Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i Digital Camera Magazine

STEP 1 ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc261 Enter the URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc261 into the destination bar of your internet browser – we’re using Google Chrome, but other browsers work in a similar way. Please do not enter it in any search field or search bar. This will take you to a page on our website. STEP 2 JUST CLICK THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK Click on the link labelled ‘Download the disc for Digital Camera 261’ and your download will start, delivered from our own server. Please override any browser warnings about downloading from a non-secure source – our server is safe! STEP 3 ACCESS YOUR FILES Open the.zip In your Downloads folder, or wherever you chose to download your files to, double-click the dc261-disc.zip file icon. Then when it expands, double-click Digital Camera…

Shooting in the city is what started my photography career. It was very much at my disposal, having grown up close to Bristol, and that city spark is still with me today. However, one of my favourite cities to shoot in will always be London. It just has so much character and never fails to provide me with some of the better urban photos I have taken. Recently, I have been trying to get to London as early as possible just to capture that golden glow that comes from a sunrise. Yes, you could stay out late to shoot the sunset, but for me there’s just something about the start to the day that leaves me with much better results and a more memorable experience. Instagram: @_flintandsteel www.flintandsteel.co.uk Try using…

1 Get a good starter lens If you are shooting for the first time and are serious about astro, it’s good to get yourself a fast lens – something with an aperture around f/2.8. This doesn’t have to be the most expensive lens on the market: a good budget lens – for example, a 7artisans 12mm f/2.8 or even a 25mm f/1.8 for a modest outlay of around £80-£120 – will give you great results. 2 Select shot settings This is where some people may get into a little trouble, thinking they have to shoot at a low ISO with longer exposures. In fact, an ISO of 3200 and a shutter speed of 15 secs (any longer may produce star trailing) at f/2.8 will give a far better result for…

media://art_of_seeing-1.jpg/ I recently gave a talk called ‘The Art of Seeing’. This was largely based on images that have been featured in this column over the years. As is often the case, these talks become much more interesting when there’s a healthy dialogue in the group. In this particular talk, the difference between ‘looking’ and ‘seeing’ became a topic of discussion, and there were lots of interesting points made. In the context of this column and my image-making in general, I gravitate towards the idea that looking is the physical act, while seeing is the creative process of perception. The great American naturalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) had some thoughts on the matter, too, and is famously quoted as saying, “It’s not what you look at that matters;…

There’s an immense amount of kit for all photographic disciplines designed to make taking your photos as effortless and efficient as possible. Landscape photography is no exception, and there’s an abundance of top tech, gadgets, gizmos and upgrades out there you can add to your camera backpack that will help you take better scenic shots. In this feature, we will cover the core kit you should consider if you want to take your landscape photography more seriously. This includes tripods and the heads that mount on top of them, which will help you set up a more considered composition, as well as enable long exposures to blur moving elements like clouds, people or water. Also, we’ll look at filters, which help you to get the shot right in-camera and enable…

15-35MM – ULTRA-WIDE TO WIDE-ANGLE 1 A wide-angle lens offers a wider angle than the human eye can see, so are great for squeezing in loads of the scene in front of you. Around 24-35mm (full-frame) is considered a wide-angle, with anything below 20mm classed as ultra-wide. 50MM – ‘STANDARD’ FOCAL LENGTH 2 50mm on a full-frame camera, or 35mm on an APS-C, is called the standard focal length, as it’s very close to the angle of view that the human eye can see. Shots taken at this focal length will look more natural. 70-400MM – TELEPHOTO ‘LONG’ LENS 3 You might think a telephoto lens would be a strange choice for landscapes, but they can capture some wonderful scenes, help you hone in on a focal point, compress the…

NEUTRAL DENSITY 1 These are glass or resin plates that have been darkened and act a bit like sunglasses for your camera to block light out. They come in different strengths to suit different scenarios. The more light you block, the slower your shutter speed can go. It’s useful for blurring elements like water, clouds or people. GRADUATED NEUTRAL DENSITY 2 These are pieces of glass that have a neutral density at the top, then fade into clear glass at the bottom, and are useful for taming the highlights in bright skies to stop them overexposing. They come in different strengths for clearly defined and more ambiguous horizons. CIRCULAR POLARISER 3 Polarising filters are essential for landscape photos, as they cut down on polarised light entering the camera, enhancing blues…

