Innehållsförteckning för No. 593 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…

Painting with light is one of the more specialised fields of photography, and there’s lots of niche equipment available to solve the particular challenges it poses, some of which can be rather pricey. The good news is that the essential kit you’ll need to get started with light-painting is fairly basic stuff that you probably have to hand already, such as an interchangable lens camera, a wide-angle lens, a basic flashgun, and a few different torches, string lights and coloured gels. Once you’ve got the hang of light painting you can then look to upgrade your kit, slowly building it up over time as and when it’s convenient for you. This spreads the cost, and you’ll be able to work out from experience which upgrade items will most benefit your…

When you hear the word flash, it’s easy to think of a bright burst of light from a studio strobe or flashgun that covers the whole scene. While you can use a flashgun to broadly illuminate large swathes of your landscape and urban night scenes, there are times when you might prefer some more control. By getting a little creative, you can create a custom flash stencil from an old shoebox. Draw and cut out the shape you want your stencil to take on; simple shapes such as butterflies and flowers work well. It’s then just a case of running a long exposure on your camera, and manually firing your flash stencil at various points throughout the scene to stamp colourful patterns around your photo. PRO SHOT BUILD IT UP…

Creating mysterious light domes is a brilliant light-painting technique that you can to add to your repertoire. These odd geometric half-spheres are a great way to bring your low-light scenes to life, adding a vibrant focal point (or points) if your scene is lacking one. To do this, attach a series of string lights to a bicycle wheel, add an axle to it, and pivot the whole wheel around the axle during a long exposure. The technique works best with an old bicycle wheel, so you don’t have to remove the lights when you next need to use your bike! You can leave your new light-painting tool all set up for the next time you’d like to add some light domes to your low-light scenes. A number of photographers offer…

WORLDWIDE 1 ICELAND This a northern lights hotspot within the Arctic Circle, making it ideal for viewing the aurora, even during relatively weak substorms. There are countless popular photography locations around the country. 2 UNITED STATES The Arches National Park in Utah makes for some visually stunning astrophotography compositions. The Cove of Caves is the park’s most famous landmark, providing the perfect frame for the night skies. 3 CANADA Churchill and Yellowknife are two of the best places in Canada to see the Northern Lights. In the northwest territories, you can capture spectacular shots of the lights against the frozen tundra covering the landscape. 4 NEW ZEALAND & AUSTRALIA The southern lights, or aurora australis, can be captured in the southern hemisphere when strong substorms hit the South Pole. The…

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AstrHori has launched a new macro lens, further bolstering its range of interesting and unusual macro lenses. The new arrival, the AstrHori 25mm F2.8 2-5X Ultra Macro Lens, is another ultra-macro offering, suitable for full-frame and APS-C cameras, but this time with an unusually wide 25mm focal length. The new lens, which is available in a range of mounts, joins existing AstrHori optical oddities like the 28mm F13 2X Macro Periprobe probe lens. The manufacturer’s latest 25mm offering has a 2x-5x magnification range, and can focus down to 113mm with 2x magnification, or 186.4mm at full 5x magnification. The lens has been designed with a slim form factor, and is relatively lightweight – the Sony E-mount version, for example, weighs 474g. It measures 102mm long at its minimum 2x magnification…

CREATIVE CAMERA from £300/$350 Even basic interchangable-lens cameras are great for light painting, as they have full manual controls, with budget options including the Canon EOS 2000D and Nikon’s D3500. It could also be worth considering an Olympus OM-D or PEN mirrorless camera, which have a Live Composite feature that lets you see your light painting being built up in real time. BUDGET FLASHGUN From £120/$120 A flashgun is important for all sorts of photographic scenarios, and should definitely be something to add to your kit bag. They’re great for illuminating large swathes of your landscape scenes at night. We like to set our flash to Manual mode with a low power value, then use the Test button to manually fire it off-camera and add a few blips of flash…

1 USE A TRIPOD To get started, you’ll need a model or a friend to pose for a few photos. Have them sit down: you’ll need them to keep as still as possible during your long exposure as you paint with the fibre-optics to brush over their face. Set up on a tripod and compose your scene. Autofocus on the eye that’s closer to the camera, and switch to manual focus to lock off the focus. 2 SETTINGS Use Manual mode and begin with a shutter speed of 6 secs, an aperture of f/14 and an ISO of 100. You’ll also want to shoot raw files for more detail, and set the self-timer mode to give yourself enough time to get into position. Take a test shot, and inspect it…

1 USE A TRIPOD As you’ll be using a long exposure to give yourself enough time to move around the scene and firing your flash stencil, you’ll need to set up on a tripod so that your camera is still during the long exposure time. A tripod also helps all of your frames line up correctly, if you decide to blend several of the exposures together to build up the exposure. 2 LOCK THE FOCUS Shine a bright light on the part of the scene that you’d like to be the focal point – this will give your camera enough light to be able to autofocus on it. If in doubt, focus about a third of the way into the scene for decent sharpness throughout. Next, switch to manual focus…

