Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2022 i Digital Camera Magazine

How much do you like photo editing? If “not that much” is the answer then this month’s feature (page 40) is a must-read. Learn how to get things right when firing the shutter to free up more time for shooting instead of being crouched over a computer. If you need some inspiration, then Photo Active (p8) offers 10 all-new projects, while the tutorials in Camera College (p50) will get you out and about capturing cities and towns. A town looms large in this month’s interview (p118), as Craig Easton discusses his award-winning ‘Bank Top’ project, while Hotshots (p32) showcases the world’s best landscape photos. Also this issue, discover what NFTs mean for photography (p60) and go behind the scenes of a lavish portraits shoot (p84). May’s Kit Zone reviews include…

62 MINUTES OF VIDEO LIGHTROOM Change your background colours Download 62 minutes of video training for Photoshop, Lightroom and Affinity Photo. FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc255 PHOTOSHOP Dive into detail PHOTOSHOP/LIGHTROOM Monochrome tools and settings AFFINITY Make architectural abstracts PHOTOSHOP Stunning digital abstract figures PHOTOSHOP Hand tint with Colorize PHOTOSHOP Metering and exposure PHOTOSHOP/LIGHTROOM The power of colour mixing…

To me, household surrealism is about finding magic in the mundane, seeing beauty in imperfections and connecting to our reality in a new way. I love noticing playful similarities, be it a sweater on a clothing line looking like a horse, or a slice of bread resembling a dog’s head. It’s only the starting point, though. From this moment, the stories and visuals start buzzing in my head: what will this horse look like? What’s her name and character? Does she like racing? The list goes on! I hope my art will help people connect with their inner child and rediscover the joy of savouring visual delights inside and outside their homes. www.helgastentzel.com A creative eye Try to remember how your imagination was working overtime as a child. This will…

1 Get to know your subject There is nothing more important with wildlife photography than really getting to know your subject. Understanding its behaviour and habitat will reward you with some great images. You’ll have a far better understanding of their movement and will be able to predict your shots before they happen, allowing you to get set up. 2 Unconventional shutter speeds Once you’ve bagged a few great shots, change your settings and experiment with different apertures and shutter speeds. Here, I shot slightly slower (1/15 sec) to capture some motion blur as the pelicans flapped their large wings. Remember to stop down (f/18) and lower your ISO (L50) to avoid over-exposing your shot. 3 Get down to eye-level Portrait images of animals are lovely to look at but…

1 Use the environment The landscape is larger than the train. Knowing how large a locomotive is up close, this gives a real sense of grand scale to your images. Shot at 1/1600 sec at f/5, ISO 200. 2 Creating your composition Think of the path the train tracks will take upon approach, then position yourself accordingly. Here, I’ve used the curve of the track to lead the viewer into the shot and negative space for more impact. 3 Find natural frames The tree forms a great frame to surround the train as it powers through the shot. You can also use hedgerows, fences and even architecture. Just be careful not to overpower the main subject. 4 Zoom in for impact Using a telephoto lens to compact the image and…

3rd Individual Image Award ‘Reflector’ Ben Goode “Captured at Lake Bonney in South Australia. The challenge for me was to find the right combination of trees before the conditions changed. I walked hundreds of metres around the shoreline not finding a composition I was happy with, before I found this cluster of trees.” Winner, Individual Image Award ‘Comet Neo Wise Setting’ Tamnay Sapkal “The winning photograph was taken on Mount Tamalpais, located just north of San Francisco in Marin County. It is a special place for photographers, as it stands above the local landscape, which is engulfed in low coastal fog almost every summer evening. After shooting there on a number of occasions over the last four years, I realised that I really liked the way fog looks when it…

Getting your shot precisely in focus on the desired area is one of the fundamentals of good photography. The autofocus systems on modern DSLRs and mirrorless cameras are excellent, but they still need help to control where and how they choose focus. Without this, it’s easy to focus in the wrong place. Accurate focusing is one of the best reasons to get away from shooting in full Auto mode. Leave it to your camera to automatically make this decision and the chances are it won’t get it right. It’ll base its decision on what’s nearest and what has the most amount of contrast. But there’s a strong chance that this isn’t where you want your focus to be, and you can’t change the focus point after you’ve taken your shot.…

