Innehållsförteckning för No. 283 från Digital Photographer

One of the great things about photography is that it enables us to find beauty wherever we happen to be. That could mean a far-off land on the other side of the world, gazing through the window of your living room or walking the streets of your home city. As such, it is an essential skill to be able to find suitable subjects in any environment and to understand how best to photograph them for dramatic effect. On page 14 of the magazine, we joined landscape photographer Andrew Haggar to discover his project of capturing images of one square kilometre of local countryside over several years. His approach demonstrates that you don’t need to travel great distances to find photo opportunities and that knowing a location well is a huge…

It’s not often a cheap 85mm fast portrait prime lens comes along, but 7Artisans has just launched one for Sony full-frame E-mount cameras. The new AF 85mm F1.8 has instantly become one of the most affordable portrait primes available for Sony shooters and, unlike many budget third-party options, this one has a stepping motor, a configurable Fn function button, as well as a USB-C port in the lens mount to enable future firmware updates. The only obvious omission here is optical image stabilisation, but since this is a lens designed for Sony’s IBIS-equipped E-mount bodies, that’s not a deal-breaker. Optically, there are 10 elements stacked in seven groups, including a pair of extra-low dispersion elements and two high-refractive-index elements to improve sharpness and minimise chromatic aberrations. 7Artisans hasn’t skimped on…

Hobolite is known for its small, versatile, vintage-inspired lights with a modern-day output, and the company has announced that it has added two more to its range. Building on the Hobolite Avant and Avant Mini released last year, are the Hobolite Avant Max and Mini Max. The new models maintain Hobolite’s retro aesthetic, though they feature a new innovative detachable 99Wh battery for extra output. The Avant Max is an 80W LED light that offers Bi-color continuous illumination with ‘true colour accuracy’ emitting a colour range of 2700K to 6500K. The output is greater than you might imagine from an 80W light as modern COB lighting can replace the brightness of multiple lights on set, and when used in combination with the detachable lens, the focus function provides almost 3.5x…

“Maps enable you to look for landscape features that might represent good photographic opportunities, for example, rivers, lakes, woodland and so on. Ordnance Survey maps are divided up into 1km squares with the vertical grid lines running south to north (bottom to top) and the horizontal grid lines running west to east (left to right). Contours define the height and changes in the level of terrain. The closer they are together, the steeper the slope. You can read the form of the landscape by reading the contours on a map. When out in the open landscape, if you need to locate your whereabouts on a map, walls and fences (and their corners and junctions), depicted by a thin black line, are usually good reference points.”…

1 “Choose somewhere nearby, somewhere you like going, somewhere that is likely to inspire you and that you have a connection with.” 2 “Repeated visits are key. They will increase familiarity and therefore your connection with your space, which will fuel creativity.” 3 “Always know why you are taking a photograph. What attracted you to the scene? What did you see and experience? Is there a story you can show?” 4 “Don’t settle for shooting at eye level. Walk all the way around your subject and get down low to open up new perspectives.” 5 “Shoot at any time and in all conditions, too. I find that being on the edge of the weather, if I can manage it, is usually a good place to be.” 6 “Photographing your square…

Flowers have long been the muse of artists around the globe. Throughout history, master painters have turned their attention to the natural structures and colours of flowers for their fine art studies and crafted atmospheric images that focused on light, shadow and texture. Their natural colour presents creative challenges and inspiration, while their delicate surfaces shout to be explored up close. Today, we can enjoy the same inspiration with digital cameras. The good news is that you don’t have to venture far to incorporate flowers into your photographic portfolio – they are found in our gardens, around towns and cities and can be bought in preset arrangements for placement around the house. So, wherever you are, flowers make great subjects. But why should you venture into flower photography in your…

While flowers make incredible photographic subjects, showing them in their environment can create a far more compelling picture. Whether it’s in their natural habitat, in a field, garden or woodland, or as part of an artificial arrangement indoors, crafting a background that complements the colour and texture of your flower subjects will produce images with a much stronger theme. As we have seen, flower portraits can become formulaic and appear as mere records, which could be made more exciting visually. A casual glance at your favourite still-life paintings will reveal far more detail in the periphery than you might have initially noticed. While the flower arrangements might clearly be the main subject – the sign of a successful artist in any medium – there are often plenty of other small…

