Innehållsförteckning för March 2023 från Digital Camera Magazine

ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc265 Enter the URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc265 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. JUST CLICK THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK Click on the link labelled ‘Download the disc for Digital Camera 265’ and your download will start, delivered from our own server. Please override any browser warnings about downloading from a non-secure source – our server is safe! ACCESS YOUR FILES Open the .zip In your Downloads folder, or wherever you chose to download your files to, double-click the dc265-disc.zip file icon. Then when it expands, double-click Digital Camera 265 Files. The download content…

I am a full-time landscape and travel photographer and have spent the last five years living and photographing the scenic views on the Isle of Skye, off the coast of Scotland. The landscape offers countless photography opportunities full of saturation, texture and cinematic aesthetics. The rivers, lochs and mountains provide views that can be challenging to capture with just one photo. This is where the panorama technique comes in handy, allowing you to showcase the scale and beauty of this place, doing justice to what your eyes can see. This shot offers a view of the Cuillin mountains during February. The idea behind the composition was to showcase the contrast of the landscape in combination with the beautiful, crisp, clean sky. I knew that I wanted to place the mountains…

In my opinion, wildlife is one of the most rewarding and noble genres of photography. Waiting for hours in the rain, snow or sun, covered in fetching camo, all to capture that perfect moment: that perfect 1/1000 of a second shot. However, having photographed wildlife on and off for the last seven years, I’ve never once stayed in any one spot for longer than 10 minutes! Like many of us, I juggle photography between a full-time job, a toddler and a dog, which doesn’t lend itself to the stationary ways of a typical wildlife photographer. Nearly all of my photography is shot on the morning dog walk. I take my 150-600mm lens every time I go out, and have captured everything from spiders to deer, with some impressive results. Don’t…

WINNER: HISTORIC ENGLAND ‘Glastonbury Tor’ Sam Binding “Steeped in legend, Glastonbury Tor is an incredible location to photograph. Sitting on an island in the Somerset Levels, the Tor stands out for miles around. The low-lying levels are prone to mist, and so with a good forecast, I headed out very early that morning. When I arrived, I was in for a very nice surprise. As the sun rose up, a wave of mist swept over the top of the Tor, creating an incredibly ethereal scene.” ‘SS Carbon, Compton Bay, Isle of Wight’ Scott MacKintyre “This photograph shows the shipwreck of SS Carbon, a British Admiralty steam tug of 185 tons built in 1896. Running aground in 1947, she has now been a shipwreck for over 75 years. If you’re planning…

UV FILTERS FROM £22/$26 UV filters do very little visually, although they can reduce the slight cold blue tone in images taken around midday on sunny days. Their main purpose is to protect the front element of the lens from scratches. NATURAL LIGHT FOR NIGHT SHOOTING FROM £16/$19 Natural night filters are designed to colour-correct the warm colour cast created by artificial lighting at night. These are available in square and screw-in types, so you can choose the option that’s best for you. MIST FILTER FROM £40/$47 The NiSi Black Mist ¼ filter is another video filter that can be used creatively in landscape photography. This filter blooms the highlights, in the process creating a hazy mist-like effect in the brighter parts of images. CLOSE-UP FILTERS FROM £65/$78 Close-up filters…

The great advantage of using square filters, alongside being able to use up to four filters at once, is the ability to use ND grads. ND grads are only effective when used in square filter systems because you can position the graduation perfectly according to the horizon level and type in the scene, as well as rotate the filters if necessary. With screw-in and magnetic filters, ND grads are pointless because you can’t control the position of the graduation on the vertical axis. ND grads graduate from the full light-reducing effect at the top to no effect at the bottom, so the foreground is unaffected. They typically come in four graduation types used for different types of horizons and situations, as well as different light-reducing densities. Reverse grads are designed…

When you shoot a scene with a bright sky above a dark landscape, the resulting image can exceed the dynamic range of your camera’s sensor, unable to properly expose both the brightest and darkest areas. One solution is to shoot a ‘bracketed’ sequence of images at different exposures for processing into a ‘high dynamic range’ image. By merging the data from underexposed and overexposed shots, an image that is rich in detail in everything from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlights can be produced. However, care needs to be taken when processing such shots: some may prefer a naturalistic view, and others a hyper-detailed look. HDR projects takes the guesswork out of creating HDR images. Rather than having to fiddle with options and sliders before the HDR image is…