■ Autumn is the rutting season for red deer. It’s one of nature’s great events and provides an opportunity to put your wildlife photography skills to the test. Just be prepared to give the animals plenty of room as the action gets fast and furious. In fact, London’s Richmond Park, advises photographers and other visitors to keep at least 50 metres from the deer. You’ll need all the telephoto reach that you can get when photographing or filming wild deer. A 100-400mm or 100-500mm lens is going to give you more framing options and be easier to carry when you’re following the animals on foot. Use available cover such as trees and walls and keep a low profile to avoid breaking the skyline. Move cautiously and be prepared to freeze…

This month… Tool School: Improve your photos with Actions Discover what Photoshop Actions can do for you, and start enhancing your portraits with our free retouching kit Fundamentals: Direct the viewer’s eye with a vignette Use Lightroom’s Radial Gradient tool to add this creative effect Get the Look: Take control of saturation Make your shots stand out by applying saturation effects 15 Presets and Actions: Transform your images Enhance your photos with just a few clicks VIDEO TRAINING The issue 261 download includes video lessons that build on our tutorials, plus bonus videos with extra tips! www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc261 47 MINUTES OF VIDEO LIGHTROOM Create a vignette with a Radial Gradient PHOTOSHOP Take control of saturation PHOTOSHOP Shoot vibrant photos at sundown AFFINITY PHOTO Get a fresh perspective PHOTOSHOP Flash-paint your landscapes…

FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc261 WATCH THE VIDEO! BONUS SATURATION EFFECTS KIT Turn to page 86 to find out more! Nestled between full colour and black and white is a place that’s bursting with creative possibilities – a space where saturation control can be used to subdue oversaturated colours to make them appear more realistic. Most importantly, this is somewhere creative saturation control can be used to subtly increase the moodiness of any type of image or highlight elements within it. Whether you shoot portraits, landscapes or still life, taking control of saturation both globally and using individual colour channels is a hugely popular approach to photography these days. We’re not talking about social media editing cliches; the techniques here are tried, tested and guaranteed to help your images stand out.…

The first issue of Digital Camera was full of compact cameras: affordable and small, with fixed lenses. But making its debut at around the same time that we did was this professional DSLR from Canon: a groundbreaker in many respects. The EOS-1DS was Canon’s first full-frame DSLR, with an 11MP image sensor (making the 1DS the first digital camera to go beyond 10 megapixels) and two autofocus modes and a two-inch rear screen. It built on the previous year’s EOS-1D, which offered a smaller image sensor. The EOS-1DS was eventually succeeded by two revised versions, the Mark II and the Mark III, before the EOS-1D X became the new pro flagship of Canon’s digital range in 2012. In a period where the mainstream image of digital cameras was cheap and…

We didn’t quite know what to make of the G1 when we tested it in issue 81: “The Lumix G1 is so small it’s difficult to believe it’s an SLR at all.” Unlike an SLR, the G1 didn’t use a mirror or optical viewfinder, but its design and support for interchangeable lenses meant we were most comfortable still calling it an SLR. Only later did the terms compact system camera and then mirrorless camera emerge. This £580 camera offered a 12.1MP image sensor; more significantly, it was the first Micro Four Thirds model, launching a collaboration between Olympus and Panasonic to establish a new standard for photography. We were impressed by the G1’s performance and tiny size, but weren’t quite convinced by the concept. “Is the G1 an SLR with…

This is where the modern era of digital photography began, as Sony took the fight to Canon and Nikon with a mirrorless camera featuring a full-frame image sensor – a serious challenge to the hegemony of professional DSLRs. The Alpha 7 and 7R launched at the same time, the latter offering a 36MP image sensor compared with the former’s 24MP. Despite a scarcity in lenses at the time, we were suitably impressed in issue 147’s review. “The A7 and the A7R are two of the most exciting cameras to be announced recently, representing a genuine step forward in mirrorless technology. We had high hopes for both cameras, particularly the higher-resolution A7R. We have not been disappointed by the images that either camera is capable of producing. “What we have here…