1 Activate multi-exposure mode Multiexposure mode is turned off by default on most brands, so locate it in the shooting menu and toggle it on. In the sub-menu, choose how many shots you want to capture. We suggest starting simple by selecting two exposures. 2 Selectblending mode There are often a couple of blending options for your exposures. Additive blending is a simple overlay of one exposure over the other, which can effectively double the exposure time. To avoid overexposure and maintain colour depth, we recommend the Average mode for flowers. 3 Capture and preview Capture your first shot then compose the second flower, aligning the images on screen for what you feel is the best overlap of colours or shapes. Try framing them at different sizes so one fits…

Being a travel photographer might sound like the perfect lifestyle, but the genre itself comes with many challenges. Of course, there is the need to familiarise yourself with unknown areas, overcome the difficulty of communication in different languages and plan ahead to avoid crowds ruining your shot. Even the technical side of travel photography can have its own difficulties. Travelling long distances is expensive enough and investing in new gear can break the bank. The performance, size and weight of your kit are all significant considerations, so lightweight and high-quality performers, such as the Fujifilm X100VI or Sony A7 III combined with a versatile lens like the Fujifilm 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, are ideal for the travel genre. However, with the subjects in travel photography varying from place to place, it’s more…

Many popular travel destinations are known for their significant architecture or landscapes. Although capturing these landmarks may seem cliché at first, combining well-known subjects with diverse shooting techniques can offer a fresh perspective. To achieve this, it’s best to approach the subject with a fresh outlook – as difficult as it may be, try to disregard the countless images already seen, often using similar angles and compositions. To distinguish your images from the rest, be creative and search for new angles while highlighting different features. There are numerous creative approaches you can use. For instance, you could photograph the landmark in the dark, displaying the subject and light trails from passing vehicles. To reduce camera shake, secure the camera on a tripod, deactivate any image stabilisation features on your camera…

http://media//creative-1.jpg Difficulty level: Intermediate Time taken: 2.5 hours When taking outdoor portraits and working with natural light, we all hope for the perfect conditions; not too bright, not too dark and, preferably, some consistency in exposure across the subject and the background. However, as we know, the British weather is reliably unpredictable and we can rarely guarantee those conditions. Photographers often reach for their flash to add a key light and balance the exposure across an image. However, a reflector can sometimes be all you need on such days to help infill the light on the subject and create striking portraits without firing up the flash. In my experience, reflectors work better on an overcast day than a sunny day – and there’s less chance of blinding your subject. Because…

The art of minimalistic photography, featuring images that are distinguished by their simplicity, has long been a popular genre. The emphasis on sparse compositions that avoid excessive colour, patterns and information can often create surreal frames that demonstrate a different perspective from our everyday experiences. The absence of colour in this genre means that the focus of minimalistic images often lies in monochromatic gradients, which create a concentration of form, shapes and material characteristics of subjects. The importance of composition as well as the placing of light and shadow are important in achieving this look and all these elements come together to create surreal and potentially abstract frames. Integrating human subjects into the composition is an effective way to bridge the gap between a real-world impression and a minimalistic image.…

For our latest competition in association with Photocrowd, we challenged you to submit your best Abstract Architecture images. After working through all the entries, the winners have been selected. As a prize, the expert winners will receive a licence for 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. 1ST PLACE WINNER Arabesque Architecture Photographer Vidit Luthra We love the graphic qualities of this image. The hard edges on the vertical and horizontal axes complement the diagonal shadows perfectly and the choice of black and white makes great use of the strong contrast. It is abstract enough to hold our attention but familiar enough to be…

3LT is offering new kit bundles for its range of monopods. The Punks and Legends monopods will now be available in ‘Superkits’, which bundle the monopod with a Docz stabiliser foot and a new AirHed Trinity compact pan and tilt head. The aim is to create an ideal kit combination for wildlife and sports photography, as well as for video use. Four monopod Superkits are available, based around the Alana and Lance Legends monopods, as well as the Trent 2.0 and Taylor 2.0 Punks monopods. Both Legends monopods are made from carbon fibre, with Alana being a compact, travel-focused five-section leg, while Lance is an ultra-tall four-section version. Trent 2.0 and Taylor 2.0 have the same travel/tall split but are made from magnesium alloy. The Superkits offer a huge range…