With a whole host of new and improved features, HDR projects 9 Professional is an essential upgrade! This latest version now has 212 optimised HDR presets, offering even more ways to process photos, and a brand-new HDR Fusion Stacking process for producing absolutely halo-free images. Other new features include image ghosting correction with customisable gradient masks, and automatic exposure bracketing with up to 13 images generated from a single image. The program works standalone or as a plug-in for Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, and also runs on macOS. Go to www.projects-software.com/hdr and save 30% with the code DCAM-HDR…

Some controls in Photoshop can appear to produce harsh and undesirable results, meaning the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer is one set of tools that can be easily overlooked. On a basic level, Hue/Saturation appears almost pointless, but dig a bit deeper and you’ll find that it holds a huge amount of creative potential for photographers. With control over individual colour channels, Hue, Saturation and Lightness of channels, and the ability to combine Blending modes, you might be surprised at what can be achieved. You will develop a greater understanding of how the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer works, as well as learning four creative techniques. As always, there are many more creative techniques that can be created using Hue/Saturation, but this gives you the perfect starting point for delving further into this useful…

What are Exposure level increments? Your camera will allow you to adjust exposure by less than one full stop. Remember: one full stop is either doubling or halving the amount of light reaching the sensor. In most cameras, the smaller increments are either one-third or half-stop. I only use an automatic mode, so does it matter which I use? If you shoot on full auto there’s no need to worry about them, but if you use a semiautomatic mode like Aperture Priority or full manual then you can control the exposure you choose to use more carefully. If I switch to a semi-automatic mode, which increment is best? By default, you will have one-third increments in your camera, as the manufacturer is assuming that you want the greatest amount of…

store.google.com The Google Pixel 7 Pro is the very best camera phone out now at its price. Why? Because for £849/$899, Google loads the phone up with a mighty camera mix, complete with a powerful periscope camera and an autofocusing ultra-wide, not to mention the same 50MP main camera you get on the Pixel 7. Google’s photography software is also incredibly clever both in the camera app and when you come to edit your photos, and video shot on it looks stupendous, too. Of course, there’s more to a smartphone than just its camera, and the Pixel 7 Pro needs to be a hardy, good-looking phone with a great screen and long-lasting battery life. After all, it has to compete with the iPhone 14, Honor Magic 4 Pro and Samsung…

For a long time, Photoshop was considered the definitive professional photo editor, and still is by many. But today, when it’s compared to other software, its specialist focus and limitations become apparent. Photoshop may still be the best for in-depth photo editing, manipulation and compositing, but it’s really designed for working in-depth on individual images. Lightroom, for example, is better suited to busy photography, where it can quickly display, organise and enhance whole batches of images. While Photoshop might be the ‘best’ in some respects, other programs offer tools, presets and inspiration that Photoshop doesn’t. The fact that both Photoshop and Lightroom are included in the Photography Plan makes them a great double-act, but that doesn’t make Adobe the best for everyone. Subscriptions are unpopular with some, but that’s the…

www.adobe.com Lightroom comes in two versions: ‘Lightroom Classic’ is the desktop-based version, while ‘Lightroom’ is the newer, cloud-focused version with online image storage and mobile apps. Lightroom has the same editing tools as Classic, but less sophisticated cataloguing options and no support for plug-ins or external editors other than Photoshop. Having your images available everywhere is great, but most photographers will feel locked-in. Classic hasn’t changed much in appearance over the years, and some of its modules look past their sell-by date. But Classic’s cataloguing, image organisation and search tools are excellent, and Adobe continues to push forward with its AI masking tools. Classic is now so good at photo-editing that unless you need to combine images in layers or carry out complex retouching, it may be the only photo…

affinity.serif.com Affinity Photo has long been the perfect Photoshop stand-in for photographers who want Photoshop’s capabilities, but without a subscription. Version 2 marks a relaunch of Affinity’s creative suite, but brings worthwhile improvements of its own, including non-destructive raw processing, live compound masks and luminosity masking and a live mesh warp. While Adobe is pressing on with AI masking and Neural Filters, Affinity is matching Photoshop for layers, composites and retouching, but going further with live filters and a tone mapping/HDR ‘Persona’ (workspace). You could switch to Affinity from Photoshop and do nearly everything you could before, though the tools and features might take getting used to. Powerful as it is for photographers, Affinity Photo 2 is also a professional design tool that integrates with Affinity’s other creative apps, Designer…