While Sony’s Alpha 7 series had provided a mirrorless alternative to full-frame DSLRs, this was the point when we could perhaps dare to think the unthinkable was possible: the end of the single-lens reflex camera. With this double launch (the Z 6 offered a 24MP sensor, the Z 7 a 45MP sensor), Nikon didn’t just establish a more modern, lighter equivalent to the SLR: it went beyond by creating a new, wider lens mount that offered exciting new possibilities in lens design and optical quality. Testing the Z 7 in issue 208, we wrote: “This is a deeply impressive camera. It’s the company’s first-ever full-frame mirrorless camera, but it’s such a polished, well-designed camera you’d think Nikon had been making them for years. Four years on, the Z camera line…

THE PRIZE Sigma 20mm F1.4 DG HSM Art / Sigma 20mm F1.4 DG DN Art The world’s first F1.4 ultra-wide-angle lens Compatible with: Canon, Nikon & Sigma mounts (20mm F1.4 DG HSM Art) L Mount and Sony E-mount (20mm F1.4 DG DN Art) THE CHALLENGE To be in with a chance of winning this terrific prize, just answer the following question correctly. Q: In which year was Digital Camera magazine first published? A: 2000 B: 2002 C: 2004 To enter today, go to the following link: www.bit.ly/dc20sigma *Terms and conditions: The closing date for individuals entering the competition is 14 December 2022. Employees of Future Publishing, Sigma UK Ltd and its subsidiary companies, their families, agents and other parties directly involved with this promotion and the prize are not eligible…

The leading third-party lens manufacturer recently announced a slew of new optics. First up is the 70-300mm F4.5-6.3 Di III RXD for Nikon’s Z mount. Compact and lightweight, this new zoom follows on from the original version, for Sony’s E-mount, to offer users of Nikon’s mirrorless system an affordable telephoto option. The optical path is built around 15 elements in 10 groups. The 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD is an ultra-telephoto for the Sony E-mount and offers users an 8x zoom ratio, with the ability to shoot half-size macro. The 17-70mm F2.8 Di III-A VC RXD is a bright new lens for users of Fujifilm’s APS-C mirrorless cameras, having been ported across from the successful version for Sony E-mount cameras. www.tamron.eu; £/$TBC…

Seagate’s premium brand has launched two mobile storage drives for creative professionals: LaCie Mobile Drive and Mobile Drive Secure. Both drives sport an attractive look created by internationally renowned designer Neil Poulton, and have been created with sustainability in mind: recycled materials feature in both product and packaging. The innards of the casings have been engineered to produce fast 130MB/s file transfers via USB-C, with one-click automatic backups. LaCie Toolkit software is included as standard, as is a one-month subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan. www.lacie.com; from £69.99/$69.99 (Mobile Drive 1TB); £99.99/$99.99 (Mobile Drive Secure 2TB) Go to www.digitalcameraworld.com for the latest news, reviews & techniques…

Upmarket camera bag brand Billingham has just launched a Sage FibreNyte and Black Leather colour combination. Ten products from the Billingham portfolio will sport the new look, including the 72; Hadleys Digital, Small, Small Pro, Pro and Pro 2020; plus the Mini Eventer and Eventer MkII. And to ensure a co-ordinated look, the Avea 7 and Avea 8 end pockets can be also sourced in Sage FibreNyte and Black Leather. All bags are made from three-layer, weather-resistant FibreNyte, with solid brass fixings and real, top-grain, vegetable-tanned leather, and have an olive lining. https://billingham.co.uk; from £127 (72 bag) Go to www.digitalcameraworld.com for the latest news, reviews & techniques…

“Cameras are getting smarter, but AI-image generation is taking things a step further” Two decades is a long time in technology. In the past 20 years there has been a number of generational developments in technological capabilities (see our ‘20 Years of Digital Imaging’ retrospective on page 88). Whether it be in terms of manufacturing or computational power, image creation has grown faster in the last 20 years than it did in the preceding 200 years. But is that all there is to it after two decades of technological advances – we all went mirrorless? Is this the end? Most definitely not. The trifecta of the global pandemic of 2020, an unprecedented semiconductor shortage and leaps in artificial intelligence have accelerated the rise of previously unimaginable computational photography and AI…