The light you capture on your sensor is always fleeting, but in some situations it’s more fleeting than others! With a landscape or a static portrait, for example, you may have a relatively relaxed window of opportunity to catch the moment. This might be only a few seconds when the sun breaks through the clouds, but anyone can push a shutter button if they have enough time to react. When it comes to much faster action – whether it’s sport or wildlife – that reaction time often needs to be much quicker! You may have just a millisecond to get the shot so there are ways you can use the technology built into your camera to help you grab that perfect moment. When faced with a fast-moving subject, make sure…

Easy HDR Your camera may have an automatic HDR option under its scene modes, which allows you to choose the final look – subtle or extreme – but gives you little control over the end result. It will also only save the end result to the memory card. Advanced HDR Higher-end cameras are often equipped with an HDR option that can be activated when shooting with an advanced mode, such as Aperture Priority. This takes three shots: one at a standard exposure, and one each for the shadows and highlights. Useful options As well as being able to set the exposure difference between each shot (very bright scenes will need more adjustment), you may be able to choose the effect, whether the shots are aligned (and potentially cropped) and even…

Using an image-stabilised lens or camera is a huge benefit for creating sharper shots when you’re shooting without the aid of a tripod. To make the most of it, use it in combination with your camera’s self-timer function. By using the two-second option, you’ll have time to properly support and steady the camera once you’ve pressed the shutter release button to trigger the countdown.…

What are NFTs? This is a question that has been asked a lot of late. NFTs or non-fungible tokens are a new form of digital investable stored on the Ethereum blockchain. NFTs can be collected in the same way editions of photographic prints are in the traditional market. The result is a potential new avenue for photographers of all levels and genres to market and sell their work. The only difference from the traditional art market is that everything from transactions to ownership is conducted in a digital manner via the blockchain. If you’re thinking this doesn’t make much sense then I will explain all… What is an NFT? What does nonfungible token even mean? One of the main confusions around NFTs is simply the name. Once we make sense…

Camera Fujifilm X-T3 Lens Fujinon XF 35mm F2 R WR Exposure 1/125 sec at f/2, ISO 400 Challenge 1 Alistair Campbell Having made the trip to our location, a beautiful 19th-century Grade 2 listed country house near Knowle in the West Midlands, we began our day with a briefing from event producers The Creative Hub. Its team had sourced six models to be photographed in different rooms of the house, each possessing a distinct theme. First up, a Peaky Blinders vibe in the library with Hamish Scott. Decked out in his suit, Hamish certainly looked the part. Alistair said he often shoots with just a single light, so began the day in his element, quickly setting up his camera to fire a test shot and get a rapport with the…

Camera Fujifilm X-T3 Lens Fujinon XF 35mm F2 R WR Exposure 1/125 sec at f/2, ISO 400 Challenge 4 Alistair Campbell We rounded off the day in The Morning Room, joined by model Pippa. With fewer props, this was a bigger challenge for our technique editors and forced them to go back to basics to capture a backlit portrait using one Rotolight Aeos 2 as a fill light facing the model as she posed in front of a window. Alistair set the Aeos 2 on full power and positioned it off to one side, at roughly five feet from Pippa at a 45º angle just above the height of her head. “It was just after lunch on a white overcast day, so the light coming in through the window was…