www.corel.com One of the oldest and best-known photo editors for Windows computers is now owned by Corel. The Ultimate version comes with a lot of add-ons, but no differences in PaintShop Pro itself. You can use the Manage window to browse your folders or bookmark folders to add them to the catalogue. If your needs are modest, it’s fine. The Edit mode offers a good set of image adjustment, layering and masking tools, somewhere between Elements and Photoshop in scope. If you’re working with raw files, these must be processed ahead of editing. New for 2023 is the integration of After Shot Lab (a higher-end raw processor from Corel). It’s not as powerful as Adobe Camera Raw, but better than Elements’ raw processing options. But while Paint Shop Pro 2023…

www.nikon.co.uk NX Studio is Nikon’s official raw processing and editing software for its cameras. It’s custom made for Nikon cameras, so can replicate Nikon Picture Controls and white balance settings precisely. NX Studio also has basic browsing and filtering tools, together with side-by-side views for comparisons. You probably wouldn’t use it to organise a large catalogue of images, but it would be very effective at sorting through images after a shoot. It also incorporates control point adjustments, as found in Capture NX, DxO PhotoLab and Nik Collection – they share old Nik software’s DNA – so it can make local adjustments and image enhancements. If you own a Nikon camera and shoot raw, you should at least check out NX Studio. It’s free, and while its tools are limited and…

www.skylum.com Luminar has long been at the forefront of AI image enhancement and effects, and Luminar Neo is the latest version in a long line of variants. Luminar’s AI sky replacement is still the best, but it also has some of the best AI portrait enhancement tools, including AI Portrait Bokeh. Some AI features don’t seem a lot more effective than regular editing tools, though, such as Atmosphere AI, for mist and fog effects, and Relight AI, which doesn’t seem to do much at all. What confuses things further is that Luminar has recently taken a change in direction away from a single program and payment towards subscriptions and ‘Extensions’, which add features that other programs have already. You can still buy a ‘lifetime’ Luminar Neo license, though at twice…

Paul Nicklen Nature photographer Nicklen is one of the greats, and his images have helped bring many vital conservation initiatives to wider attention. He joins us for a chat, from page 8 James Abbott Photographer & writer The regular DC contributor has been hard at work in the field to deliver a masterclass on using filters. See how they can elevate your landscapes, from page 50 Anouk Masson Krantz Fine-art photographer For her book Ranchland, Anouk turned her lens on one of the largest working ranches in the US. One of the resulting images is our Shot of the Month. Page 72 Jon Devo Photographer & writer Our resident tech columnist enjoys considering the latest developments in digital imaging and photography. Read his latest dispatch on page 98 Liza Kanaeva-Hunsicker…

In his long and distinguished career, nature photographer Paul Nicklen has captured images that have been hugely significant in keeping awareness of conservation at the front of people’s minds. Photography has become far more democratised since Nicklen first picked up his camera, with the technical advances of digital cameras and the internet and social media making it easier than ever for photographers to connect with their viewers. And it’s this connectivity that Nicklen has turned to for his Masters of Photography online course, which has just launched. Taking place over the course of 50 lessons, budding and established nature photographers alike can learn from one of the top professionals working in the conservation space. We caught up with Nicklen to discover more about the course, why he decided to participate…

After photographing models with an indoor macro setup in issue 263, I decided to try to get ahead of the game by picking up some winter-inspired figures, ready, waiting and hoping that we’d see some early winter snow here in the UK (which now seems to be a common occurrence). In the event, there wasn’t a lot but still just enough to play make-believe, take my rebel soldier to the local car park and bring Hoth to Bristol. To photograph toys, you may feel that you need a macro lens, but today I have specifically chosen my kit lens to do the job, so you can use yours too! I’m shooting on the Fujifilm X-T3 and Fujinon XF16-55mm f/2.8 lens. It has a minimum focusing distance of around 30cm, but…

I have been shooting children and families from my garden house studio for 16 years. Since 2007, my subject matter has grown just as much as my daughter has. My focus back then was much more on photographing children in their younger years, but now that my daughter, Kenzie, is 19, I very much enjoy photographing this age group, particularly with all the outfits, ideas and character that they can bring to the shoot. I suppose in one sense my daughter really leads my inspiration, and I feel incredibly lucky to have someone that I can collaborate with. She often provides me with ideas that expand my perspective, and this one is no exception. I would like to take credit for coming up with this idea myself, but I have…