Mark Lynham Photographer The subject of this month’s One to One pro masterclass likes to shoot things that fly, but actually loves all types of photography. See him at work on page 6 Jo Bradford Photographer and author Having regularly contributed to Digital Camera and sat on the judging panel of our photo awards, Jo has also penned several popular books. Page 120 Dan Mold Outdoor photographer Dan is Technique Editor on our sister title PhotoPlus. This month, he shares his expert tips for assembling the best camera kit for scenic shoots, on page 50 Chloé Brown Equine photographer Combining your twin passions for paid work is a great gig, and Chloé has managed to do just that. We find out how she approaches a creative animals shoot on page…

Today I’m on my way to meet the professional aircraft photographer Mark Lynham at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire for the first Royal International Air Tattoo since 2019. The world’s largest display of military aircraft, it attracts around 150,000 people over the course of the weekend. Arriving at the airbase around 11am, I am permitted entry after a quick frisk by some military personnel. The first thing that hits me is the incredible noise level – I’ve never been this close to a fast jet fighter before, and the power from the engines as a Typhoon flies by is quite something to behold. After camping here the night before, Mark is already on site and comes across to meet me just inside the gates. We speak for a short period –…

1 Camera, lens and settings I used a Canon EOS-1D X paired with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM. This shot was taken at 1/800 sec at f/2.8, ISO 640. A large 6x3m backdrop stand with a black muslin sheet gave me plenty of room for larger animals, and cornstarch-based holi powder is a safe option for animals. 2 Make a pop-up studio When shooting horses, I use my 6x3m muslin backdrop located inside an indoor arena, to create an enclosed and safe environment for the animals to be loose in. Having such a large backdrop essentially allows me to create a pop-up studio for my equine subjects at their stables, making it a much more relaxing environment. 3 Shoot subjects separately For safety reasons, both the horse and dog…

There’s a whole host of equipment and tools designed to make your life easier when you’re out taking scenic shots. Here, we list our favourite gadgets and core kit that any budding landscape photographer should consider. Don’t worry if you’re on a super-tight budget; much of the equipment here is desirable but not essential. We’d recommend starting with an entry-level DSLR or mirrorless camera with a kit lens and an affordable tripod, though if your budget stretches it would be worth picking up a set of affordable filters, too. For tighter budgets, it’s worth noting that the second-hand market can be a great place to pick up a bargain and save some money on a camera body or lens, too. You can then slowly build up your landscapes kit bag…

Some vast scenes don’t suit a conventional aspect ratio, so a wider, more cinematic one could work better. Many smartphones have a panoramic photo mode, but the image quality will fall short of a DSLR or mirrorless camera, especially if you want to create professional prints or edit the raw files. The best way to capture panoramas is with your camera shooting vertically – start at the left-most edge of your scene and work from left to right. Be sure to shoot raw files and use Aperture Priority mode to begin, choosing an aperture of f/16 for good sharpness throughout the scene, then adjust the ISO until you have a shutter speed of 1/200 sec – fast enough for shooting handheld if you don’t have a tripod. Then go into…

■ A circular polarising filter isn’t just for summer photography – it’s a wonderful accessory to have with you when you’re shooting autumn foliage. By rotating the front ring of this two-ring filter, you can remove glare and cut reflections, getting a useful boost to saturation as a result. Turn the ring slowly as you look at the image, and make sure you rotate it in the direction that you tighten it, to avoid unscrewing it.…

Exposure mode In changeable conditions, use Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority. It can be useful to set the ISO to Auto, too, as the camera will increase the ISO as light levels drop – it’s useful in Aperture Priority to ensure the shutter speed isn’t too slow. Shutter and drive Set your camera to its fastest continuous shooting speed. A mirrorless camera’s silent electronic shutter can be an advantage when shooting near timid creatures, although it can create ‘rolling shutter’ distortion on birds’ wings. Servo autofocus To track animals on the move, use Continuous AF. Some advanced cameras are able to automatically detect animals and birds in a scene, but with other cameras it can be beneficial to select a single or small group of AF points to pick out…

One custom control that some photographers find useful when shooting wildlife is removing the autofocus function from the shutter button, and having that triggered by a button on the back of the camera. Separating the two functions lets you stop the camera focusing if an animal stops moving, but without having to stop shooting. It takes some getting used to doing it this way, though!…