This summer day image of punting in Cambridge has a pleasing line of punts running through it, but the shot has been overexposed. However, because we have access to a raw file, which contains more information than a jpeg, we will be able to rescue it. In Adobe Camera Raw, we’ll start with the Exposure Slider in the Basic Panel 1, pushing it to the left until the exposure is more or less correct across the frame – here, a value of around-1.00 will do the trick. The horizon line 2 is slightly skewed, so let’s correct this next. Using the Rotate Slider in the Geometry panel, we’ll make the minor adjustment required and then use Scale to ensure that there are no blank areas in the corners. Now we…

www.nikon.co.uk The Nikkor Z 28-75mm f/2.8 is a fascinating proposition. Technically it’s not quite a trinity lens, yet it boasts a constant f/2.8 aperture and near S-lens performance. Obviously, it’s longer but not as wide as the trinity sibling it will be compared to, the Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S, but it has a significant trick up its sleeve: it’s about half the price. Getting trinity trappings in a lens like this, with everything from the constant fast aperture to weather sealing, means that this is one of the best Nikon Z lenses for professionals and enthusiasts alike. Indeed, we tested it on the Nikon Z 9 under some very challenging indoor sports conditions and we would happily take it with us on any pro commission. So how good is…

www.venuslens.net The Laowa Argus 45mm f/0.95 FF is the latest in Venus Optics’ line of signature Argus lenses, all of which feature a monstrously wide f/0.95 aperture. In short, every Argus lens is a bokeh machine – and the 45mm is no exception. The choice of a 45mm focal length is an interesting one. This puts the Laowa Argus 45mm f/0.95 FF roughly in ‘nifty fifty’ territory, but the extra width makes the field of view tangibly different. At f/0.95, this is one of the fastest lenses you can buy, though this aperture isn’t as novel as it once was; we’ve got full-frame lenses like the almost-equivalent Mitakon Speedmaster 50mm f/0.95 and Venus Optics’ companion prime, the Laowa Argus 35mm f/0.95 FF. So what does the Argus 45mm bring to…

www.nikon.co.uk The Nikon Z 9 did arrive late to the pro-spec mirrorless camera party. However, Nikon maintains that this enabled it to take advantage of the benefits that a mirrorless design – specifically the Z-mount – is capable of. And the wait has certainly been worth it. From seemingly unlimited 8K 30p recording to an astonishing 120fps maximum burst rate, it’s hard to argue that the Nikon Z 9 isn’t the most capable all-round hybrid camera on the market. Performance Some may lament the loss of medium- or lowre solution raw files, but the 14-bit raw formats let the camera perform its rapid-fire frame-rates. The Z 9 won’t drain your battery as fast as its rivals, either. We shot over 7,000 frames and a boatload of 8K 30p video, and…

Craig Easton Documentary photographer Craig is motivated by the intersection of social policy and sense of place, looking beyond the headlines to find the real story. Read more on page 118 Graham McCowen Photographer & art director Graham likes to tell stories with his photography, placing a high level of importance in his choice of lenses when on shoots. Find out more on page 11 Helga Stentzel Photographer & illustrator Taking pleasure in finding something sublime in the mundane, Helga likes to embrace surrealism in her work, as you’ll discover on page 12 Jon Devo Photographer & writer Jon enjoys celebrating the evolution of camera tech. This issue, however, he wonders whether you can have too much of a good thing. Page 102 Laurence Bouchard Street photographer Primarily focused on…

10 things you can shoot this month, from landscapes and portraits to surrealism and classic steam trains There is nothing better than spending time outdoors and T creating memories with simple photographs. I often look back at my pictures and reminisce – this is something that runs in my genes. My grandparents would often give me photo albums from my childhood. They didn’t mean a lot to me when I was younger, but now I find them to be invaluable. In the photo on this page, I want to lead the viewer down the textured path and into the scene, so here’s how I did it. First, I set my camera to f/1.8 to enable shallow depth of field. Next, I amended my shutter speed so the exposure meter on…

Haze can add a pleasing touch to outdoor photos, from nature photos to portraits. Recreating a hazy effect can easily be done in Lightroom Classic in just a few short steps. The main aim is to soften the image with the basic sliders, then play with the tonal curve and colour grading module. This effect won’t be ideal on every photo, so to begin with try to pick one with attractive light to get the full benefit. So what is ‘haze’? In simple terms, it is a reduction in visible contrast in your scene (due to scattering of light particles in the air). Haze can often have a blueish or brown tint depending on your direction of view, and is often seen in the early morning or evening. I took…

