Innehållsförteckning för No. 264 från Digital Photographer

It seems to be a facet of human nature that the further we progress and develop new ideas and technologies, the more we appreciate the way things used to be. This is especially visible in photography, where the more advanced digital colour science becomes, the more we crave the simplicity of black and white. In our feature beginning on p24 of the magazine, pro photographer Kav Dadfar provides his top tips for more impactful monochrome images. Learn to make the most of simple forms and textures by reading the light and observing its effects on the world around us. Next up, be sure to explore our feature on using telephoto lenses. Here, you’ll discover how removing detail from the edges of your frame can really streamline your compositions and allow…

Sigma has announced four new lenses for various mirrorless mounts. The Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG DN | Art is a ‘nifty-fifty’ for Leica L and Sony E mounts, while a trio of Contemporary lenses: Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN, 30mm f/1.4 DC DN and 56mm f/1.4 DC DN will be its first optics with a Nikon Z mount. The Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG DN | Art, for the L Mount and Sony E Mount, is the latest fast-aperture DG DN Art prime, designed for mirrorless cameras. It offers better optical performance than the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM, as well as faster AF, a lighter body, an AFL button, and smoother bokeh. A trio of 16mm, 30mm and 56mm Sigma Contemporary lenses available for Canon EF-M, Sony E, Fujifilm X…

Over the past few years, toy photography has become more popular among both photographers and collectors alike. The genre has almost unlimited potential in terms of its creativity, making it a photographer’s dream. Beyond the fun of the artistic challenge, which is enough reason in itself to try any photographic technique, there are many commercial applications. The process shown here can easily be used for product photography and advertising imagery at the pro level. The biggest challenge when experimenting with toy photography is making the shot look cinematic and creating an atmosphere to complement the scene. The best solution for introducing this dramatic theme is to use practical effects. Rain, snow and fire can all be used to enhance the shot since these graphic tools are also used widely in…

As photographers, there are many ways we can attract new clients, including word of mouth, advertising and, of course, social media. However, one area that often gets overlooked is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – the process of maximising the content on our websites so that it appears higher up in search engine results and can therefore be seen by a wider audience. For example, if you are a professional wedding photographer and a potential client does a search for a wedding photographer in your area, you’d like them to see your name first and book your services. But if your website isn’t well-optimised, they’ll probably see someone else’s name above yours. Perhaps you’re a photographer who regularly writes blog posts and you want to ensure that they get picked up…

Hi Wendy, so tell us, how do you manage to combine your photography hobby with your job as a digital communications officer? I moved to North Yorkshire for work in 2006 and I fell in love with the landscape and being outdoors. I started taking lots of photographs, which is where I began my journey as a keen landscape photographer. In 2020, I got a job working for the National Park, which has been the perfect fit. I’d already built up a good selection of landscape images from the Yorkshire Dales and so it was suggested I share them on their socials. They seemed to do well, so I started to come up with more ideas for image and video content. I was able to go out during work time…

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

96 70-300mm budget zoom lenses If you’re after serious telephoto reach on a budget, a classic 70-300mm zoom lens still has lots going for it. We test four of the best zooms from Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Tamron. 104 Panasonic Lumix S5 II Lumix has finally introduced a camera with hybrid phase detection AF, and the S5 II looks like an exciting prospect. Jon Devo finds out whether it is a content creator’s dream 108 Capture One Pro 23 Capture One has released the latest version of its powerful editing software. Rod Lawton wonders if it’s a serious rival to Lightroom 110 Lenses Every month, we take two professional optics out to test their performance. This issue, we test the Canon RF 70-200mm F4L IS USM and Laowa 90mm F2.8…

PRICE: £569/$499 FOCUS DISTANCE: 0.21m WEIGHT: 619g Build and handling Coming three years down the road from the TIPA award-winning Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO, the newer 90mm is designed purely for mirrorless cameras, adding Leica L to the line-up of mount options while still supporting the previous RF, Z and E threesome. Fairly compact for a 90mm macro lens, the Laowa is nearly 4cm shorter than the previous 100mm mirrorless lens. It feels robust and well-engineered although it lacks any weather-seals, either on the mounting plate or barrel joints. The manual focus ring has both a long rotational travel and smooth operation, making ultra-fine adjustments much easier. Performance The lens delivers excellent levels of sharpness. Clarity is maintained at narrow apertures right down to its minimum f/22…

