Innehållsförteckning för No. 582 från Photography Week

Welcome to the world’s No.1 weekly digital photography magazine. If you’re already a reader, thanks for your continued support and involvement; if you’re new to Photography Week, you’ve come to the right place! In addition to expert advice, brilliant tips and step-by-step tutorials, every issue features interactive galleries of brilliant photos, how-to videos on essential shooting and editing techniques, and in-depth reviews of the latest camera kit. But that’s not the whole story. Photography Week is more than a magazine – it’s a community of like-minded people who are passionate about photography. To get involved, just follow any of the links below and share your shots and comments. JOIN THE PHOTOGRAPHY WEEK COMMUNITY AND START SHARING! FACEBOOK http://bit.ly/39py9lg TWITTER http://bit.ly/2vGadLP FLICKR http://bit.ly/2VIgsJO We’re more than just a magazine – read…

Composition is one of the most important elements in all types of photography. When it comes to landscapes, where scenes are often deep and include various elements at different points within the environment, composition is an essential tool for cutting out the visual noise, creating an image that’s pleasing to look at, and helping to guide the viewer’s eye through the scene. The rule-of-thirds, lead-in lines, foreground interest, framing, and diagonal lines are all simple yet highly effective compositional devices that work perfectly in the majority of situations. But knowing which techniques to use, in which combination, and when to completely disregard the rule-of-thirds and instead work directly with the scene in front of you, are all invaluable skills to learn and implement. 1 CENTRAL COMPOSITION (ABOVE) The rules of…

1 SET UP YOUR CAMERA Manually focus, compose your shot, and attach a polariser and ND grad if you need these to maintain detail in some parts of the scene. Set the camera to aperture priority at around f/11, ISO100, and apply exposure compensation if required before taking a shot and making a mental note of the shutter speed. 2 ATTACH AN ND FILTER Remove any ND grads you attached to your filter holder in the previous step to allow for your ND filter to be placed in the filter slot closest to the lens. Use Live View to reposition the ND grad, so the graduation is at the correct level once the filter has been attached in the middle/second slot in the holder. 3 CALCULATE EXPOSURE Set the camera to…

1 SHARP FOREGROUND With the focus on the rock in the foreground when the aperture is set to f/1.8, the rest of the scene has fallen pleasantly out of focus. Despite the fall-off in sharpness, the context has been maintained, with the tree in the background remaining recognisable. For this type of focus, the subject in the foreground needs to be as interesting as possible for the shot to be successful. 2 SHARP BACKGROUND Focusing on an element in the background – ideally, a focal point such as the tree here – leaves the foreground out of focus while the main subject maintains the viewer’s attention. The advantage of this type of focusing, along with adding an increased sense of depth, is that it can be used to blur out…

GuruShots is billed as the world’s leading photo game. It’s an online photography platform conceived to give global exposure to people who love taking photographs. GuruShots members start out as Newbies and compete with other photographers to win challenges, increase their ranking on the site and eventually progress to coveted ‘Guru’ status. Challenges are voted on by Gurus and the wider GuruShots community, and there’s a fresh competition brief – such as this Street Photography challenge – every day. Challenge winners receive prizes from GuruShots’ sponsors, including Lowepro, Kodak and Lensbaby. https://bit.ly/3QjLAKb https://bit.ly/3QjLAKb https://bit.ly/3QjLAKb https://bit.ly/3QjLAKb…

1 CAMERA Our camera is set to Bulb exposure with an aperture of f/11 and ISO of 800. Just as if you were shooting in daytime, a fairly narrow aperture like this ensures enough depth of field in the landscape so that the foreground, trees and distant sky all look decently in-focus. 2 REMOTE RELEASE It helps to have a wireless shutter release, so that you can set the camera up on a tripod and then trigger the shutter once you’re in position with your torch. We used a Hähnel remote, which allows us to press and hold the remote to begin the two-minute Bulb exposure, then press again to finish it. 3 TRIPOD Our exposure times will run into minutes here, and the camera needs to stay still throughout, so a tripod…

There are two main ways of painting with light. We can shine a torch onto objects and surfaces in a scene and capture the reflected light, as we did with our landscape, or we can purposefully display the light source to the camera and move it around to create patterns or words of light, as in these images. If you opt for the latter technique, there are all kinds of light sticks and colourful tools on the market that can add to the effect (although a torch on a stick can work just as well). If you prefer painting features in a landscape then the type of light you use is still important. As well as adding gels to the light source, you’ll also see different results depending on the…