@alizolghadrii Image location: Istanbul Airport, Turkey Type of commission: Personal Shot details Xiaomi Note 8 pro, 1/50 sec, f/1.9, ISO 500 As an accomplished photographer who specialises in minimalist and conceptual creations, Iranian-born Ali Zolghadri is a master at creating frames with a fascinating appeal. When capturing the scene, he carefully considers the various elements to achieve his aim of highlighting repetitive patterns and features while portraying realistic subjects with a surreal touch. “Lines and textures are always crucial and, in this image, they are the most prominent elements in the frame,” Ali explains. “While capturing this photo, the main challenge I encountered was dealing with the security guards who initially prohibited photography in this part of Istanbul Airport. After some negotiation with them, I only had a brief window…

Haggar is looking to publish this long-form project as a book (see p15), and sequencing the photos for a book is just as involved as creating the images. Here, Haggar talks us through his process. “Make some inexpensive 6x4cm prints of all the photographs you are considering for your book project and spread them out on the floor or a large table. Look for relationships between photographs, whether it’s similar colours or tones, times of the year, subjects or shapes in the pictures and so on, then try to identify a thread or threads. I wanted the viewer to be quietly taken through the seasons with my images. That was one continuous thread,” Haggar says. “I also wanted photographs that were going to be adjacent to each other to have…

The main challenges of flower photography derive from the quite significant variance in the opacity of the different structures. The petals of the flower are often quite thin and papery, meaning light transmission is high, as is colour saturation. Meanwhile, the stems and supporting structures are much denser and bounce back far more light. These areas are usually close together in the frame and therefore, we must take care when exposing our images to avoid clipping and loss of fine detail in key areas. An understanding of how flowers are constructed will therefore equip you with the knowledge of what to expect from different parts of the plant and how to approach each area photographically. You don’t have to be a plant biologist to get great images, however. Coincidentally, that…

Most of the successful photographers in the modern era have mastered the ability to diversify from simply taking and selling photos. Selling your photos directly to clients rarely pays for all of the bills, so having your work also available on stock sites or to purchase as prints can go a long way to supplementing your income. Self-publishing your work, whether that’s producing a photo calendar of your 12 favourite seasonal shots, or putting a book together can enhance these channels further too and give your fans and followers the opportunity to support you by purchasing your merchandise. Plus it can also be an enjoyable process and there’s no better feeling than seeing your work produced in physical form. Self-publishing takes time and money so, inevitably, it won’t be for…

How did you break into this genre? I’ve always been passionate about theatre and when I discovered photography in my 20s, I was drawn to photographing what I knew. A bunch of us had just set up our own musical theatre group, so I was in prime position to do all the photography. From there, I got involved in shooting any bits of theatre I could, building my network and making connections. One break I had was when a friend asked me to photograph his performance at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts. His classmates liked my photos and invited me to more shows. The director liked the pictures and put me forward to the head of the school. What does being a theatre photographer involve? There are various stages…

http://media://gallery-1.jpg 30 years of Light & Land Light & Land was established by the world-renowned landscape photographer, Charlie Waite, and the highly regarded nature photographer, Sue Bishop. It has since grown to become the biggest and most popular landscape photography tour company in the UK, offering tours both at home and to far-flung locations around the globe. To celebrate its milestone, L&L is holding a Dazzling Landscape Photography Exhibition at The Mall Galleries, London, from 3rd to 7th September. To find out more and to book a tour, visit lightandland.co.uk http://media://gallery-2.jpg/ http://media://gallery-3.jpg media://gallery-4.jpg/ media://gallery-5.jpg/ media://gallery-6.jpg/ media://gallery-7.jpg/ media://gallery-8.jpg/ media://gallery-9.jpg/ media://gallery-10.jpg/ media://gallery-11.jpg/ media://gallery-12.jpg/ media://gallery-13.jpg/ media://gallery-14.jpg/ media://gallery-15.jpg/ media://gallery-16.jpg/ media://gallery-17.jpg/…

Our ratings Our team of trusted and expert reviewers score gear thoroughly to help you make better buying choices. Don’t go there Could be better Solid performer Excellent bit of kit Best on the market Product awards Digital Photographer’s awards are given out when a product really catches our attention. Here are our three most used accolades. Lab testing Some of our product reviews also have in-depth lab data, graphs and scores. This means that the kit has been subjected to more rigorous testing. Lens tests are carried out using Imatest, and cameras are tested in our laboratory using DxO Analyzer hardware and software to check the image noise and dynamic range.…

