Innehållsförteckning för No. 481 från Photography Week

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MANUAL MODE Oliver set both his and Matthew’s EOS R5 and R6 cameras to Manual mode, so that they could dial in exposure settings without these being affected by the camera’s built-in metering systems. This meant that if the light changed, their images would become brighter or darker, which meant that checking the rear LCD for a decent exposure was crucial. They also set up raw shooting to give them a little leeway in post if the exposure was off. KEY CAMERA SETTINGS Although they were shooting at sunrise, Oliver likes to go to areas that are still in shade, as once insects, like dragonflies and damselflies, are hit by the sun they start to warm up and become much more active, which makes sharp shots and focus stacks much…

1 GET UP EARLY Insects like damselflies and dragonflies are largely inactive at sunrise, which makes them easier to photograph. 2 VISIT LOCAL NATURE RESERVES Find a nature reserve close to you that you can visit regularly in order to to develop your macro skills. 3 GIVE VIDEO A GO Oliver usually sets up a second camera to record snippets of video to capture the insect’s behaviour – these can also help him to visualise and plan for still images. 4 RESPECT NATURE Move slowly, and avoid creating loud noises that might scare your subject. Don’t disturb a subject’s habitat, and aim to leave a location cleaner than when you arrived. 5 BE PATIENT Oliver will often spend some time searching to find an insect that’s in an ideal position…

The winners of International Wedding Photographer of the Year 2021 have been announced, with a selection of captivating images ranging from the informal and spontaneous to elaborately staged set pieces. Fabio Mirulla from Italy took the title of Grand Winner for his quirky and cleverly composed shot of a bride having her hair fixed (above, top-left). Mirulla, who has a studio in Tuscany and describes himself as “storyteller of the wedding day”, says: “I love shooting creative photos with everyday-life objects that can turn out to be the best props just looking at them with different eyes.” Mirulla also took first place in the Black & White category, while prizes were also awarded in categories including Bridal Party, Dance Floor and Epic Location. Click the link to see all the…

1 RETOUCH THE SKIN Hard-light portraits tend to require more retouching, because the hard light can show pimples and rough patches of skin. Open your image in Photoshop and add a new layer, then take the Spot Healing Brush Tool, set it to ‘Sample All Layers’ and paint to remove small blemishes, tapping the] and [keys to resize your brush. 2 REDUCE HOTSPOTS Direct sunlight can create oily-looking hotspots on skin. Add a new layer, take the Brush Tool, hold down Alt/Option and sample a nearby skin colour. Hit 3 for 30% brush opacity, and paint over the hotspot. Try reducing the layer opacity slightly, set the blending mode to Darken, and add a touch of noise with Filter > Noise > Add Noise. 3 MONO CONVERSION Portraits in sunny conditions tend…

Zhong Yi Optics has launched the Mitakon Speedmaster 90mm f/1.5 lens for full-frame cameras, marketing it as a budget alternative to the impressive Leica Summilux-M – which costs over $13,000. This super-fast, wide-aperture lens will come in Leica M, Canon RF, Sony FE and Nikon Z mounts, and promises to produce distortion-free images with minimal aberrations. It’s the latest in the brand’s line of ultra-fast primes, which includes the Mitakon Speedmaster 50mm f/0.95 that’s a favorite of ours. Made up of nine elements in six groups, the Mitakon 90mm f/1.5 delivers – according to Zhong Yi – a flawless focus drop-off, with out-of-focus areas appearing silky smooth while in-focus areas are pin-sharp. It has a nine-bladed iris design to capture rounded bokeh, which is especially desirable at this time of…

BANDED DANDED DEMOISELLE The sun was rising behind some foliage, which softened the sun and allowed me to capture one of my favourite insects with the sun rising behind it. DEWY DAMSELFLY This was a stacked shot taken during the heaviest dew I’ve seen this year. I love how the compound nature of the eye is magnified in the drops, and also how the grass background is refracted. AMETHYST DECEIVER FUNGI I like this image as an example of why macro can be worked on all year. Here, I gently illuminated the mushroom with a small LED panel to make it pop against the forest floor.…