1 ADD STRING LIGHTS TO A BIKE WHEEL Find or buy an old bicycle wheel – we found a cheap used 26-inch wheel on eBay. Add your string lights to the rim, using cable ties or electrical tape to secure the lights at regular intervals. Attach the battery pack to the wheel spokes. 2 ATTACH YOUR AXLE You need to attach a pipe to the central hub of the wheel, to act as an axle. The pipe needs to be the same length as the radius of the wheel – 13 inches on ours. You may need to use some adhesive, but ours held snugly with a push fit. 3 START SPINNING! With your camera on a tripod, get into position. While the exposure is running, turn on the lights…

LOW-LIGHT CAMERA To prepare for the Northern Lights being visible further south in the UK and other countries this year, you should ideally get a low-light camera – I use a Sony A7S II. However, while a low-light camera is preferable, it isn’t essential. Any decent camera will capture detail in the aurora arc and curtains. SIGMA 14MM ART F/1.4 LENS Of course, we’ll be shooting the aurora in the dark, so we need a lens that allows as much light as possible to enter. My go-to optic is the Sigma 14mm Art F/1.4. It’s great to shoot with, has a wide field of view, and allows more light in, so you get greater detail in the aurora. ‘AURORA’ APP Apps such as Aurora can help you predict when the…

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Just because the sun has set for the day, that doesn’t mean your photographic fun has to stop. In fact, one of my favourite times to take photos is after dark, using basic camera kit and a variety of accessories that can be sourced for a minimal outlay. In this feature, I’ll go over some of the essential kit that allows you to add your own lighting to scenes after dark – torches, LEDs, fibre-optic lights and flashguns. Then I’ll run you through some of my top creative light-painting techniques that will help to make your night-time outdoor shots really stand out. And, to round things off, I’ll show you how to shoot the amazing spectacle that is the Northern Lights.…

1 FIBRE OPTIC TOY One of the most budget-friendly ways to paint with fibre-optic lights is using a toy like the one pictured – they’re usually full of colour for vibrant portraits. 2 WHITE FIBRE-OPTIC This accessory fits on top of a torch and fires white light through the fibres. Gels could also be added to the torch to change the colour of the light. 3 BLACK FIBRE-OPTIC This is illuminated only at the very ends, so you have more control over where your light will appear as you brush over your model’s face.…

Light wands are a brilliant way of painting with light that looks completely different. While we used a collapsible sword from Light Painting Brushes for our photo shoot, you could also use an LED ICE light, or even a toy lightsabre if you have one to hand. Get creative with how you swing it through the frame to add interest and flair to your night-time portraits. A tripod is once again vital for this technique, with a long exposure providing enough time to record the trail of light as the wand is swung through the frame. However, you don’t want to push the exposure time too far, or you’ll start to record movement in the model; a shutter speed of one to three seconds will work well. We’ll also show…

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 Winter Wonders challenge – every day. Challenge winners receive prizes from GuruShots’ sponsors, including Lowepro, Kodak and Lensbaby. https://bit.ly/3HrvnyJ https://bit.ly/3HrvnyJ https://bit.ly/3HrvnyJ https://bit.ly/3HrvnyJ…

I shot this minimalist seascape at Southbourne Beach in Dorset in southern England on a cold winter’s afternoon, just before sunset. The overcast sky matched the sea pretty well, so the conditions were ripe for a simple, minimalist composition. I used a long exposure to smooth out the clouds and sea, to further blend them together, while adding a little motion into the photo. CAMERA Nikon D750 LENS 24-120mm f/4 EXPOSURE 123 secs, f/5.6, ISO100 1 PLAY THE FRAME GAME Composition is one of the most important factors when capturing a photograph. Even with an interesting subject, a poor composition can lead to a weak image. Minimalism is often about creating space, so I chose to place the horizon on the lower third of the image to frame more of…

www.nikon.co.uk £4,999/$4,797 The Nikkor Z 600mm f/6.3 VR S follows in the footsteps of a couple of impressive Nikon super-telephoto lenses. It has the same kind of design as the Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S, based on the use of a Phase Fresnel element in the optical path, which is used in lighthouse beams and theatrical stage lights to enable a smaller, more lightweight design. The Z 600mm is smaller and lighter than the Z 800mm, weighing 1.47g, compared with 2.38g. It has a regular 95mm filter attachment thread at the front, whereas the Z 800mm takes 46mm drop-in filters at the rear. A more recent comparable lens is the Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR, which has the advantage of zoom versatility, although it’s not a top-flight S-line lens and…