I have recently started reading up on wabi-sabi. I’ve only skimmed the surface, and by no means have the sense of authority to write about it in depth. However, it really interests me, and what I tentatively understand has excited me. I am on a mission to learn more. The reason it excites me so much is that there are aspects of it that I can relate to in my photography. My worldview and the way I see, acknowledge and connect with the world, and what interests me photographically, seems to speak to some of the ideas around wabi-sabi. I’m forever drawn to photographing the small, quiet and often overlooked aspects of the world; a democratic eye that places no hierarchy or sense of importance on things. A humble broom…

Photography is all about light, and the ability to control it is an essential skill, regardless of the subjects you shoot. Landscape photography typically relies on natural light and weather conditions – unlike studio photography, for instance, where the photographer has full control over light and exposure. But despite this huge difference, landscape photographers can use filters to control the way that light enters the lens. The extent of this control available is surprisingly high, and whether you aim to simply control exposure or add in-camera creative effects, you’re only ever a few steps away – you simply need to know what’s available alongside how and when to use a specific filter or even several filters at once. There comes a time in landscape photography when simply arriving on location…

Polarising filters are available for square filter systems, screw-in and magnetic, and are an essential addition to every landscape photographer’s bag. They are easily the most versatile filters available – their main effects cannot be recreated during post-processing, so there’s no getting around their use. The only effect that can be replicated in post-processing is an increase in saturation. Polarisers are most effective when the camera/lens is at a 90° angle to the sun, and can be used to deepen blue skies, remove glare and reflections from shiny surfaces such as water, increase colour saturation and act as a low-strength ND filter with the ability to reduce light entering the lens by up to 1.5 stops, depending on their rotation. Polariser effects are controlled by rotating the filter – or…

High dynamic range (HDR) photography is a simple yet highly effective technique that can be used to maintain detail throughout the scene without using ND grads. More and more photographers are giving up ND grads to use HDR instead. This is often so that they don’t have to carry square filters, but are still able to use screw-in or magnetic NDs and a polariser, which are smaller and lighter than square filters. The technique isn’t for everyone because you have to shoot more images and spend more time processing them. For HDR, you have to take three or five bracketed exposures – one or two underexposed at two-stop increments, one exposed for the mid-tones, and one or two overexposed at two-stop increments. This captures detail from the deepest shadows and…

From sub-zero nights in teepees, four-feet snowstorms, Wyoming’s howling and toppling winds to the summer heat, travelling solo with just her camera, Anouk Krantz aims her lens at Wagonhound, one of the largest working ranches in America. At over 300,000 acres, Wagonhound is a real-life Yellowstone. The men and women cowboys start in the dark and finish as the moon rises. Anouk’s photographs tell a visual story of the rancher and his relationship with the land. The ranch owners, Catherine and Art Nicholas, took the reins in 1999 and take the stewardship of the land very seriously, utilising conservation methods to ensure a balance between the land, livestock, farming and wildlife to steward the ranch into the future. “I was transported here from the hustle and bustle of a fast-paced…

The Dodge and Burn tools are ideal for selective lightening and darkening in Photoshop. There are lots of other tools that do a similar job, but there’s something about these two that will keep you coming back to them. Perhaps it’s the darkroom connection. In the darkroom, areas of a print would be ‘dodged’ by shading some of the light from the enlarger bulb. A disc on a piece of wire would often be used, echoed in the Photoshop Dodge tool icon. By contrast, parts could be ‘burned’ by focusing light from the enlarger onto specific areas, resulting in darker tones. An ‘OK’ hand shape could be used, the hole between thumb and finger channeling light onto the print, hence the hand-shaped icon for Photoshop’s Burn tool. Of course, all…