N-PHOTO N-Photo is a monthly magazine for Nikon photographers, and is packed with technique and Photoshop video lessons every month. http://bit.ly/3atHLfO https://apple.co/2TNE26T PHOTOPLUS PhotoPlus is a monthly magazine for Canon photographers that features expert advice, tips and video tutorials on all things Canon. http://bit.ly/30FoOlQ https://apple.co/2vaIdzw DIGITAL CAMERA WORLD A monthly magazine that aims to improve your photography with an inspirational mix of amazing images and how-to articles. http://bit.ly/2RER7g6 https://apple.co/2RBrZqG  DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHER The monthly kitbag essential for enthusiast and pro photographers, packed with tutorials, exclusive interviews and the latest reviews. https://bit.ly/3lH4ucX https://apple.co/2SJf6ff…

Sony has announced its new full-frame mirrorless camera for sports and action photographers, the A9 III – and it’s a game changer for the camera industry. The A9 III is the first full-frame camera to feature a global shutter, enabling a top shutter speed of 1/80,000 sec with no limits on flash sync speed, and burst shooting at 120 raw frames per second, with no blackout. The global shutter design – which means all of the sensor’s pixels are read simultaneously – will also ensure that video is completely distortion free, with no rolling shutter effect in footage, and also means distortion-free images when panning or capturing fast movement. Those incredible burst sequences are only possible for a length of 1.6 seconds, but do include continuous 759-point autofocus – utilising…

We’re all guilty of it, even when we know better… we arrive at a location, extend our tripod legs to their full extensions, and start shooting from that height – it’s an easy trap to fall into. Whenever you arrive at a location, whether it’s your first visit or a place you know well, it’s always advisable to work the scene, moving around quickly with your camera handheld to find the best viewpoints, angles and compositions before even thinking about setting up your tripod. You can then make a mental list of all the shots you’d like to take, including the most logical order in which to take them as the sun rises or sets to give yourself the best possible chance of success. And that’s not all; restricting yourself…

1 PROCESS & ALIGN Process your raw files in Lightroom, then open both as layers in Photoshop. Make sure both layers are selected, go to Edit > Auto-Align Layers, set the Projection to Auto and click OK. The two images will be aligned, but you may need to crop out empty space around the edges if the alignment isn’t perfect. 2 SELECT & MASK Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to make a selection of the sky, then go to Select > Modify > Feather and set the Feather Radius to 5-10 pixels before clicking OK. Next, click on the Add a Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to reveal the long-exposure Layer below in the unselected area. 3 REFINE MASKING Now you can simply keep the sky…

Thanks to ongoing advancements in camera technology, including improvements to dynamic range (the range of light to dark tones that can be captured by a camera’s sensor), image stabilisation, and high ISO handling, it’s now possible to capture high-quality raw files with a good range of highlight and shadow detail when shooting handheld, even without the use of filters. Of course, using a tripod and filters still tends to produce the highest-quality raw files for you to work with, but the ability to push settings to enable you to work faster and more freely, and allow you to capture a landscape when you only have your camera with you, is a game changer. 1 TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IS Image stabilisation, whether optical or in-body, allows you to shoot handheld at…

The German Society for Nature Photography (GDT) has announced the winning and commended images in this year’s European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. Spanish Photographer Javier Aznar González de Rueda took first prize for his image Maternal Care, which captures the intricate behavior of a brood stink bug in Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park. For two weeks, Javiar carefully observed a female stink bug guarding its eggs and newly hatched larvae, revealing its remarkable maternal instincts. The contest showcases the work of some of Europe’s best wildlife photographers, with prizes awarded in categories including Birds, Mammals, and Landscapes. While the contest is a celebration of wildlife and wildlife photography, it also promote awareness of conservation issues. Click the link to see all this year’s winning and commended images at the…

Long exposures at night If possible, turn up at twilight and compose the shot in the fading light. We used a wide-angle lens and low angle to frame the trees against the orange glow in the sky. After focusing, switch to manual focus to lock the focus and prevent the AF from ‘hunting’. Get it just right In Bulb mode the camera shutter stays open for as long as the button is engaged. Begin by setting Bulb mode with aperture of f/11 and ISO800, then shoot a test exposure of around two minutes. Check the results, and if necessary adjust the aperture or ISO.…