Although it’s not a new technique, colour pop was once upon a time very popular. It is the process of using a mixture of colour with black and white together in post-processing. Chances are you’ve seen images featuring London buses, old phone boxes or a best man’s necktie in red bursting from the page, surrounded by a lack of colour. The idea typically features the colour red, because it stands out most to the human eye. The girl in the red coat from Schindler’s List is another good example. This technique was so over-used that it essentially died out in recent years, becoming a slightly frownedupon gimmick among pros. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t find a way to try this technique out in a far more subtle way. I…

1 Learn a new technique During a spell of bad weather in January, I had fun experimenting with in-camera double exposure (and also with intentional camera movement). There were some Christmas flowers with one pine cone in a vase on the hall table, lit by a wall light above. I liked the colours and decided to take some photographs. 2 Select multiple exposures Using my Nikon D5300, which was switched to multiple exposures in the shooting menu, I opted for two shots (out of the maximum three) of 1/25 sec at f/8, ISO 1600. The focal length was 34mm on my 18-55mm kit lens. After the first shot, I moved around to take it from a different angle, keeping the cone in the same horizontal line. 3 Have a vision…

Benedict Brain www.benedictbrain.com Camera: Sigma fp L Lens: Sigma 105mm F1.4 DG HSM | Art Settings: 1/10 sec at f/11, ISO 160 It started as a simple technical experiment in the art of still life using natural light as part of a book I’m working on. However, it soon stimulated my artistic curiosity and the beginnings of a larger project were born. Initially, I simply needed to illustrate how to photograph objects using natural light. I was keen to create a studio environment without resorting to any expensive lights or accessories. The choice of the object didn’t matter – I just needed something to focus on so I grabbed the nearest thing that looked remotely interesting. This just happened to be an anatomical model of a human heart I had…

Contemporary photography involves two separate stages. One is the raw material you save to your memory card, and the other is the post-processing, where you fine-tune your capture to reflect the vision or mood you want to express. It’s all too easy to think that you can do everything in the second stage, especially with the flexibility that shooting raw gives you. But this isn’t the case, as there are certain fundamentals that you must get right in-camera. These are the elements that cannot be rescued or fixed, no matter how good your post-processing skills may be. It’s true that the raw format presents you with a plethora of floating values – all of which can be shaped to align with your creative ideas for the finished photo. However, certain…

When you have a static subject, you have plenty of time to consider where you’re focusing, but lots of subjects move! You can use a central AF point (or group of AF points) to lock focus and continually recompose your shot, but it also pays to move the active AF points around. If you are photographing a dog that‘s walking around a tree, and you’re trying to keep the focus on its head, you can use your rear/top control wheel, or with some cameras an AF selector toggle/D-Pad on the back of the body, to move the active AF point’s position. This way, you can focus on the subject, or even change the area you want to be sharp, without necessarily having to totally reframe. Some cameras have more focus…

Alot of the time, we worry about whether we have a shutter speed that’s fast enough to stop us from ruining a shot with camera shake. But shutter speed is a creative choice too, and whether you want to freeze-frame the moment or somehow give the impression of movement through selective blur, it all comes down to how short or long a period you keep the shutter open, exposing the camera’s sensor to light. Using aperture in combination with on-camera filters, such as a 10-stop ND filter (below), you can control the amount of light available, and get quite arty as well. Go fast to freeze the moment A very fast shutter speed can capture detail that would otherwise be missed When you want to capture the beautiful detail and…

Although there’s a lot you can do to adjust exposure in raw processing software, it’s vital to get it within one stop or so in camera. Why? If you overexpose an image and blow out your highlights, then that detail cannot be rescued. At the other end of the scale, if you underexpose, you can brighten up the shadows to restore detail in the darker areas, but you will introduce noise and degrade the image quality. So while perfection in metering is not absolutely necessary, getting close is really important if your aim is to capture great-looking pictures. Creative cameras offer at least three metering modes (Evaluative, Centre-weighted and Spot), and in most circumstances, the Evaluative (Matrix/Multi-zone) option is all you need. After you’ve taken a test shot, check the…