CES is the world’s largest consumer technology expo and it’s filled with often weird and mostly wonderful products. Some are practical gadgets that will soon be hitting the shelves, and some are concepts that are on the horizon, while others are complete moonshots that may never see the light of day. One such product that I was fortunate enough to see at CES 2023 might sound like it’s somewhere in between the second two categories, even though it’s real! But let’s start with a more practical piece of tech that caught my eye. Amid the tidal wave of new and concept computer products being shown off, two really arrested my attention. The first was an innovative dual-screen laptop from Lenovo, the Yoga Book 9i, that replaces the fixed keyboard side…

www.gopro.com Hot on the heels of both the DJI Osmo Action 3 and Insta 360 X3, GoPro launches its latest action cam, the Hero 11 Black. This all-action-adventure camera’s headline feature is that 8:7, 27MP, 10-bit camera sensor, which captures virtually square 5.3K content that can be cropped to create 4K clips in a host of aspect ratios. Building on the success of the Hero 10 Black, the Hero 11 brings back a virtually identical design. This time, though, the camera software has been simplified, and the phone software – GoPro Quik, has been upgraded. You can’t talk about GoPro without mentioning its HyperSmooth stabilisation, and for version 5.0, GoPro has introduced 360º Horizon Locking at up to 5.3K. The 11 Black also introduces a new digital lens, HyperView, and…

1 Organising tools Being able to edit your photos is one thing, but you also need to manage and organise them – and the more pictures you take, the more there is to organise. People have different needs, and some can manage perfectly well using a folder-based filing system and image-browsing tool like Adobe Bridge (included with the Photography Plan). However, this is not enough for many photographers, and a more advanced cataloguing tool is needed. Adobe Lightroom is the most popular solution, but there are some very good rivals, notably Capture One. ON1 Photo RAW, Exposure X7 and others have cataloguing tools, too, though perhaps not quite in the same league. 2 Raw processing Photographers shoot raw files in order to achieve the best possible quality, but it’s wrong…

www.adobe.com For photo-editing power, Photoshop remains the best. Its layering and masking tools are legendary, its retouching tools can spark amazement, and it’s regularly updated with Adobe’s latest AI-powered technologies. If you can picture it, you can make it, though this does hint at one of its limitations: all the imagination has to come from you. Unlike many of its rivals, Photoshop does not have a library of effects. It provides the tools, but you have to know what to do. It doesn’t have any cataloguing or image organising tools, either. For this you will need Lightroom or Bridge. Both are in the Adobe Photography Plan, which is the best-value option for photographers anyway. The other thing to keep in mind about Photoshop is that it’s not just for photographers,…

www.canon.co.uk Canon Digital Photo Professional is easily overlooked, but it’s very interesting and completely free. All you need to download it is the serial number from your camera. As well as offering post-shoot camera settings adjustments such as Picture Styles and white balance adjustment, Digital Photo Professional unlocks some Canon-specific features, such as Dual Pixel RAW, Depth Compositing and HDR composites. If you want your processed raw images to reflect the rendering intended for your Canon camera, this is the answer. However, it also has a technical and old-fashioned interface, so is unlikely to provide the speed and fluency photographers will look for. This could be useful for experienced Canon photographers interested in image optimisation from a technical standpoint, but it lacks the editing fluency and one-click presets of programs…

www.dxo.com DxO PhotoLab’s specialities are its lab-developed lens corrections, raw processing quality and DeepPRIME XD noise reduction and detail enhancement process. PhotoLab 6 also has improved photo browsing, organising and cataloguing tools, and while they are not in Lightroom territory, they are sufficient for searching and filtering. It doesn’t just offer global corrections, but local adjustments, including the ‘self-masking’ control points from the Nik Collection. All of PhotoLab’s adjustments are non-destructive, so you can go back at any time to make changes – and create virtual copies to try out different edits. The only exception is the DeepPRIME XD process, which is effective, but can only be applied to exported images. If you need to work with image layers, however, you will need a separate program, like Photoshop or Affinity…

www.on1.com ON1 Photo RAW 2023 has the broadest scope of any program here. It’s a browsing and cataloguing tool, a non-destructive raw processor and editor, comes packed with creative presets, and even includes layering and masking tools for composite images. ON1 Photo RAW does a lot, and there are times when the interface can seem quite busy, but it repays the time spent learning it with some great image effects and creative tools. It can even merge HDR images and panoramas, though Lightroom does it better. New in the 2023 version are AI masking tools that can automatically recognise and mask objects and regions in your photos. These work well although, like the AI sky replacement feature, there are some rough edges. Given its scope, power, effects and relatively low…