Of all the tonal adjustment tools available to you in Photoshop, Curves is without doubt the most powerful – it can do the jobs of most of the other tone-tweaking tools, plus some things they can’t do: it can lighten or darken tones, alter colours, boost contrast, correct colour casts and more – Curves might just be the ultimate image-editing tool. Unfortunately for some, there’s another curve that gets in the way: the steep learning curve. Curves can be difficult to grasp for the uninitiated, and you might even be tempted to disregard the tool and return to the simpler sliders and settings on offer elsewhere. But anyone who spends a little time experimenting with Curves will be rewarded with a responsive, highly versatile tool that offers a degree of…

Variety is the spice of life and, even if you only shoot one or two genres, there’s always something new to learn – whether that’s a new technique or a slightly different approach to a familiar subject. So with this in mind, we’re going to explore some of the alternative ways you can shoot landscape photography, and capture the world around you in new and visually exciting ways. Some of the techniques we’ll explore on the following pages are close to standard landscape shooting techniques, but with an added twist that could revitalise your approach to this genre of photography, while others will introduce you to often-surprising new ways of capturing the landscape to produce incredibly interesting and unique images you may never have thought possible.…

Even when what you’re thinking about shooting breaks all the conventions of photography, go with the flow and give it a try, because taking risks can reap rewards. The fairly recent arrival of extreme ND filters, such as Little Stoppers (6 stops), Big Stoppers (10 stops) and Extreme Stoppers (15 stops), makes it possible for photographers to greatly extend exposure times to capture movement in landscapes and cityscapes. Combining, in editing, these ultra-long exposures with standard exposures creates surreal images that take elements of longer and shorter exposures to present the scene in a completely new and surprising way. TAKE IT FURTHER EXTREME NDS You can shoot images for this technique using a standard 3-stop ND filter, but it’s the higher density 6-stop, 10-stop and 15-stop versions that will provide…

Landscape photography is traditionally captured with a combination of a narrow aperture alongside ‘correct’ focusing to maximise depth of field. At a basic level, the optimum point of focus is around one-third of the distance into the scene beyond the foreground interest that needs to be in sharp focus. In more extreme situations, where the foreground interest is close to the lens but the background is far in the distance, focus stacking is the only way to ensure sharpness throughout the scene. While this is the best approach in most situations, another method that also works well is to shoot at a wide aperture to minimise the depth of field and take advantage of differential focus. Here, you focus on the foreground to render the background out of focus, on…

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1 HOUR We often think of cameras as tools for recording the world as we see it, but they’re also capable of capturing far more than the eye can perceive. Light painting is a case in point. To the eye, a dark night is just that, but if we stick the camera on a tripod, open the shutter for a couple of minutes and wave a torch around, then all of a sudden our camera starts to see things differently. To the camera’s sensor, light is cumulative, so when there’s minimal ambient light we’re able to build up our own light gradually, in exactly the places where we want it – a single torch beam can light an entire scene, and even an expansive landscape. With torch in hand, we’re…

1 COMBINE SHOTS Open the images in Photoshop, then copy one onto another and experiment with blending modes – the Lighten and Screen blend modes are particularly suited to this kind of project. Alternatively, add a layer mask and paint black to hide or white to reveal the best parts of each frame. 2 TWEAK WHITE BALANCE Don’t rely on auto white balance, as it can be fooled by the dim light. Shoot in raw, and set the white balance in Camera Raw/Lightroom after the fact. If you like you can make creative white balance tweaks by shifting the Temperature and Tint sliders one way or the other. 3 DODGE AND BURN Selective lightening and darkening can help to emphasise areas or tone down bright details – useful here, as it can…

www.sigmauk.com £1,399/$1,599 Producing the 14mm F1.4 DG DN Art was a bold move on Sigma’s part. It already has a very good 14mm F1.8 DG HSM Art lens on the market, which was originally designed for Canon and Nikon DSLRs and was subsequently repurposed for Sony and L-mount mirrorless cameras. And if you’re in the Sony camp, you also have the option of using the excellent Sony FE 14mm F1.8 G Master lens. The Sigma focuses primarily on astrophotography, where the brighter f/1.4 aperture pays dividends. Even so, it’s designed to be a high-performance, ultra-wide-angle lens that’s suitable for any scenario from landscapes and cityscapes to architectural interiors and weddings, and any other situations where you need an expansive field of view. Surprisingly, the Sigma pretty much matches the two…