1 ‘Sunset over a bale field’ by Erika Killic “I love sunsets, especially the beautiful warm light and long shadows on summer evenings. This was taken on one of my walks in the Scottish Borders; I used exposure bracketing and merged the images afterwards in Lightroom.” Digital Camera says: It almost feels like Kansas, Erika. We love the composition with the dominant hay bale in the opposite section from the sun, neither of which take over the image, to create a lovely overall balance. 2 ‘Great Horned Owl’ by Tony Britton “Taken in Santa Cruz, California, my goal was to convey the relationship between the subject and its habitat. I selected settings on my Sony RX10 III that would also celebrate the morning sunlight.” Digital Camera says: A splendid environmental…

FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc261 WATCH THE VIDEO! Photoshop Actions allow you to save and reuse a sequence of edits, commands and settings. As such, if you carry out a task once, you need never to do it all again. In practice, you can use Actions to automate tasks, speed up your workflow and access your most used Photoshop features. It only takes a moment to create an action for a sequence of edits, then the same sequence can be applied to other images with a click. But what if there are certain points in the sequence where you want to change things manually? Thankfully, you can build stops and pauses into your actions, as well as several other useful functions. In this tutorial, we’ll explore some of the key features…

The camera reviews in Digital Camera’s first issue reflected where the boom in digital photography was taking place: the compact camera. The C-4000 achieved a 90% rating (no stars in those days) and a Best Buy award. The f/2.8 lens supported 3x zoom, delivering a focal range equivalent to 32-96mm in 35mm terms, with 3.5x digital zoom also available. The 4MP image sensor could capture images measuring 3,200 x 2,400 pixels. We were smitten in our issue 1 review, writing: “Fantastic image quality, a vast range of creative controls, excellent build quality and neat design make the C-4000 a really great bit of kit.” Other cameras in this issue included Konica’s KD-400Z and Fujifilm’s FinePix F401. With lots of intense competition and rapidly evolving technology, the future looked bright for…

Priced at £699 in 2008, the D90 seemed like an unremarkable mid-range DSLR, with a 12.3MP image sensor and support for ISO ratings up to 6,400. “But it’s not just great still images that the D90 produces,” we wrote in issue 78. “This is the world’s first DSLR that can produce HD-quality videos. That’s right! The D90 can record HD 720p movies at 24 frames per second with mono sound in five-minute bursts. Lower resolution movies can be shot for up to 20 minutes at a time. And because the image sensor of the D90 is so much larger than those found on camcorders, the image quality should be vastly superior. The depth of field is shallower and the ability to shoot in low light is far better – and…

The digital image sensor we call full-frame is broadly analogous to the 35mm film format. In the days of film, medium-format cameras were a step up from 35mm, and that remains true today. The medium-format 645Z from Pentax stood out through a combination of a high megapixel count (51MP) and aggressive pricing for a camera in its class: its £6,800 was more comparable with top-flight pro DSLRs than other digital medium-format models. In issue 156, we wrote: “The key advantage of having 51 million effective pixels on a medium-format sensor is that it’s possible to record lots of detail. Also, because those pixels are relatively large, they generate a strong signal, which means noise levels can be kept down. This is immediately apparent in the images from the 645Z.” Medium-format…

Camera phones have come a long way since the iPhone’s debut 15 years ago – and the Google Pixel 6 Pro ably represents everything that makes them so compelling. As is now standard, the Pixel 6 Pro offers multiple lenses to compensate for the lack of focal range in such small optics. There are three here, from an f/2.2 ultra-wide to an f/3.5 telephoto. There’s support for shooting raw files, and plenty of choice in apps to edit and share images, not to mention built-in shooting modes for jobs such as astrophotography, time-lapse and slow-motion. In issue 252, we wrote: “With the Pixel 6 Pro, Google hits the target. Its camera system has had a hardware refresh: it’s the first Pixel to get a periscope zoom camera, and its design…

Speed limits Q Are there any downsides to shooting faster than you technically need when it comes to action photography? Luke Care A The shutter speed you need for action is totally linked to the look you want from your subject. If your aim is to get a frame of your subject moving at high speed, but totally ‘frozen’ and sharp, then the only downside to a high shutter speed is the ISO needed to achieve it. The higher the ISO, the more potential noise in your image. Some image noise can be processed out, but for better image quality it’s still best to avoid it. If you have lots of light, can shoot at a lower ISO and still achieve a shutter speed of 1/2000 sec or higher, then…