Canon has started 2023 strongly, announcing the EOS R8 and R50 mirrorless cameras and two new lenses: the RF 24-50mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM and RF-S 55-210mm F5-7.1 IS STM. The EOS R8 is Canon’s lightest full-frame mirrorless, borrowing its compact build from the EOS RP, while also inheriting some pro features from the EOS R6 Mark II. Specifications include a 24.2MP full-frame sensor, a native ISO range of 100-102,400 and up to 40fps shooting. As a compact model, it doesn’t feature in-body Image Stabilisation and also uses the smaller LP-E17 battery. The EOS R50 joins EOS R7 and R10 as the third Canon body to use the mirrorless RF mount with an APS-C sensor, revamping the M50 line with a modern RF mount. The camera gets a 24.2MP APS-C sensor,…

Some you lose, Summicron you win – and that’s the case with the pair of new lenses launched by Leica, the Summicron-SL 35mm and 50mm f/2 ASPH. Leica has more than 150 years of experience under its belt in the development, design, and manufacturing of optics, ensuring that its lenses are known for their high quality, reliability, precision, and outstanding image quality. The SL System combines exceptional performance with flexibility for photographers and videographers. And Leica is now adding to the best SL lenses with the Summicron-SL 35mm f/2 ASPH and a Summicron-SL 50mm f/2 ASPH. Both lenses are conveniently compact and lightweight, while retaining a high speed and shallow depth of field, making them especially useful for travel, street, and day-to-day photography and videography. Thanks to their linear direct…

1 Use shapes and textures In the absence of colour, detail can hold the viewer’s interest If you look at any subject matter in its simplest form, it is a collection of different shapes that create what we recognise as an object, person or even a landscape. For example, visualise a silhouette of a tree – you don’t need any details within the silhouette to know that what you are looking at is a tree. Shapes help the photographer compose in a way that translates a desired mood. But shapes by themselves can lack something important in black and white photography, which is varied emotion. This is where textures can become an important element of a photo. Using our example of a tree, imagine if the tree was sitting in…

UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE To capture the viewer’s attention, it is important to offer a fresh point of view, even of familiar places. “I always challenge myself by trying to capture famous buildings in a completely different way,” says Krystian. “Here, I used perspective to get a different angle on the usual tourist shots.” The photograph stands out from the usual images, offering a different perspective on a well-known Berlin landmark. VERTICAL SYMMETRY Strict symmetry in architectural photography is particularly appealing to the viewer. By placing himself directly in the centre, in front of the architecture, Krystian takes this to the extreme. “I centred my subject, but I also find that it works well with this shot to highlight the perfection of the lines of the buildings,” he says. Through this decision,…

Photographer: Natasha Donmoyer Title: That Frog Life Location: Middle Creek Wildlife Reserve, Stevens, Pennsylvania, USA @nldphotographyy About the shot: “I was travelling along an old dirt road in the woods and could hear the frog noises growing louder. I saw a muddy pond off to the side of the road and, knowing that mating season was upon us, my curiosity grew. This frog was posing, ready for its glamour shot. A lower angle provided the lighting, background and clarity the image needed.” Tag us @dphotographermag for a chance to feature here Every issue, we’ll be sharing the best images from our Instagram community. Tag us on @dphotographermag for a chance to appear as our Shot of the Month. WIN! SAMSUNG 256GB PRO PLUS MICRO SDXC MEMORY CARD WITH SD ADAPTER…

A constant-aperture 70-200mm f/2.8 ‘trinity’ zoom is often the go-to telephoto lens for enthusiast photographers but they tend to be big, heavy and expensive, and they certainly aren’t the only option. The 70-300mm zoom range is something of a classic, stretching back to the 35mm film era. They typically have a slower, variable aperture range of around f/4-5.6 but give more powerful reach on a full-frame camera, going further still on APS-C format bodies with an effective range of around 105- 450mm (112-480mm for Canon), stretching into super-telephoto territory. Other advantages of 70-300mm zooms are that they’re relatively compact, lightweight and easy to live with, especially for travel,action, sport and wildlife photography. The slower aperture rating compared with f/2.8 zooms isn’t necessarily a drawback, considering that many current digital cameras…

Website: www.captureone.com Price: £299/$179 Capture One Pro is a high-end image organising and editing tool that works on the same principle as Adobe’s Lightroom Classic, offering seamless non-destructive editing of raw files, TIFFs and JPEGs with the ability to create multiple ‘virtual’ copies of images (‘Variants’) to experiment with different looks. Capture One Pro’s particular strengths are tethered camera operation and professional photographic workflows, but the steady addition of extra organising and editing features has made it a direct rival to Adobe Lightroom. Unlike Lightroom and Lightroom Classic, Capture One is available both on subscription and with a perpetual license, though Capture One is shifting towards subscriptions and will no longer be offering mid-version updates for perpetual licenses. Its processing and editing tools alone guarantee it a place amongst the best…

