saturation. There are several tricks for getting the best from these expensive hunks of glass, though. They provide the most dramatic results when you shoot at 90 degrees from the sun, so extend your finger and thumb, point your thumb at the sun and use your finger to work out where to shoot from. Turn the front part of the filter slowly as you look at the scene through your camera so that you can see when the effect is strong enough, and make sure you rotate it in the direction that you tighten the filter so that you don’t accidentally unscrew it.…

For photographers, a camera is one of the most exciting purchases you can make. However, you need to make sure you get the right glass to go with it. Thinking about what you want to shoot is key. Ultimate image quality? Try the 100MP Fujifilm GFX 100. Sleek street shooting? Go for the Ricoh GR III. For high-performance action and all-purpose photography, try the Sony A9 with the Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS. The Sony A9 was the flagship Alpha camera when it launched, and it remains a supreme performer thanks to its 24.2MP full-frame sensor that delivers stunning levels of detail and dynamic range – ideal for non-ideal situations where you might need to ‘rescue’ image information. “A former flagship Sony Alpha camera, the…

The Smudge tool might at first seem like it has a limited set of uses. In fact, it can be helpful for all kinds of creative effects, including painterly treatments. The tool works simply by smudging colours into one another. But if we combine this with Photoshop’s array of realistic bristle brush tips, we can smudge a photo in such a way that it looks like a painting. As such, even those without any skill in painting can transform a photo into brush-based art. We’ll look at the key features of the Smudge tool here, and explain how to set up your photo for an effect like this. When it comes to painting with the Smudge tool, we can gradually build up the effect, following the natural lines, wrinkles and…

What is colour space? Colour space represents the amount of different colour variations that can be displayed. In photography, the colour spaces we are most familiar with are sRGB, Adobe RGB (1998) and ProPhoto RGB. In most cases you can choose between sRGB and Adobe RGB (1998) when setting your shooting Colour Space in the camera. Which one should I choose? As Adobe RGB (1998) is a slightly bigger colour space, it makes sense to select that one, so you capture as much colour detail as possible. You can set this via your camera’s menu, but it’s worth noting that when shooting raw files, you can change the colour space retrospectively. If you shoot JPEG then this isn’t possible. Once I’ve selected Adobe RGB (1998), do I just stick with…

Go wild to win a Canon PowerShot Zoom! Enter The Week Junior Science+Nature’s Scavenger Hunt to be in with a chance of winning a PowerShot Zoom worth £300 and a book bundle worth £60. The deadline for entries is 31 August. bit.ly/dcm257-scavenger Magnetic attachment for Rogue modifiers Rogue has just launched a new range of magnetic modifiers. Dispensing with fabric and Velcro, the new system will attach directly to studio flash heads, or to camera flash units via the Rogue Flash Adapter. www.rogueflash.com; from $99.99 Business alliance for Leica and Panasonic The two manufacturers, who already collaborate under the L-Mount Alliance, have announced even closer ties. Future camera and lenses will be developed under the ‘L² Technology’ (Leica and Lumix) name. bit.ly/dcm257-l2…

For most photographers, the perfect tripod should offer solid support with a lofty maximum operating height, yet fold down reasonably small for stowing away, and it shouldn’t be overly heavy. After all, nobody wants to lug around more weight than they need to. Big, heavy tripods often feel like a bit of a chore and end up being left at home, where they’re no use at all. At the other end of the scale, lightweight tripods are often disappointingly short and comparatively flimsy, prone to swaying around in a breeze. For material gains, carbon fibre has distinct advantages over aluminium. It’s impressively rigid yet lighter in weight to the extent that most full-sized carbon tripod kits (including head) are about 20 per cent lighter than their aluminium counterparts. Another bonus…

uk.benroeu.com The Go Plus Travel features all the latest design concepts. As such, its swing-up legs enable it to shrink down to a carrying length of just 49cm, yet extends to 179cm. The extra height is also due to the legs having four sections, which means three clamps for each leg. Each one can reduce rigidity, and the bottom leg sections are thinner. Even so, its stability almost matches the Mach3. Also, the pivoting centre column can be rotated vertically 180 degrees, with multiple locking angles. Performance It takes longer to set up than some, but that’s the price for the more travel-friendly design. Even so, swinging the legs and adjusting the centre column is painless and the adjustment mechanisms operate with precision. The pivoting system for the centre column…

If you’re not familiar with the term, ‘remote shooting’ was something that emerged during the time of the first Covid-19 lockdown, when it felt like the established ways of life weren’t going to return anytime soon. While some people believed that they would be able to get back to the good old days of photoshoots in matter of weeks, unfortunately this wasn’t the case. So remote shooting – being able to take control of a camera literally anywhere in the world to shoot photos of the same quality – became a big deal. At first I was sceptical, wondering if a few seconds would elapse after I pressed the trigger, meaning that I wouldn’t get the shot I wanted, but that wasn’t the case. Set up correctly, and with a…

I picked up my first DSLR camera in 2010. Within six months of figuring out how to use it, I found myself completely hooked, having learned a lot. I have tried all types of photography, from wildlife to astro and portraits to macro, but I always come back to land and seascapes, particularly with long exposure photography. On my days off work you will find me on the north-east coast visiting one of the many fantastic locations for sunrise or sunsets shooting what I love: long exposure photography. This style adds so much atmosphere to any photo, regardless of the weather. You’ll never capture the same image twice. I’ll often plan trips away to Wales or the Scottish Highlands, and visit the Lake District at least once a month. I…

About the competition The monthly competition for members runs throughout the year, and a range of categories is available to enter. The images are judged monthly, with an overall winner chosen once a year. www.thesocieties.net…