With a price tag that firmly positions it as a tool for professional photographers, the newest model from Hasselblad boasts a 100MP sensor and a terabyte of internal storage, which will certainly come in handy when writing the massive captures that it will produce. The 100MP medium-format back-side illuminated image sensor delivers 15 stops of dynamic range, but there’s more to the X2D 100C than image quality – Hasselblad has engineered its own in-body image stabilisation system to offer five-axis correction and seven stops of compensation. The internal storage is an interesting feature: while being able to store approximately 4,700 RAW files, according to Hasselblad, it can also act as a second memory card to complement the CFexpress Type B slot – ideal for professional work. Also announced by Hasselblad…

Users of Nik Collection 5, PhotoLab 5, PureRAW 2, FilmPack 6 and ViewPoint 3 can all now use DxO’s collection of more than 75,000 camera and lens combinations. While DxO is not the only software publisher to make lens correction profiles, the difference is that DxO’s are tailored to specific camera and lens combinations and assess the true 100% field of capture without the cropping of generic lens profiles. Free to all existing users, the update to all five DxO titles also adds support for new camera models including the Nikon Z 30 and Fujifilm X-H2S, and the DJI Mini 3 Pro camera drone. www.dxo.com; free…

Built around the Perfectly Clear processing engine, which will be familiar to some photographers, this new program applies automatic AI-driven object recognition and tone and colour adjustments to deliver “great results in record time.” As it lacks cataloguing tools, HDR merge, panoramas or focus stacking, Radiant Photo is not an all in-one photo editor, but will intelligently optimise the colours, tones and contrast in your photos to maintain realistic colour rendition and contrast, while optimising the contrast and dynamic range, bringing out dark shadows and improving overall tonal balance. Developed by professional photographer Elia Locardi, Radiant Photo will work with 8-bit JPEGS, or 16-bit TIFFs for those who want a higher bit-depth workflow. The software can open many raw formats, but Radiant Imaging Labs is expecting users to continue with…

9 PHOTO TIPS CARDS TO TAKE ON LOCATION! This special selection of tips cards gives wallet-sized advice on topics such as star trails, landscapes, pet portraits, macro bugs and multiple exposures. ALL-NEW TIPS CARDS! ✔ 9 subjects ✔ Techniques ✔ Settings ✔ Kit list Transform your images in a few clicks with a range of Photoshop Actions and a preset for Lightroom We’ve curated a great selection of software extras to complement this issue’s tutorials and give your shots a professional look. You can find them with this issue’s other bonus digital gifts – see the instructions below. Buyer’s Guide ebook Over 280 pages of camera and lens reviews, plus buying advice for accessories! See the Gifts folder in your download.…

“For some shots that require slower shutter speeds (anything with propellers or panning shots of aircraft taking off or landing), I do get asked if I use a tripod – and I don’t. Many years ago when I was finding my way in photography, I did try shooting on a tripod, but I found it far too restrictive. It was actually much easier just to shoot handheld. “What I tend to do is find a centre point where I think my main shot will be and stand with my feet shoulder-width apart, support my camera and lens as best as I can, gripping the lens around the midpoint and tucking my elbows into my body. I then exhale calmly and hold my breath for a short while and start to…

Speed is so important in many genres of photography, but especially with changing scenes; when you’re packing two camera bodies, something might open up right in front of you and you need to swap quickly. Mark uses the Peak Design Slide camera strap in a cross style, meaning that he can drop one and be ready with the other within seconds. The universal attachment design that features across all Peak Design products makes it easy to release the camera completely, if you need the freedom to pull it away from your body or swap out batteries in a matter of seconds.…

I am a nature photographer born in Padua, a city in northern Italy’s Veneto region. I have loved photography since I was a child. Recently I was lucky enough to visit Kutno, right in the centre of Poland. Just outside the city, my trip took me to the pristine forests nearby. With absolute silence around me, listening only to the sounds of nature, this was a journey that lasted six days with only a few hours of sleep. I was walking about 7km a day in the dark in the pouring rain and cold, staying for eight hours every day inside a basic shed, but none of that mattered when the eagles began to arrive. They’re beautiful birds of prey – very shy, yet attentive to everything around them. There…