One of the challenges of shooting urban scenes is coming up with clean and simple compositions. A telephoto zoom comes in extremely handy when you do want to strip things down, as you can quickly isolate scenes within the wider view. Consider converting a shot to black and white when you process it, as this will remove distracting colours. You’ll also be able to boost the contrast to a greater extent than you typically can with a colour image. If you’re shooting on an overcast day, then you can use the white sky as blank canvas, too – something that doesn’t always work as well when you’re working with colour. If you’re using a tripod, experiment with longer exposures to blur moving elements such as traffic and pedestrians. Consider the…

There’s no escaping repair and renovation work in an urban setting. But while you might curse your luck when that iconic building you’ve made a special trip to photograph is obscured by tarpaulin sheets and scaffolding, there’s only one thing for it: embrace the mess! Construction work serves up a wealth of colours and textures that can make abstract studies in their own right, as well as being shown in relation to the wider scene. It can also form the perfect backdrop for entertaining street photography – hang around opposite a busy location for long enough, for example. and you’re like to be able to frame someone against the construction site whose clothes match the colour of the hoardings. Cloudy days will make it easier to achieve more balanced exposures…

When you’re shooting in an environment that’s full of straight vertical and horizontal lines, any lens distortion or lines that aren’t parallel with the edge of the picture will be obvious. The keystone effect can be another problem to deal with when you’re shooting with a wide-angle lens. Even though the effect, where the top of a building appears narrower than the bottom, can emphasise height, it can make the buildings appear to be leaning. Applying lens corrections in software can help restore the balance, although this can result in some substantial cropping to the image. So it pays to not frame the shot too tightly if you anticipate applying corrections later. If you leave it to the software, it will usually produce a more subtle adjustment that doesn’t lead…

Just like a craftsman is only as good as J his tools, a camera is only as good as its lenses. So if you’re looking to make a Wise Buy, you need to consider the optics as well as the body – but you also need to consider exactly what you want your setup to do. There are plenty of specialist systems on the market, from the high-resolution Sony A7R series to the video-oriented Panasonic GH5. However, if you’re looking for a real Swiss Army knife that can shoot anything and everything, it doesn’t get much better than the Canon EOS R paired with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM. Canon’s first ever full-frame mirrorless camera, the EOS R takes the powerful 30.3MP sensor from the Canon EOS 5D Mark…

James is a professional photographer who specialises in landscape and portraits. He’s an advanced Photoshop user and has created hundreds of tutorials. WATCH THE VIDEO! FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc255 Shooting in Raw is always the best option because it widens the scope for adjustments during editing and paves the way to the best image quality. But even when shooting in Raw and using the best lenses, there are many ways that you can enhance and improve detail during editing. Raw processing in software such as Lightroom is always the first step, and exporting images into Photoshop opens up many more possibilities; working with detail is one area where Photoshop provides additional options and levels of control. Detail comes in several forms, and while the most obvious is related to the…

BUY YOUR TICKETS TODAY! TPS returns to the NEC Come and join us from 17-20 September for an extravaganza of image-making Whether you are a professional, an amateur or an enthusiast, The Photography Show & The Video Show is the must-attend live event for photographers, videographers and content creators in the UK this year. Taking place from 17-20 September, the event brings together a compelling mix of over 250 of the biggest international photography brands alongside a packed programme of demonstrations, talks, masterclasses and workshops. Visitors to the show, which returns to the NEC in Birmingham, can discover new products, try out the latest kit, take advantage of exclusive show discounts and get advice from experts face-to-face. The programme of live talks is spearheaded by the Super Stage, where globally-renowned…