The winner – for now – is still the Adobe Photography Plan. Remember, this includes Photoshop and Lightroom Classic. You also get Lightroom for a fully cloud-based workflow, though you will need to pay for extra storage. The fact is that the Adobe Photography plan is a really good deal, and while it’s still possible to buy a licence to other programs, do you really want to sacrifice features and capabilities just to dodge a subscription? Professional photographers should also consider Capture One, and any creative types out there might want to check out ON1 Photo RAW and Exposure X7. If you’re just starting out, Photoshop Elements is effective, Luminar Neo has wild AI effects, and PaintShop Pro is good for Windows users. But really, you might just as well…

9 PHOTO TIPS CARDS TO TAKE ON LOCATION! Our latest selection of tips cards gives wallet-sized advice on how to take better photos Transform your images in a few clicks with actions, profiles and a preset for a variety of image editors We’ve curated a great selection of software extras to complement this issue’s tutorials and give your shots a professional look. You can find them with this issue’s other bonus digital gifts – see the instructions below. FREE SOFTWARE WORTH £53/$69 This issue, we’re giving away a copy of HDR Projects 2018 for Windows and macOS – see page 74 for how to register and download it RADIANT PHOTO READER OFFER Our tutorial series on this new image editing program continues this month – turn to page 84 to…

For early-bird access to Paul Nicklen’s Masters of Photography course, go to the Masters of Photography website. Three pricing tiers are available: Masterclass: $199 – the initial 15 episodes and following 35 episodes, plus unlimited access and access to a private Facebook group Gold Access Masterclass: $249 As per previous tier, plus bonus and behind-the-scenes episodes, plus a recording of the live ‘Ask Me Anything’ with Paul Platinum Access Masterclass: $499 As per previous tier, plus entry to a draw for a portfolio review with Paul, plus live access to ‘Ask Me Anything’ with Paul Find out more at: https://mastersof.photography/paul-nicklen…

Photography is not only a great pursuit, but an excellent excuse to get out into nature. With the ever-changing seasons, you’ll never be short of something to shoot all year round. Of course, we all enjoy shooting beautiful landscapes in our shorts, T-shirts and flip-flops during the summer, but the winter can be a time to try photographing something different. Trees and woodland during the colder months can offer up some stark contrast and allow you to practise tricky exposures with very bright and very dark areas within the frame to balance with precision. Don’t feel like you need to include the entire tree – crop in and play with your framing and composition, as no two trees are alike. Techniques for trees Snow and bright skies will mess with…

1 Use a telephoto lens I use the Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S, and this shot was taken at 140mm. For sport you are better off with a zoom than a prime. As the distance where the action takes place is always changing, this will give you the best chance of getting the shot. 2 Drive up your shutter speed and ISO For sports photography you need a fast shutter speed. With my aperture already fully open at f/2.8, I had no choice but to increase my ISO to 1000 in order to get my shutter speed up to 1/640, which is perfect for capturing the action. 3 Use burst mode I shoot on the Nikon Z 7 – optimised for capturing high-speed action images, this camera will shoot…

Filters are available in several types, with each variety attaching to lenses in different ways, offering pros and cons that will dictate whether or not they suit your style of landscape photography. The three main types available are square filters that drop into a filter holder attached to the front of the lens, screw-in filters that screw onto the front of lenses, and the magnetic type that attaches to an adapter ring. There are also rear-mounted filters that slot into a holder at the rear of compatible telephoto and ultra wide-angle lenses, but these are the least commonly used and are limited to ND [neutral density] filters. WHY FILTERS ARE IMPORTANT Filters are essential for landscape photography because they allow you to achieve a range of effects, including maintaining sky…

Want to use a slower shutter speed or shoot at a wider aperture? Neutral density (ND) filters are the obvious answer, thanks to the amount of light entering the lens these useful filters reduce. Available in all varieties, they come in fixed light-reducing densities as well as variable densities, which typically reduce light by one to five stops or five to 10 stops, but variable NDs are only available in the screw-in and magnetic varieties. When using NDs up to four stops, you simply attach them to the lens and shoot normally. But beyond this, you’ll need to use an exposure calculator app such as the NiSi ND Exposure Calculator or Lee Stopper Exposure Guide to calculate exposure, because metering doesn’t work with stronger NDs. Big and Little Stopper filters,…

