Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2025 i Digital Camera Magazine

BONUS SOFTWARE EXTRAS! Turn to page 91 ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc292 Enter the URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc292 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. JUST CLICK THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK Click on the link labelled ‘Download the files for Digital Camera 292’ 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! ACCESS YOUR FILES Open the. zip In your Downloads folder, or wherever you chose to download your files, double-click the dcm292-files.zip file icon. Then when it expands, double-click Digital…

Perhaps the best thing about landscape photography is that anybody can do it. You don’t need mountains of kit, just mountains, an ocean or any scenic location. It doesn’t even need to be an epic scene; you can find all sorts of great photo opportunities on your doorstep. Whatever you choose to photograph, there’s something wonderful about heading out with a camera to capture the natural beauty around you. But when we’re presented with a photo-worthy scene, what’s the best approach for capturing it? A successful landscape image is often down to making the right choices. These begin before you even arrive at your location – the timing, the weather forecast, the direction of the sun. Then there’s the host of technical and artistic decisions we make – camera settings,…

Whatever subject we’re photographing, the first question is usually the same, ‘What is the light doing?’ Is it harsh or soft, high and cool or low and warm? We can give ourselves an advantage if we can plan where the sun will be at a given time. Having a sense of direction and knowing your east from your west is often enough to make an educated guess, but for more accurate predictions, download a sun planning app, such as the Photographer’s Ephemeris, PhotoPills or PlanIt Pro. This information will help you compose your shot when shooting into the sun. 1 Sun position Apps such as PhotoPills show the path of the sun as it moves through the sky, and offers augmented visualisation so we can figure out in advance exactly where…

SL3-S joins Leica lineup Leica’s latest full-frame mirrorless blends strength and speed with 30fps bursts, 6K video, IP54 weather-sealing and images up to 96MP in resolution The SL3-S is the sister model to last year’s resolution powerhouse, the Leica SL3. But where its bigger sibling is all about the muscle, the Leica SL3-S is a more refined camera that concentrates on speed. The SL3-S boasts a brand new, back-side illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensor. Its native resolution is 24.6MP, but it can produce 48MP and 96MP photographs through the magic of the camera’s pixel shift multi-shot feature. The BSI construction gives the sensor an enviable sensitivity range of ISO 50-200,000, with a dual base ISO (50-560 and 640-200,000). The SL3-S also inherits Leica’s triple-tech autofocus system from the SL3, combining phase…

www.tamron.eu Tamron has been making legendary 90mm macro lenses for 45 years and counting. In 1997, the company launched the SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di 1:1 for both 35mm film and digital Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Sony SLRs. It was an instant hit and other versions followed, including the Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di VC USD, boasting internal focusing and ‘hybrid’ optical image stabilisation, making it particularly effective for extreme close-up shooting. Tamron’s line of macro lenses for DSLRs was discontinued a while ago and, after a wait, the Tamron 90mm F2.8 Di III Macro VXD for mirrorless Nikon Z and Sony E mount was announced last September. Following in a rich tradition, Tamron is aiming to make this one of the best macro lenses money can buy. Build and…

Over 350 speakers will appear at The Photography & Video Show between 8-11 March, sharing their expert insights and inspirational thinking about the art and craft of the medium. With talks and demonstrations taking place on nine stages at London’s ExCeL show venue, there really will be something for everyone. One of the easiest ways to discover what’s going on and when will be to follow the show’s social media channels, and use the handy stage and theatre schedule on the show’s website: www.photographyshow.com/whats-on/stage-theatre-schedule To illustrate the breadth of the show’s programming, we have curated interviews with five major speakers – if you like what you read over the next few pages, then make a note in your calendar not to miss the talks they are giving. And remember that…

www.joshduryphoto-media.com A filmmaker, astrophotographer and night-sky conservationist from Somerset, UK, also known as ‘Starman’, Dury’s images have been endorsed by NASA, Astronomy Picture of the Day, The World At Night and astronauts including Buzz Aldrin and Tim Peake. Your forthcoming talk will be called ‘Astrophotography – Our Window to the Universe’. What will you be covering? I will invite attendees to discover the secrets of the night in an overview of astrophotography as a growing niche. I’ll highlight the celestial wonders and mega-constellations of the night sky as well as the environmental concerns. As a delegate of Dark Skies International, I use astrophotography as a platform to illustrate these effects and to be a catalyst for change. My ambition is to inspire more of us to look up at the night…

www.colinprior.co.uk Prior is an acclaimed landscape photographer with almost four decades of experience. He has published several books, including Living Tribes and The World’s Wild Places, and has completed a six-year project in Pakistan’s Karakoram Mountains. He also featured in an episode of the BBC series The Adventure Show, entitled Colin Prior, Mountain Man. Did you find photography or did photography find you? My journey into photography began not on land but beneath the waves. I was fascinated with the underwater environment and thought it might be a good idea to attempt to capture what I was experiencing underwater. Your talk at the show is titled ‘The Landscape Within’. Can you give us a flavour of what you will be covering in it? I am currently working on material for…