Telephoto lenses are among the most popular pieces of photographic kit, offering opportunities for stunning close-up shots. It has never been easier to get close to the action and capture candid moments in rich detail. Through their versatility, telephoto lenses have become indispensable in many photographic genres, such as wildlife, where a photographer benefits from being able to shoot animals from a distance without frightening them or risking their own life. One big advantage of telephoto lenses is their compressed perspective, which makes the background appear closer to the subject while excluding distracting elements. This is particularly useful when shooting action, as the compressed perspective creates a sense of pace. The distance from the subject combined with a wide aperture, makes backgrounds appear blurred, highlighting key features and drawing attention…

Finding a reliable solution for sharing your valuable files with customers is a priority for many photographers. There are lots of secure systems on the market, but finding the one that best suits your commissioning needs is another story. Each project has different requirements and your customers’ technical knowledge can often vary, so finding the right system will allow you to both improve your workflow and give you a more professional appearance for potential clients. Besides security considerations, you must ensure that high-resolution files do not lose quality during the transfer process. Sharing files by email is still a popular method, but the loss of quality is something many clients will no longer accept. The right program will protect your files with secure password protection but it doesn’t have to…

Incorporating my hobby and career I tried going freelance but found it wasn’t the right career path for me – I didn’t enjoy the uncertain income, so a job in full-time employment would be a better option for me. I love photography and want to incorporate it with another career, so what are my options here? George Hanford There are many professions out there that incorporate photography yet require other skills, George. Most businesses need photography, whether that’s for branding or social media, so you can really stretch your net when it comes to thinking about what it is you might want to do. Not knowing where your strengths lie, here are just a few suggestions to get you thinking. • Photography journalist. If you enjoy writing, a career in…

Will Davies Over the past 16 years, Will Davies has developed a passion for landscape photography. Inspired by a spell living in eastern Africa, he now focuses on the natural beauty and habitats in the USA and his home country of Wales. He won the UK Landscape Photographer of the Year competition in 2022 and is passionate about using photography to promote conservation, having donated many of his images for charitable causes. @willdaviesphotography www.willdaviesphotography.co.uk Photography does so much more than just capture a moment in time. It also conveys moods, allows you to explore distant lands and inspires people all over the world. For Will Davies, photography is an outlet that helps him unwind, providing a source of motivation and raising awareness of causes close to his heart. Davies discovered…

For our latest competition in association with Photocrowd, we challenged you to submit your best Winter Wildlife shots and, after working through all the entries, the winners have now been selected. The expert winner will receive a licence to Affinity Photo professional editing software. Congratulations to all of the winners – as usual, the standard of submitted images was extremely high and it was a difficult task to select the best ones. 1 ST PLACE WINNER Penguins in the Snow Storm Photographer: Martin Duffy Our comment: We feel cold just looking at this shot! It’s a tender moment that stirs a range of emotions – from contentment at the familial bond between the two birds to desolation and unease created by the ‘cold’ colour themes. The exposure is spot on…

As someone who’s used the Lumix S1 since its launch in 2018 and the original Lumix S5 since 2020, I’ve watched Lumix full-frame steadily grow into a system that has every right to be revered among photographers and videographers. The one thing holding it back from capturing the attention of the masses was the contrast-based Depth-from-Defocus (DFD) autofocusing system that Panasonic developed and championed for years, despite much of the competition adopting phase-detection-based AF setups. Uncharacteristically late to the innovation party, Panasonic is aiming the phase hybrid AF-powered Lumix S5 II squarely at ‘Creators’. To tick the right boxes, the S5 II needs to deliver beautiful stills that are easy to edit and transfer off the camera on the go. It also needs to capture a variety of video content,…

DOWNLOAD TEST SHOTS https://bit.ly/3KTK5RU PRICE: £1719/$1599 FOCUS DISTANCE: 0.60m WEIGHT: 695g Build and handling Though not a ‘trinity’ lens – amaximum aperture of f/2.8 is needed to enter that club – this zoom is still aimed squarely at professionals. When picking up the lens, you can tell it’s up to the task of working in all weathers as it feels tough and tightly sealed, despite the use of some plastic. Any differences between this lens and its f/2.8 big brother in terms of weather resistance under the bonnet aren’t obvious. All the controls are easy to reach and the portability is a dream. Performance As you’d expect from an L-Series zoom, optical quality is exemplary. Sharpness is bitingly high in the centre of the frame at all apertures. Stopping down…

Four years ago, I followed a vague tip-off that led to me capturing an unprecedented series of photographs of a black leopard in Africa. It was an incredible scoop that resulted in worldwide media attention. The ethos that led me to invest in such a speculative, low-odds endeavour was the same as the one I described in last month’s column, which looked at how taking the greatest risks can often yield the best results. In this column, however, I will concentrate on what I did thereafter… When you capture the shot of your dreams, it is tempting to draw a line under the project and move on to your next big idea. For me though, capturing that first ‘great’ image is the point at which a project really begins. When…