1 ‘Family Picnic’ by Peter Strøiman “While driving through some woods, it started to snow quite heavily. I parked at the first possible location and had five minutes to shoot before it stopped snowing.” Digital Camera says: It’s clear why this shot won the gold medal (colour prints category) in the national Danish photography championships – superb! 2 ‘Passing Through’ by Paul Adams “This was my first real attempt at light trails, taken opposite London’s St Paul’s Cathedral. I used the phone box as foreground interest and shot at night to avoid the crowds. It was a five-second exposure on my Fujifilm X-H1.” Digital Camera says: A superb image that has bested our opening project from last month’s Photo Active, Paul. It’s difficult to see how this can be improved…

SOFTWARE EXTRAS: Actions, profiles and a preset for Camera Raw, Photoshop and Lightroom Page 82 This month… Tool School: Master Dodge and Burn in Photoshop Get to grips with these two essential tools for making old-school enhancements to your images Fundamentals: Add sophistication to vignettes Use a Radial Gradient in Lightroom to draw the viewer’s eye to a particular area of your image Get the Look: Create Hue/Saturation effects This Adjustment Layer is often overlooked, but with so many possibilities it’s well worth a deeper dive Radiant Photo: Sponsored tutorial series – use Detailed Edit controls to make professional-level image adjustments VIDEO TRAINING The issue 265 download includes video lessons that build on our tutorials, plus bonus videos with extra tips! www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc265 40 MINUTES OF VIDEO PHOTOSHOP Dodge and Burn tools LIGHTROOM…

1 Top toolbar This row of menus and icons controls the main functions. Start by selecting File > Import Exposure Bracketing and select a series of images of a scene taken at different exposure settings. 2 Main window The sequence of images is automatically analysed. The main image window displays a processed HDR version of the image determined by the preset. Right-click for a before/after view. 3 Expert mode After creating your high-dynamic range image, you can really go to town using the expanded set of tools when you select Expert mode. The included manual gives full details of the options on offer. 4 Presets There are 103 presets across eight categories. The program processes the image using the selected presets and highlights the one it thinks suits the image…

FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc265 There are many many ways to help focus attention in your photos. Sharpness is one, and you often see this effectively done in camera using a shallow depth of field. Your eye is drawn to areas of sharpness and tends to ignore things that are out of focus. It’s why so much money is spent on f/1.2 lenses by portrait photographers. Another way is using light and dark. Your eye naturally goes to the brightest part of the frame, and pays less attention to the darker parts. That’s part of the reason why it’s important to retain detail in the highlights, while it’s not as critical to keep it in the shadows. It’s not that you shouldn’t; it’s just less important. Knowing this, you can darken…

Water great idea Q It seems to be trendy to shoot water with a slow shutter speed, so what criteria would you use to keep the water crisper and sharper in a landscape shot? Tom Donelly A At times it might be forced on me in the circumstances. For example, when shooting in low-light conditions, a slow shutter speed that will blur the water is just what you get, unless you increase ISO. But when you put on a filter to deliberately slow the shutter speed, you are making a conscious decision for creative reasons. I think the biggest reasons for slowing down the shutter speed and blurring water is either to simplify the composition or create a certain mood. The more detail you have in the water, the more…

1 ROBUST BODY The front and rear case frames are magnesium alloy die-cast, and the body is splash- and dust-resistant. 2 NEW 24.2MP SENSOR The Lumix S5 II is built around a brand new full-frame CMOS sensor and imaging processing engine. 3 GREAT FOR TAKING STILLS… There’s a 96MP High Resolution Mode and burst modes of up to 9fps (mechanical) and 30fps (electronic). 4 … AND FOR FILMING VIDEO 4K at up to 60fps plus unlimited recording time will endear the S5 II to videographers. Panasonic Lumix S5 II Full-frame mirrorless gets Hybrid Phase Detection AF system, plus a slew of spec bumps to make it a compelling proposition for stills and video shooters The Lumix S5 II has been released two years after the original Lumix S5 launched and…

www.tamron.eu The Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8 Di III VXD is yet another different take on the ‘standard’ zoom lens. Tamron already makes alternatives to ‘trinity’ wide-angle and standard zooms, and the new 20-40mm retains the same fast and constant f/2.8 aperture rating but delivers a more unusual zoom range. For walkabout and travel photography, size matters. Despite its fast and constant f/2.8 aperture, this lens is conveniently small at 74 x 87mm and very lightweight at 365g. Although full-frame compatible, the lens works equally well on Sony’s APS-C format mirrorless cameras, on which it gives a very useful ‘effective’ zoom range of 30-60mm. The optical line-up is based on 12 elements in 11 groups and features some upmarket glass, including four LD (Low Dispersion) elements, two GM (Glass Moulded) aspherical elements…