Leica cameras have been a tool of choice for many news and documentary photographers over the years, including this month’s interviewee, Craig Easton (page 118), who also shoots projects on a 10x8 film camera. For anyone who leans towards having a less noticeable profile when on the street, then the Leica Q2 Reporter is an interesting proposition. A camera conceived to blend in with its surroundings, it dispenses with the recognisable Leica styling for something a tad more incognito. Its green colourway won’t draw attenion to its user and its tough Kevlar finish means it can more than cope with the hustle and bustle of reportage photography and covering live events. Also this month, we test some interesting new lenses for Canon, Nikon and Sony full-frame mirrorless mounts, and provide…

www.dxo.com DxO PureRAW 2 takes the raw image processing and denoising technology in DxO’s flagship software, PhotoLab 5, and puts it into a simple image conversion utility. The idea is that you get all the quality of DxO’s processing, but in a simple batch processing utility. PureRAW 2 can output processed JPEGs, with noise reduction and lens corrections applied or, more interestingly, Linear DNG files. These are like part-processed raw files that behave just like regular raw files in your software, but have DxO’s own demosaicing and denoising process pre-applied. Key features PureRAW 2 can be used as a standalone program, as a tool available directly in the Mac Finder or Windows Explorer or – perhaps most significantly of all – directly from within Adobe Lightroom Classic. DxO acknowledges the…

FREE 180-PAGE PHOTOGRAPHY MADE SIMPLE EBOOK In this e-bookazine, we’ll tell you all you need to know about the world of photography. From guides to get you started in the basic principles to step-by-step tutorials on using your camera’s modes and settings. Download your free copy from: www.bit.ly/pmsimple 9 photo tips cards to take on location This issue, get wallet-sized advice on topics such as mastering AF points, shooting stand-out portraits and getting started in Live View. ALL-NEW TIPS CARDS! ✔ 9 subjects ✔ Techniques ✔ Settings ✔ Kit list Buyer’s Guide ebook Over 270 pages of camera and lens reviews, plus buying advice for accessories! See the Gifts folder in your download.…

I have been extremely fortunate to visit northern Greece most winters, so in January I headed back to the gorgeous Lake Kerkini to guide some photography workshops for Wildlife Worldwide Travel. The lake sits on the border of Greece and Bulgaria and is home to the rather majestic dalmatian pelicans. The pelicans come from a very ancient family of birds, with fossils dating back nearly 40 million years. It is incredibly easy to see why these birds still hold those prehistoric looks. Regarding subjects and the scenery around you, it can be tricky being surrounded by endless photographic opportunities; you can get overwhelmed by what you want to photograph. I knew that I wanted to include the habitat and the mountains, so I started off looking for a good, clean…

I am a photographer whose lifelong interest in railways began in Edinburgh during the early 1950s and has continued to this day. My early ventures began in 1961 when a cousin gave me a Kodak Brownie 127 as a Christmas present. Employment in 1964 led to me buying a first 35mm camera, but my photography really took off during my university years in the early 1970s when unlimited access to darkrooms and working with student newspapers honed my skills. The combined railway and photography interest continued with an upgrade to 645 medium format cameras in the late 1980s. Taking early retirement in 1994, I spent time working for Colin Garratt in the early 2000s, whose inspiration provided opportunities to photograph railway scenes that have proved to be historic as the…

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When you have a static subject and can shoot from a tripod, using Live View with manual focus is an excellent option, as it allows for precision in focusing. This is why it’s a favourite for macro and still-life. In Live View mode, you can use the screen to frame up and focus, and zoom in up to 10x on the image. This allows you to be sure that your focus is exactly at the point you want it, though it’s best to use the self timer or a cable release so you don’t nudge the camera at the moment of exposure, especially when shooting at f/2.8 when a slight jog of the camera can change the focus point. You can also use AF in Live View mode, and many…

Do you freeze it or let it flow? It’s a decision that changes the appearance of a moving subject, such as water, considerably. To the naked eye, water isn’t a diffused blur, but if you want to have a strong contrast between soft and sharp areas in the frame the camera can record it this way. A fast shutter speed, such as 1/250 sec, will effectively freeze the movement of flowing water. But slow that shutter speed down by narrowing the aperture or adding an ND filter (or both), and you’ll see that shutter speeds from 1/30 sec and slower will have a dramatic effect on the water’s appearance. The slower you go, the softer and more ethereal the water will appear. Often, a balance between blur and some water…