Price: £2,699/$2,497 Website: nikon.com It’s been a long time coming and the rumour mill has been at fever pitch for a year or more, but Nikon has finally unveiled the latest in its Z 6 line of ‘enthusiast’ full-frame mirrorless cameras. At 24.5MP, it doesn’t match the pixel count of the more upmarket (and expensive) Nikon Z 8 and Nikon Z 9 pro models, which boast twice the resolution at 45.7MP. It’s a little bit bigger than its predecessors (the Z 6 and Z 6II shared almost identical dimensions), but a fair bit smaller than the bigger-bodied Z 8 and Z 9. It shares some of the same tech as the similarly enthusiast-level Nikon Z f but also ushers in some serious upgrades. It has more up-to-date handling characteristics too,…

PRICE: £899/$799 FOCUS DISTANCE: 0.20m WEIGHT: 382g Build and handling If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it? This lens might beg to differ. With a 35mm equivalent 24-80mm field of view, it takes everything that was great about the original Olympus M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro lens and makes a massive improvement. The M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro II is one of two OM lenses certified to the IP53 standard, complementing the weather-sealing on the OM System cameras. The all-metal construction is sturdy, solid and resistant to being banged around, but is smaller than a soda can, giving you a professional-calibre f/2.8 zoom in a ludicrously compact form. If you want to shoot macro or old school, the focus ring features a clutch that snaps back to reveal a focus scale and…

Photography is both an art and a science and, as such, there are a plethora of confusing technical terms to get to grips with. Luckily, we don’t often need to think about this jargon, except perhaps when buying a new lens or investing in new tech. However, understanding how your camera works and what these terms mean can improve your appreciation of the medium, help you make better buying decisions and shoot better images as you progress. Here are some of the ones we wish we had known from the beginning. Acutance The subjective perception of the sharpness of a photographic image, as defined by the contrast between edges, independent of pixel resolution. Additive colour Colour created by mixing light from different light sources, starting with black, red, green and…

Adobe has announced several significant updates to Photoshop, introducing a range of new tools and enhancements designed to “streamline creative workflows and empower designers”, the company says. The latest update sees the addition of Adobe’s text-to-image Generate Image feature using Adobe’s Firefly AI. This text-to-image generator allows users to create custom images directly within Photoshop simply by describing them in a text prompt. That might sound like something that could put photographers out of business but, if we’re being generous, we can see it helping to pitch ideas and concepts to each other quickly. There are also brand new Selection Brush and Adjustment Brush tools. The Selection Brush tool combines the brush and lasso gestures to create more intuitive and flexible selections, while the Adjustment Brush tool (now out of…

We’re all familiar with the term ‘in the zone’ and being absorbed with the job in hand, but Andrew Haggar has literally taken this concept to the next level. Having chosen an area of one square kilometre of open land close to his home, Haggar has repeatedly photographed it over the past six years for a long-term photography project titled MySquareK, or MySqK for short. Seeking to publish images from this project in the form of a book, Haggar invited us to visit him in his native Cumbria so we could see how his process works in practice. One of England’s most sparsely populated counties, Cumbria boasts many areas of outstanding natural beauty and Haggar’s chosen area nestles within the Pennine, Howgill and Lake District hills. Arriving in the village…

For Haggar, photography is something you do with a camera, not a computer, so he likes to get as much right in-camera as he can. He uses Adobe Lightroom to carry out basic editing on his files. “Typical edits would be cropping to a different aspect ratio, taking care of any highlights where necessary and possibly bringing out shadows, and converting to monochrome,” he says. “I don’t do much editing to my double exposures – if anything, it’s just minor adjustments to shadows and highlights. Sometimes, I will enhance the detail using the Texture adjustment (pictured, above), if there’s stone or bark in the image, for example. That said, I think you can do anything you want with double exposures – I see them as something very creative, an artistic…

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To exaggerate fine textures, the best choice is to apply strong directional lighting, which will cast shadows across a surface and highlight differences in depth. Use an off-camera flash or strong light from a window and crop in close to your flower using a macro lens or close-up setting. This will make the petal surface structures a major feature and create a more abstract take on flower photography.…

