Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2016 i Australian Photography

‘Step out’ “The morning began with the entire valley a dense sea of fog,” says Patino. “Soon though, the wind changed direction and in less than a minute the entire valley was cleared, revealing the beautiful calm reflections of Dove Lake and the iconic peak of Cradle Mountain. My friend Zach helped give some scale as he takes in what would have to be one of Australia’s finest views.” Sony A7RII, Sony 16-35mm f/4 lens, 1/125s @ f11, ISO 200, handheld “Photography first came into my life in 2012,” says Will Patino, freshly back from a landscape photography tour to Canada, fitting in a quick interview with Australian Photography before he jets off again to New Zealand. “After a skateboarding trip I wanted to look at some of my mates…

A good portrait does not look staged, even though it really is. Expressions need to be genuine – not necessarily smiling, but relaxed and accepting of the person with the camera standing right in front of them. I like the type of shot where the subject has a steady gaze directly to the camera, with maybe a hint of a smile, or just a slight twinkle in the eye. We are unbelievably sensitive to the subtlest shift in expression; a smile involves at least 10 muscles but if it doesn’t extend to the eyes then we can pick it immediately as a fake smile. Facial expressions are a big part of how we communicate and over the whole evolution of human beings we have become highly attuned to tiny shifts…

Like silk PHOTOGRAPHER: Mieke Boynton Taking still photographs from a moving vehicle isn’t easy. Although this photo conveys feelings of peace and tranquillity, the experience of photographing aerials from a helicopter is quite the opposite. The noise is deafening, and the wind whips your hair into your face, threatens to wrench your camera from out of your hands, and makes your eyes stream water. And occasionally, there are the moments where you end up with your stomach in your mouth because the pilot took a turn a little more quickly than you’d expected. There are also the tricky technical elements: the constantly changing distance from the ground and the shifting direction of the light mean that fast shutter-speeds and an awareness of your camera settings are an absolute must. But…

Two camel men and their camels sitting around a fire to keep warm in Pushkar Desert, Rajasthan, India. These were some of the friendliest people I met in India, allowing me to sit with them and share some traditional Indian cigars and shoot their portrait. By communicating what I wanted they trusted me, which helped get the shot I envisioned. Canon 6D, Sigma 35mm f/1.4 lens, 1/160s @ f1.4, ISO 1600, handheld. Colour balance, curves and levels adjustment, noise reduction, and sharpening in Photoshop. We’ve probably all heard the saying, but what does it mean? Basically ‘take only photos, leave nothing but footprints’ means to make as little impact on an environment as possible. As a travel photographer I’m always doing my best to work with humility, respect and a…

At the opening of his exhibition of abstract architectural images at this year’s Head On Photo Festival in Sydney, Douwe Dijkstra is explaining to the audience how he creates his shots. He shows how he first selects an image with clear and contrasting outlines and shapes, crops it into a square, flips it vertically, and then flips the resulting two images to create the final single image. “Black and white,” he says, “removes any distraction from seeing underlying features.” “I convert the image to black and white in PS Express, a Photoshop iPhone app. I do a quick crop. I then choose my favourite Instagram filter. Finally I post on Instagram, and that’s it.” It's miles away from how many of us choose to take and edit our shots, but…

Fujifilm goes large with medium-format, mirrorless GFX Fujifilm has released details of its new medium-format mirrorless digital camera system, GFX. Set to be released in early 2017, the system’s debut camera will be the GFX 50S, which houses a 43.8 x 32.9mm sensor that outputs a huge 51.54 megapixels. The camera is claimed to be lighter and more compact than other medium-format digital SLRs. In a first, a detachable electronic viewfinder that connects to the hotshoe can be removed when using an external monitor. In addition, an optional adapter makes it possible to fit the EVF at any angle for greater choice of shooting angle. The GFX 50S supports tethered shooting and will be compatible with various RAW conversion application software. Complementing the release of the GFX will be six…

Pick up a camera for the first time and chances are the first bit of advice you’ll receive is to take photographs with the sun coming over your shoulder. Nothing wrong with that – except in a world flooded with conventional, front-lit images of animals and birds it’s probably also the worst piece of advice to cling on to, particularly if you’re keen to take your wildlife photography to the next level. If you want your pictures to beat the crowd it pays to be a bit contrary. Capturing images in the time-honoured way is perfectly okay, but our eyes have got so accustomed to viewing front-lit wildlife images it’s much harder to make them stand out. Which is why we’re encouraging you to pivot from your traditional shooting position,…

Storage specialists QNAP recently released their latest trio of NAS/DAS (Network Attached Storage/ Direct Attached Storage) machines, the fetchingly titled TVS-x82T series. What makes all these units special is not only do they offer the best of QNAP’s modern day multimedia NAS, but they are also designed to work at much faster speeds as a DAS device, via Thunderbolt 2. I’ve recently been testing out the smallest of the series, the QNAP TVS-682T. But don’t let its size fool you - this unit is packed with features and functions for it’s $2,679 starting pricetag. As expected, you can do all the access, backing up, streaming, and archiving of your files normally via the more traditional network connections, but the system also gives you the flexibility to work on more demanding…