If you include the sky in the picture, there’s a risk that buildings will appear too dark or the sky will be too bright – or a bit of both, depending on how your camera exposes the scene. It’s the dynamic range that’s the problem. The difference between the highlights and the shadows is too great for the camera’s sensor to record detail in all areas. One option is to shoot in raw and expose for the highlights (that is, make sure the bright areas are correctly exposed) and then increase the brightness of the shadows when you process your shot. But that can lead to ugly noise in the previously underexposed areas. Alternatively, if your camera has a High Dynamic Range mode (see below), you may be able to…

We’ve previously covered multiple exposures in Camera College, and it’s a great technique to try when shooting in an urban environment. The repetitive design of buildings suits this layered treatment. If your camera allows you to save the original files as well as the final one, that will give you the opportunity to try combining them again later in software, should the in-camera one not quite deliver the best result.…

With over a decade’s experience as a writer and photographer, James is also an accomplished image editor, and an expert in Affinity Photo. FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc255 Architectural photos lend themselves particularly well to abstract effects. A beautiful building like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao here can be reduced to a graphic array of angular lines, sharp details and splashes of colour. In this project we’ll look at how to create these striking abstracts. To restyle our modern, futuristic-looking subjects, we’ll make use of an age-old technique, the multiple exposure effect. But rather than combining multiple images, we’ll instead duplicate and reuse the same frame several times. We’ll begin by duplicating our original image layer, then set the Blend Mode to Screen and offset the copy slightly to create our…

1 ‘An Old Flame’ by Jenny Short “Having tried flaming match shots before, I decided to have another go using the hints and tips in the Great Indoors feature (issue 252). The shot was taken against a plain black background, which I changed to blue during editing, with the match held in a crocodile clip mounted on a mini tripod head.” Digital Camera says: A wonderful use of negative space here, Jenny – and the smoke trails lead you right across the image. It was a great idea to turn the background blue, complementing the warm red and orange of the match. 2 ‘Life is a Blur’ by Colin Menniss “It had been another glorious sunrise over St Mary’s Bay in Kent. I used a six-stop filter to slow the…

With over a decade as a writer and photographer behind him, James knows exactly what Photoshop and Lightroom tools and techniques matter most. WATCH THE VIDEO! FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc255 Before colour film, hand-tinting was a specialist job. Painters would painstakingly add splashes of colour to prints, or – in the case of moving images – directly onto the roll of film using tiny brushes. These days, we can add colour to our old photos by using a simple Photoshop technique. The Colorize filter can do much of the work for us. As one of the recently introduced Neural Filters, it uses artificial intelligence to recognise people and objects in a photo, then colour them accordingly. Like other automated tools in Photoshop, the command works brilliantly on some photos, and…

Shooter 1 Alistair Campbell Technique Editor, Digital Camera Camera: Fujifilm X-T3 Location: Bristol “I’ve been photographing people for a long time now, typically performers in extravagant costumes, or avant garde portraits with larger-than-life hairdos – theatrical make-up and outfits that wouldn’t look out of place in the latest series of Bridgerton. As the Technique Editor of Digital Camera, I love being able to experiment with a variety of lighting and shooting styles, so I was really looking forward to this Shootout Special alongside Dan.” Instagram: @alistaircampbellphoto Shooter 2 Dan Mold Technique Editor, Photo Plus Camera: Canon EOS 6D Mark II Location: Peterborough “I have been writing for photography magazines for over a decade, and have a strong interest in wildlife and landscape photography. I currently work as Technique Editor on…

What is ambient light? Ambient light is effectively whatever available light is present in a scene that hasn’t been brought along and set up by the photographer themselves. Does ambient light include sunlight? Any natural light, whether indoors or outdoors, counts as ambient light, but so does pre-existing artificial light. For example, if you are shooting outdoors and part of your shot is lit by a streetlight, that is also ambient light. Inside a room, ambient light could be a lamp, computer or TV screen, or the glow from a fire. Are there any issues when it comes to combining ambient light sources within a shot? Different light sources will have different colour temperatures (as well as intensities), and may end up causing colour casts within your image. This isn’t…