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1 HOUR One of the rules for portrait photography is that you shouldn’t shoot people in direct sunlight. Without clouds to diffuse it, the light from the sun is very hard-edged, and we’re likely to get strong, unsightly shadows over the face, squinting subjects and greasy hot spots on the skin. The light is often at its most challenging around midday, and, as such, many photographers will put their camera away, wait for cloud cover, or come back at the magic hour. However, the sun can be a wonderful light source if we know how to work the angles and manipulate light. The main challenge with direct sunlight is the strong contrast it creates. The difference between the brightest and darkest part of the subject is so great that the…

www.ukdigital.co.uk £899/$899 Laowa’s 35mm f/0.95 is the fastest-available 35mm lens for full-frame cameras. It’s not the cheapest or the lightest lens on the market, but it certainly produces images you’ll want to share; and while it might not have autofocus, its slick design and smooth focusing could make you fall in love with manual focus again. The selling point of this lens is its incredibly wide f/0.95 aperture, which creates images in which the out-of-focus areas are beautifully smooth and the in-focus areas are pin-sharp. The lens doesn’t have any electronics, so you can’t change aperture settings using the camera; instead, there’s an aperture wheel on the lens that enables you to manually select the aperture. The focus ring rotates almost three-quarters of the way around the lens, which makes…

THE PRO OLIVER WRIGHT CAMERA: CANON EOS R5 Based in Leeds, UK Oliver has embraced Canon’s latest mirrorless full-frame cameras, and shoots macro imagery of wildlife, plants and flowers with his EOS R5. A climbing accident back in 2010 was the catalyst for Oliver getting serious about his passion for photography, in particular wildlife. Eleven years later, Oliver runs events with Canon and promotional videos. He’s had multiple highly commended images in the British Wildlife Photography Awards. You can see Oliver’s work at: https://bit.ly/30Kdrh9 THE APPRENTICE MATTHEW FARRUGIA CAMERA: CANON EOS R6 Matthew is a student dispensing optician, and he loves to get out and about with his newly acquired Canon EOS R6 full-frame mirrorless camera. He’s an amateur wildlife photographer, and would love to have the confidence to shoot…

1 SUPER MACRO LENS To get super-close to his subjects, Oliver uses the Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens. Most ‘true’ macro lenses have a reproduction ratio of 1:1, which means the subject will be rendered at life-size; in other words, the same size as if you laid it across the camera’s sensor. The MP-E 65mm starts at 1:1, but can go to five times this magnification, making it possible to achieve frame-filling shots of incredibly small subjects. However, it does become more difficult to use at these incredibly high magnifications. 2 FOCUS RAIL Depth of field is incredibly shallow when you’re shooting at high magnifications, even when using high apertures, such as f/22. To achieve macro subjects that are sharp throughout, Oliver uses a Novoflex Castel-L focusing rail,…

MINKS PURR WHEN THEY ARE CONTENT! AMANDA COLLINS EADE “This beautiful and very engaged American Mink is called Malfoy, and he’s a resident of the British Wildlife Centre in Surrey. While technically not British wildlife, he was taken in as a rescue – he was due to be put to sleep, despite being healthy, but luckily the BWC had space for him.” https://bit.ly/3GFb2Eh THE WATKIN PATH JEFF GUILE “The Watkin Path is one of several routes to the summit of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), the highest mountain in Wales, and starts in Beddgelert; this bridge is about an hour into the walk. I just felt that these leading lines were shouting out to be photographed, while the distant figure added some perspective.” \ https://bit.ly/3ceHHTi BETWEEN FOG AND NOTHING DMITRY YEVDOKIMOV “This…

1 FLASH WITH SUN Some might think of flash as a tool to use for extra light in dim conditions, but bright sunlight is actually one of the best times to bring out your flash. The flash gives us lots of creative options, as we can either use it to create dynamic cross-lighting like this, or gently fill in the shadows for a more natural look. 2 CROSS LIGHTING The key to shooting portraits in sunlight is to reduce the contrast over the subject, and the flash lets us do this by filling in the shadows. Our subject has her back to the sun, so it creates bold highlights along the edge of her figure. Positioned opposite, the flash lifts the shadows on the face and body. 3 EXPOSE FOR THE SUN The…

Whether you’re a seasoned retoucher or a Photoshop newbie, one of the biggest challenges of image-editing is in settling on the right strength for a tonal change. Often this can be a bit of a juggling act: after making one edit you may want to go back and fine-tune the one before, so that they work together in harmony. This is why the editing tools in Camera Raw and Lightroom are so useful. Every edit is non-destructive, so you have the freedom to go back and alter a setting or tweak a tonal change whenever you choose. Not only does this give you a safety net to backtrack your edits, it also allows gives you the creative freedom to try out different treatments and effects. This sort of control is…

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