Now we know that camera shake – caused by physical movement of the camera during the moment of exposure – is the biggest culprit when it comes to ruined shots. But the combination of too slow a shutter speed and movement of the camera in the photographer’s hands is something that is directly within your control. It’s important you understand the various things you can do to prevent the curse of the accidentally blurred image. The longer your lens is, the greater the chance of camera shake. This is simply because a camera body and long telephoto lens combination is heavier and less naturally balanced. It’s impossible to say exactly what shutter speed you need to prevent camera shake, but a rough rule of thumb suggests that your shutter speed…

For us photographers, summer is something of a mixed blessing. There’s no doubt that it’s more pleasant to be out and about with a camera in warmer temperatures and (potentially) dry conditions. But the non-photographers in your life might be surprised to hear that yes, even though the sun is out and it’s nice and bright, it’s often the wrong kind of light. Midday on sunny days serves up slabs of hard light that create deep, sharp shadows and gloss-white highlights that can make it harder to achieve balanced exposures and more challenging to take flattering portraits and close-ups. But there are things that you can do tackle this perennial problem. For a start, you may be able to modify and control the light through the use of reflectors, diffusers…

Summer storms are a dramatic force to capture with your camera, but you’ll need to work quickly. It doesn’t take long for the scene to slip from heart-thumpingly spectacular to dull and flat (and potentially very, very wet). It’s the edge between the warm sunlight and dark clouds where the magic is, so work out a potential composition ahead of the weather so that you can frame up quickly. Consider scale: what can you put in the foreground to show just how big these storm cells are? Set the camera to one of the semi-automatic modes, such as Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority, so that the camera will adjust the exposure as the light changes. To avoid blowing out the white clouds, dial in some negative exposure compensation. Remember, safety…

The sky can make or break a landscape photograph. Sometimes we’re treated to glorious cloud formations and vibrant colours, while in others, things can be frustratingly dull. But even when the heavens oblige, the photo may initially lack the ‘wow’ factor you expect. Sometimes this is down to the disparity in brightness between land and sky – skies are usually much brighter than the land below, so if we expose for the land then the sky can look a little over-exposed and washed out. The problem is exacerbated at sunrise or sunset because the foreground will be very dim, perhaps even in silhouette. Moreover, if you shoot in raw then this can also result in more muted colours than you might expect. The flatness of the image is intentional on…

One of the most difficult things to get right in landscape photography is balancing the light between the land and the sky. In situations where you have more dramatic light, there is a huge discrepancy between how bright the sky is compared to how dark the land is. There are software and hardware solutions that try to remedy this. Even with digital photography, the graduated neutral density filter can lower the light entering the camera where the filter is active; you get varieties with hard or soft edges to complement the landscape you’re shooting. It’s not perfect – unless you have a flat horizon, you’ll darken parts of the photo you’d rather not. For software, you can use bracketing. It’s not perfect, as you try to prevent a situation where…

Reader 1 Bill Pitcher Camera: Nikon D7000 Location: Devon Having taken photographs for the past 60 years, Bill considers himself a hobbyist photographer and has managed to dedicate more time to it over the past two years. He loves shooting wildlife, fashion, landscape and seascape images that show people relaxed and enjoying themselves – the power of nature. For this, Bill loves locations like Portland and Lyme Regis, near where he is based. “Every time I photograph someone I try my best, and each person is that unique individual project where I try my hardest to show them off in their best light.” www.billpitcher.com Reader 2 Kate Parmaku Camera: Canon EOS 1300D Location: Wiltshire Kate has always enjoyed looking at other people’s photographs, especially Vivian Maier and Fan Ho’s street…

Challenge 3 Bill Pitcher Moving on to our final challenge of the day, it felt like the right time to ask Alexie and Hannah to pair up so our readers could capture some shots of them as a duo. After a quick scope of the area around the shopfront he used in Challenge 2, Bill chose a grungey-looking wall that just happened to be on the other side of the street. A perfectly positioned ledge provided an ideal place for both models to sit together as Bill fired away from afar with his 50-100mm lens. “I tried to get both models at the same height, hence Alexie is sitting on the window ledge,” Bill recalls. “This was taken in Aperture Priority with a flash set to TTL metering and subued…

The new X-H2S is being touted as Fujifilm’s flagship crop-sensor camera, demoting the X-T4. The X-H2S takes Fujifilm in a decidedly more modern direction, with video creation at its core. The traditional photography dials and classic styling that made the X-T series a hit are now in the rear view. The X-H1 had started this shift with its more GFX-like boxy camera body. The X-H2S goes further, ditching its classic camera heritage for a more modern hybrid-camera body aesthetic. The X-H2S shares a lot of similarities with the X-T4 with regards to performance – they have the same 26.1MP resolution sensor, for example. But the sensor of the X-H2S is an all-new stacked APS-C sized, fifth-generation X-Trans CMOS HS chip – a first of its kind for the Fujifilm X.…

www.viltroxstore.com Available in black or silver, the Viltrox AF 23mm F1.4 Z looks at home on the Nikon Z fc, not least because it has an aperture ring that complements the camera’s hands-on approach to control dials and buttons. It’s one of a trio of f/1.4 lenses, the 23mm, 33mm and 56mm giving effective focal lengths of about 35mm, 50mm and 85mm respectively, in full-frame terms. These are classic focal lengths for street photography, landscape and architectural shooting, portraiture and more. We took the 23mm lens for a spin. The widest-angle 23mm lens is typical of others in the trio in boasting a fast f/1.4 aperture rating. As such, it can deliver a tight depth of field, at least at fairly short focus distances, and enables fast shutter speeds for…