When creating a travel story, the goal is to provide the viewer with a visual journey that makes them feel like they are part of the adventure. Your photographs should do more than just showcase the destination – they should convey the atmosphere and feeling of the place. At first, it can be challenging to capture the essence of a new environment with so many impressions to take in. Even scenes that may seem irrelevant at first could turn out to be crucial elements in your story. So, the tip is to capture more rather than less. Always remember that the viewer wasn’t at the destination, so they can only experience it through your photography. To create a compelling story, you should aim to be versatile. This requires opening your…

Hey Bella, what is the most crucial thing to consider when preparing for a travel photography assignment or trip? Right now, I’m preparing for a trip to photograph wildlife in Manitoba, Canada and I have gear scattered all over the floor! So, I can tell you it’s all about the two Ps – planning and packing. First, I’ll research the destination and the itinerary, getting a sense of what the stories or angles are and trying to get ideas for what I want to capture. I’ll also look at Instagram and stock image sites to see what’s out there and get inspiration for my own images. For packing, it’s important to understand the rules and practicalities – how light do I need to travel? Are drones allowed? What will the…

By altering the balance of the three key in-camera settings – aperture, ISO and shutter speed – you can create countless opportunities to explore the medium of photography. One powerful technique used in the artistic and creative genre is to lengthen the exposure time while actively moving the camera. This technique, known as intentional camera movement (ICM), is often showcased when capturing natural landscapes. It skilfully turns hard and detailed frames into artful blurry elements, underlining colours while altering the familiar shapes of objects within the frame and giving them a more abstract look instead. Applying this technique can have a therapeutic influence on your photography, offering a creative process that allows you to relax the rules. Here, we can experiment a little with elements such as composition, exposure and…

Name: Macfarquhar’s Bed Date: March 2024 Kit: • Nikon D800 • Nikkor 28mm f/2.8 “Photography lets you preserve moments that would otherwise fade from your memory over time. Take an image and it never ends” Entry perspective “When I spot a scene, I get the camera ready and try out a few perspectives,” says Chantal. “In recent years, I have added more scenery to my images – we live in the Scottish Highlands, so it would be a crime not to!” By lowering her angle, Chantal gives the viewer the feeling of stepping into the scene, offering a smooth visual entrance due to the blurred foreground elements. “With dog photography, you generally want a low perspective, so going down low is my go-to – but, here, I wanted to position…

Title: Finding Peace in the Rain Location: Leicester, UK @frame_the_toys About the shot: “This shot was taken at sunrise to catch the beautiful morning light, I had the idea of ‘rain’ falling on the Wall-E figure by using a hose sprinkler to spray water while using my remote trigger to catch the raindrops as it fell. I made sure the sun was behind Wall-E, so the light kissed the raindrops, enhancing their visual presence.” 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 WIN! SAMSUNG 256GB PRO PLUS MICRO SDXC MEMORY CARD WITH SD ADAPTER Every issue, one Digital Photographer reader wins a Samsung 256GB PRO Plus MicroSDXC memory card with SD adapter. Boasting…

Price: £1,450/$1,595 Website: leica-camera.com Compact camera options are increasingly limited as most major camera companies have pulled their last remaining models from store shelves over the past couple of years with seemingly no intention of launching replacements. Yet, ironically, compacts couldn’t be more popular right now. Like the resurgence of film photography, this is likely down to the world-shaping whims of the internet. Starting a few years ago when every Gen-Zer went tearing through their attics looking for 90s relics with CCD sensors for a sense of grungy ‘authenticity’, it has now grown into an understanding that you don’t need a huge DSLR or mirrorless camera for great images. Like most brands, Leica discontinued its last premium D-Lux compact some years ago, although it has seen sense to jump on…

“Is there any place more thoroughly photographed than Hawaii? Even if you’ve never visited the islands, you think you at least know what they look like. Then along comes Olaf Heine, with these ravishing images, and you’re confronted with a place that you’ve never seen before,” says William Finnegan, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, a reflection of the sport of surfing and of his time growing up on the islands. Hawaii is a place of extremes, one of the most biodiverse and pristine regions on Earth, but it is also the land of hula and surfing. Over many years, German photographer Olaf Heine has travelled and documented the wonderful island of Hawaii, creating an impressive photographic catalogue…