Rate my pics I am a relatively new subscriber to Digital Camera and one thing I need some help with is this: a lot of pictures sent to the magazine are really nice, but many are just OK in my opinion. I’ve sent you a few assorted photos, mainly just point, focus and shoot, where I’m trying to obtain a good outcome with the camera. Could you take a look at them and give me your opinion on what’s right and wrong with them, or is photography more about doing your own thing? Then again, I need to know why others win competitions with photos that, in my opinion, look quite ordinary. Bob Smith, Selsey, West Sussex Digital Camera says: Yes, there is always an element of judges picking things…

Having got into photography so she could take pictures of shelter dogs, it seems fitting that for her latest project, Kaylee Greer has gone back to where it all began. But this time, she hasn’t stayed local – Greer has taken to the road in an RV, travelling from one side of the US to the other and back again, using the power of photography to help transform the lives of long-forgotten shelter dogs. Early last year, Greer founded a non-profit organisation called The Dog Breath Foundation and, during the summer of 2024, she and three colleagues took an epic 10,000-mile road trip across the country, called ‘The Greatest Adventure’. The initiative sees Greer and her team visit a shelter and take the longest-resident dog on a mini-break in the…

Have you ever looked at another photographer’s photos and wondered, ‘How on earth do they get them so sharp?’ It’s partly down to lens quality, but your choice of aperture is important too. Lenses are usually sharpest around two or three stops down from the maximum aperture. So for a maximum aperture of f/4, this means you will get greater sharpness between f/8 and f/11. This presents a conundrum, as a mid-range aperture won’t give you the maximum depth of field, so some areas might come out soft. Focusing one-third of the way into the scene can help as the plane of sharpness extends two-thirds beyond and one-third in front of that point. Even so, front-to-back sharpness might still be a challenge and this is where focus stacking can help.…

With the possibility of lashing rain, salty air or strong winds, W landscape photography can test your gear to the limits. But it’s not just the elements that push your kit to the edge. In terms of exposure, landscapes are a real test for your camera’s dynamic range, too. The constant challenge is that skies are brighter than land. To record details in both, we need to shoot in raw format. Raw files offer more dynamic range (the difference between the brightest and darkest points) so there’s extra headroom for recovering bright highlights or deep shadows later on. In high-contrast scenes, we might need to increase our dynamic range beyond the capabilities of our camera. This is where HDR (high dynamic range) photography can prove useful. The technique involves shooting…

It’s baffling how many photographers start packing up their kit the moment the sun dips below the horizon. By doing so, they might be missing out on the best conditions of the day. Twilight can be a wonderfully moody time to shoot landscapes. As the light drops, the land takes on a cool blue colour. You will often notice that the colours in the sunset sky become more intense, too. Coastal scenes, in particular, can take on a lovely atmosphere after sunset. A sliver of light on the horizon often creates a shimmering effect on wet rocks, rivulets and puddles. You’ll usually need a tripod when shooting at twilight because the light levels are so low. By using a long exposure of several seconds, your camera can gather in enough…

Panoramas are great for creating vast images that can even be displayed as wall murals. In a single image, we’re restricted to the maximum resolution of the camera, but if we can shoot a scene in segments then we’re free to expand the resolution several times over. Shooting a panorama is simple. Use a tripod and take a series of shots, panning the camera between each and overlapping the frames by about a third. Keep your exposure and focus point consistent throughout. If you like, you can capture even more detail by zooming in and shooting for a multi-row panorama with a series of overlapping rows, one on top of another. If you want to get technical about panoramas then you also need to consider parallax. This is where changes…