Sony releases new power zoom lens Designed to fit Sony’s full-frame mirrorless cameras, the SE 16-35mm F4 G has a powered zoom action rather than a regular zoom ring. Filmmakers will also welcome its low weight, at just 353g. www.sony.co.uk; £1,299/$1,399.99 Café Royal exhibition open now in Bristol Celebrating the output of this independent publishing house, this new exhibition runs until 12 June. Café Royal has produced weekly photo ’zines since 2005, and you can see 500 of them at Bristol’s Martin Parr Foundation. bit.ly/dcm255-mpf; free Benro adds two new Tortoise tripods The TTOR24CLV and TTOR34CLV both feature a levelling system at the top of the tripod, for rapid adjustments, making them ideal for use with gimbal heads or geared heads. www.benroeu.com; from £240 Lexar Professional 2000x Gold 256GB Developed…

https://leica-camera.com The Leica Q2 has been in our list of best compact cameras for some time, and for good reason – we love it, not least for its image quality. Now the limited edition Leica Q2 Reporter is here, but does it steal the original Q2’s thunder? Leica’s camera range could get confusing, so here’s a quick run-down. This German brand is probably best known for its Leica M rangefinders, which take interchangeable M-series lenses. The Q2 Reporter shares the same ‘look’ as the M-series, but it is a different design – a compact camera with a fixed lens. Leica also makes SL-series L-mount mirrorless cameras, including the professional-level Leica SL2 (which has a lot in common with the Panasonic Lumix S1R). There’s also the rarely seen Leica S3 medium-format…

www.sigma-global.com The Sigma 20mm F2 DG DN | C joins a growing range of fairly fast primes for Sony E-mount and Leica L-mount cameras in Sigma’s I-series range. There are also 24mm F2 and 45mm F2.8 options in the line-up. The look and feel are virtually identical in each case, with the same ‘Contemporary’ design ethos seeking to deliver excellent performance from a compact and lightweight build. Sigma’s Contemporary lenses don’t go fast on aperture ratings, instead keeping the size and weight to easily manageable levels. This 20mm is no exception, giving a generous field of view on full-frame mirrorless cameras, equating to 95.5 degrees on the diagonal, yet the lens measures just 70x72mm and weighs 370g. There’s some impressive glass, with 13 elements in total and three high-precision glass-moulded…

www.canon.co.uk While the EOS R3 is not technically a replacement for the EOS-1D X Mark III, it nonetheless technologically leapfrogs the 1D X III in virtually every department, and stakes a bold claim as the best professional camera thanks to its 6K RAW video, blistering 30fps shooting, and peerless AF system. Still, with the 50.1MP stills/8K video Sony A1 already here, does the Canon EOS R3’s 24.1MP sensor provide sufficient pixel density for pro-level shooting? Performance Moving over from the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III, the increased resolution is immediately noticeable when shooting detail-rich photography such as portraiture, while retaining the speed and manageable file sizes required for professional shooting. The 30fps shooting is phenomenal and powered by the rock-solid Dual Pixel AF II, it doesn’t matter whether you’re tracking…

www.sony.co.uk Traditionally, the Sony A7 has been the range’s entry-level camera, with the ‘R’ models adding resolution and the ‘S’ models adding speed/sensitivity. But while it does technically supersede the A7 III, the A7 IV is an altogether more advanced camera that, we think, targets a higher-level audience (the Sony A7C will offer an additional ‘beginner’ option for the full-frame Sony camera system). Performance The A7 IV’s still image quality is superb. Apart from the outright resolution, the A7 IV produces excellent colour rendition in its jpegs. Sony says its color rendition is improved over the A7 III, and while this is hard to measure, the A7 IV’s jpegs do look very good. The video is oversampled from 7K down to 4K. In theory, the A7 IV’s video should be…