www.acdsee.com ACDSee Photo Suite 2023 is an all-in-one Windows-only program, pitched at a slightly higher level than Paint Shop Pro 2023. ACDSee offers image cataloguing tools, raw processing and Photoshop-style layers and masking tools in its Edit mode. It sounds like Lightroom and Photoshop rolled into one, but it’s not in the same league. The tools are a useful choice of browsing or more advanced cataloguing tools, and while Develop mode offers non-destructive raw processing like Lightroom, neither replicates its fluidity and control. The subscription-free price for ACDSee Photo Suite 2023 is $30 higher than a one-year subscription to the Photography Plan, so it would be wise to wait for offers if you’re looking for a cheaper Adobe alternative. ACDSee Photo Suite 2023 does bring some interesting new AI tools…

www.adobe.com Photoshop Elements has always been the more beginner-friendly alternative, but over the years it has shifted away from being a cut-down Photoshop towards a more craft- or project-orientated audience. The basic photo editing tools are still there in Expert mode, but there is also a Guided mode and Quick mode. It also comes with an Organiser app, though this is not a cut-down Lightroom; more a bespoke photo organiser. You can buy Elements on its own or as a bundle with Premiere Elements. Elements 2023 brings the usual annual feature update, including some cool tools like sky replacement and object animation with a Moving Elements feature for creating animated GIFs. Elements’ photo composites are not always convincing, and its kindergarten-style interface hints at its amateur/crafting orientation. It can be…

www.captureone.com Lapture One offers pretty much the same combination of cataloguing tools, non-destructive editing, local adjustments and preset effects as Lightroom. However, it’s over twice the price, and doesn’t have Adobe’s Creative Cloud ecosystem. What it does have is a workflow that’s well suited to professional commercial photographers shooting ‘tethered’ in a studio and collaborating live with clients via the new Capture One Live service. Even as a Lightroom replacement, Capture One has a lot to offer. Its raw processing is clearly superior, and its system of adjustment layers and masks means that every adjustment has access to every editing tool. It also brings a new Cull window to make it easier to sort through largescale shoots. However, it does look as if Capture One will prioritise support for subscriptions…

https://exposure.software Exposure X7 deserves to be better known. For anyone who remembers the plug-in company Alien Skin, this is the modern version. This is an all-in-one program that can both organise your images and edit them. Its main focus is recreating evocative film effects, darkroom techniques and analogue ‘looks’. Its organising tools are a hybrid of browsing and cataloguing, with the advantages of both. You don’t have to ‘import’ images, just bookmark folders that are scanned and updated ‘live’. Exposure X7 is a non-destructive editor, but it has tools that don’t exist in Lightroom, such as bokeh effects, frames, light leaks and textures. It can edit raw files directly, but the results aren’t as good as those from rivals. But it also works as a plug-in and external editor, so…

www.radiantimaginglabs.com Radiant Photo takes AI image enhancement to the next level. Instead of using conventional editing tools, it uses AI from the outset to work out what’s in your photo, segment it into regions and subjects and automatically enhance it, region-by-region. It’s not designed for special effects, retouching or montages. Instead, its sole job is to make each image look its very best. The process takes a few seconds, but the results are always a worthwhile improvement and sometimes genuinely surprising. Radiant Photo can turn images from rejects into keepers, and without you having to sit down and think through exactly what needs to be done. With one click, you can find out if an image has potential or not. If you don’t like the AI-driven default treatment, you can…

Having delivered an engaging and very colourful Super Stage talk at The Photography Show last September, it would have been negligent of us not to have brought Kaylee Greer’s work to the wider Digital Camera audience. Judging by the length of the queue at her post-talk Dogtography book signing, it was clear that there is a lot of interest on this side of the pond in Greer’s work, which offers a distinctive aesthetic approach and strives to bring out the character and soul of her inevitably cute canine subjects. Taking photos of a dog can be relatively straightforward, especially if it’s the family pet, but Greer’s work is next-level. To find out more about how she established, finessed and found an audience for her characterful captures, we caught up with…