Back in 2016, I built a drone with only a cheap camera attached, which cost about £50. From then I fell in love with sunrise and sunset photography. As my passion grew, I needed an upgrade. In 2018 I purchased my first drone with a decent camera, an Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K. I also bought a Nikon D3400 and its 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens. Using this to shoot this classic coastal view in Dorset (above), I had discovered another passion: night-sky photography. Last year, I felt that my camera was holding me back again and I needed give my arsenal another upgrade. Now confident in myself and my photography, I decided to upgrade to a Fujifilm X-T2 and a couple of lenses (a 7artisans 12mm f/2.8 and a Fujifilm 18-55mm…

Grand Prize Winner Antonio Denti, Italy “As a Reuters cameraman, I was in Iraq as part of the media convoy following Pope Francis’s historic pilgrimage there. I saw this kid approaching our convoy, curious. The soldier – one of the platoon guarding our vehicles – was standing about 50 metres from him before he came over. A man connecting with the kid he had once been, and a kid watching the man he would become.” Shot on an iPhone 11. 1st Place: People Patricia Cancado, Brazil “I saw two women walking around in the same swimsuit, one with red hair. They looked beautiful, so I asked if I could photograph them. They said they had two other women from the same family with them, also wearing the same type of…

Many photographic genres require rapid reflexes to catch moments, such as a bird flying past or a racing car zooming by. Landscape photography is less rushed, however, and you have the ability to take your time and get your compositions spot-on. A tripod is essential for finessing the framing, and locking your camera also makes it possible to shoot long exposures of several seconds or minutes to blur moving elements within the frame. These would come out blurred if shot handheld. Obviously a sturdy tripod itself is important, but the head is where you’re able to adjust the framing. A 3-way head is ideal for landscapes, giving you great control over the three different axis, and a geared 3-way head would give you an even finer adjustment. PRO SHOT Coniston…

■ A walk in woods or meadows at this time of year can reveal a feast of mushrooms and toadstools that are great focal points for landscape and close-up photos. Whether you’re shooting a classic ‘fairytale’ fly agaric or a multi-layered bracket fungus, it’s worth approach fungi photography as you would a portrait of a person. Position the camera at mushroom ‘eye’ level and throw the background out of focus using a large aperture such as f/2.8 or f/4. To get a shot of the gills on the underside of fungi, place a small handheld mirror in position and shoot the reflection. A camera that’s equipped with a vari-angle display can help you frame and focus low-level shots, but it’s always worth packing a black refuse sack or foam mat…

FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc261 WATCH THE VIDEO! BONUS CREATIVE VIGNETTE PRESET Turn to page 86 to find out more! The eye is generally attracted to the brightest thing in a photo and is also drawn to sharper and more saturated areas – you can use this information to direct where your viewer goes first. Normally, vignetting is bad. It’s a form of lens distortion where the photo’s edges get darker. It can look OK, but unless your subject is in the middle, it’s not great for creative control. Vignetting can be corrected using Lens Profiles in Lens Corrections – automatically applied for mirrorless cameras. Lightroom Classic does have a Vignetting option in Effects, but it’s centred only (though it is crop aware). A better option is to use the Radial…

GoPro Digital Hero Launched in: 2006 It wasn’t just the SLR and compact cameras that were transformed by digital technology. GoPro had been releasing film-based action cameras, rugged and waterproof bodies that could get you closer to the action for a couple of years before embracing digital with this release – and kickstarting a new kind of camera. Canon EOS 5D Launched in: 2005 While the EOS-1DS was the first full-frame DSLR, the EOS 5D brought full-frame to the masses, with a more affordable price tag and familiar form factor. Its popularity made the 5D and its subsequent Mark II, Mark III and Mark IV editions the backbone of the Canon DSLR range for many years. Lightroom Launched in: 2006 Image editing software had traditionally followed the Photoshop model, offering…

Boasting a new look on its cover, issue 101 reflected how digital photography had changed in the previous eight years. The £400 that would have bought you a 4MP compact camera in 2002 could now get you a basic digital SLR, and there was a significant audience prepared to spend more in order to shoot great photographs. A group test of sub-£750 SLRs featured mainstays such as the Nikon D90 (our Best on Test winner) and the Canon 50D. By eliminating the mess and complexity of the darkroom, digital technology had opened high-quality photography up to many more people – and Digital Camera was there to help them make the most of the opportunity. It was also easier than ever to share your work, so our HotShots section was able…

Many things have changed in two decades, but some truths have remained constant – like our readers’ love of landscapes, enduringly the most popular genre we cover. Issue 252’s cover story celebrates landscape in style, with 40 brilliant tips for capturing breathtaking landscapes. On other pages, though, it’s easy to see an even greater diversity in Digital Camera’s coverage. Everything from the challenges of aviation photography to shooting wrestling matches was featured in this single issue, while the reviews section featured phones, lenses, lighting gear and portable storage. Compared with 20 years ago, today’s photographer owns better equipment and is more confident in using it. Photography is not just part of our everyday lives to a greater extent, but a way for millions to express their creativity. We can’t wait…

Lightroom Mobile Launched in: 2017 Building on the legacy of apps like Snapseed, Lightroom Mobile (along with the likes of Affinity Photo) uses the cloud to enable you to start editing on your phone or tablet while you’re on location, then transfer the work-in-progress to your laptop to finish. Photo editing has never been so flexible. Photoshop Neural Filters Launched in: 2020 Photo editing has always involved a bit of sweat, with attention to detail required to achieve the best results. Neural Filters (as well as tools in other software like Luminar) employ artificial intelligence to analyse photos and make changes with a couple of clicks. The technology is emerging, but it looks exciting. Canon EOS R3 Launched in: 2021 With 6K raw video capture and a blistering 30fps burst…

What is exposure bracketing? This refers to a technique where you take a series of shots of the same scene while changing the shutter speed on every shot to make each frame slightly darker or lighter than the previous one. What’s the point of exposure bracketing? If you want to create a High Dynamic Range image that packs all the tonal range you can see in a high-contrast scene, you will need a series of frames, each exposed slightly differently to capture all that information, which can then be merged into the final image. You can also bracket your exposures as a means to be sure that one of the shots you have taken gives you the desired exposure. How do I bracket? Most DSLRs and mirrorless cameras allow you…

First appearing on Fujifilm’s GF lens roadmap earlier this year, the Fujinon GF20-35mm F4 R WR has now been formally announced. It offers an effective focal length that’s equivalent to a 16-28mm on a full-frame camera and has been delivered to offer sufficient resolving power to take advantage of the 100-megapixel resolution of Fujifilm’s GFX 100 and GFX 100S cameras. Optical construction comprises 14 elements in 10 groups, and ‘high-speed and silent’ autofocus is delivered by a stepper motor drive. www.fujifilm.eu; £2,349/$2,499…

Having just released its seventh title, the Remembering Wildlife series is in rude health – unlike some of the species it has supported through its celebrated conservation books. The formula is a straightforward one: each year, renowned wildlife photographers donate images of the species being featured in the book; proceeds from the book and sales of the prints that appear in it are then funnelled to a variety of conservation projects. These are determined by Margot Raggett, wildlife photographer and founder of the series. As Remembering Bears is now on sale, we caught up with Margot to get an update on the Remembering Wildlife project, what it has achieved to date and where it goes from here. Remembering Wildlife has raised almost £1 million for conservation projects. When you first…

www.fujifilm-x.com Fujifilm sold us a dummy in 2022. Rumours abounded of a new 40MP APS-C flagship, which was later confirmed by Fujifilm as being ‘in development’, then talk shifted to an ultra-fast camera with a stacked sensor. It then became apparent that Fujifilm was launching two flagship cameras, and not one. The first of these to arrive was the high-speed Fujifilm X-H2S, proving to be spectacular in its own right, but for many observers the precursor to the main event, the Fujifilm X-H2. This camera has the highest resolution yet in an APS-C camera, its 40-megapixel sensor surpassing that of all but a handful of full-frame cameras. It can also shoot 8K video, which has never before been achieved with the APS-C format, and matched by a pretty small set…

www.canon.co.uk Canon’s RF-S 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM is an 8.3x super telephoto zoom lens that has been designed for Canon’s new line of APS-C EOS R cameras. With a full-frame equivalent focal range of 28.8-240mm, the Canon RF-S 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM offers prospective buyers a compact superzoom that has been made with the Canon EOS R7 and Canon EOS R10 in mind. Using the same RF mount as full-frame bodies like the Canon EOS R and Canon EOS R5, this new optic can also be mounted on these non-cropped cameras, although it will switch to a cropped shooting mode with reduced resolution – so this course of action isn’t really intended for full-frame users. That aside, does the Canon RF-S 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM rank as one of the…