1 ‘Warmth in Winter’ by Chloe Neilson “In my experience, this is the best viewpoint of the ‘Three Sisters’ near Canmore, Canada. I wanted to capture the mountains glowing in the sunrise and the sky to be lit up, showing off the beauty of the Rocky Mountains.” Instagram: @chloeneilsonphotography Digital Camera says: This is a fabulous wintery landscape with the bonus of the still water reflecting the sunrise. 2 ‘Otters having lunch’ by Tony Britton “It was a real joy photographing this sea otter adult and pup frolicking and feeding on various underwater delicacies. It was especially exciting to watch the adult otter sharing its catch with the pup. This photo was taken in Monterey, California, with my Sony RX10 IV and 600mm lens.” Settings: 1/5,000 sec at f/6.3, ISO 1600. Website:…

Adobe or Affinity? Q I subscribe to the Adobe Photography Plan but only really use Lightroom and not Photoshop. With the price going up, would I be better off with a one-off payment package like Affinity Photo? Chris Andrews A Despite the price rise, I still think that the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography subscription plan is good value for money, though it’s obviously less so if you only use Lightroom and not Photoshop. As a one-off purchase, Affinity Photo 2 is incredible value for money and we gave it a 4.5-star rating when we reviewed it in Issue 264, calling it‘outstanding’. Affinity Photo 2 is a great substitute for Photoshop, although it lacks the cataloguing prowess of Lightroom, which is something you might miss. I particularly like the different ‘personas’ that split…

In recent years, the photography industry has witnessed a seismic shift in how we view lenses. Gone are the days when legacy manufacturers like Canon and Nikon dominated the market with their proprietary glass. Today, third-party lens makers such as Sigma, Tamron and Laowa have reputations for high-quality, innovative optics that rival or surpass those of first-party lenses. One major catalyst for the shift was the mirrorless revolution, particularly Sony’s launch of its E-mount. With its accessible lens mount design and a limited selection of native glass, Sony inadvertently created an opportunity for third-party manufacturers to fill gaps in its lineup. Sigma capitalised on this by developing high-quality alternatives that often exceed the performance of native lenses at more competitive price points. The introduction of adapters, starting with the MC-11…

www.ricoh.eu What is the point of a monochrome sensor, W you may ask? While any regular digital camera can produce black and white images either in camera or in a photo editor, they come with technical compromises. The photosites on the sensor are sensitive only to light, not colour, so to make sensors capture colour images, a colour filter array (CFA) is overlaid on the photosites so that each one is sensitive to red, green or blue light only. That’s no good on its own, so it needs an interpolation process to work out a full-colour value for each pixel. The result of interpolation is a slight softening of fine detail and some noise and artifacts in the red, green and blue colour channels that make up the colour image.…

www.dxo.com DxO PhotoLab 8 is the latest version of DxO’s flagship photo editing software. It’s an alternative to Adobe Lightroom and Capture One, with a little less emphasis on photo organising and cataloguing tools and a lot more on high-quality raw processing. If you shoot raw files to get the best possible quality from your camera, then DxO PhotoLab 8 should be considered among the best photo editing software apps around. PhotoLab 8’s key features include DxO’s proprietary DeepPRIME noise reduction and detail enhancement process, which can achieve amazing results with high-ISO images, and its lab-derived lens correction profiles that not only correct distortion, corner shading and chromatic aberration, but also the progressive loss of sharpness towards the edges of the frame. PhotoLab 8 also has powerful local adjustment tools…

www.lightroomkillertips.com Alegendary name in photography education, Kelby is the president and CEO of KelbyOne, the online educational community for photographers, Photoshop and Lightroom users. As well as being a best-selling author of photography books, Kelby also hosts the hugely popular photo talk show, ‘The Grid’. Can you give us a flavour of your upcoming talk? One of my talks is called ‘The Stuff Other Photographers Won’t Tell You’. The kind of things that photographers will talk about with each other at the bar after a shoot but they won’t talk about publicly or to a large group of photographers. I talk about those things in a plain and straight-to-the-point way and it opens a lot of people’s eyes. I’ve been fortunate enough to do a similar talk and people would…

Scott Kelby Photographer The legendary name in photography education returns to the UK in March to speak at The Photography & Video Show. We get a taste of his talks on page 114 Will Cheung Photographer and writer A fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and the former editor of many photography titles, Cheung is the man behind Camera Clinic, which continues on page 62 Sujata Setia Fine-art photographer Also appearing at the show is Sujata Setia, winner of the Sony World Photography Awards 2024 Creative category. Find out more about her work on page 119 Kaylee Greer Dog photographer Greer has travelled extensively for her art, recently clocking up 10,000 miles on a coast-to-coast photo road trip in the US. We get the full story from page 8 Courtney…

1 | CREATIVE Photographing history with Lego bricks Professional toy photographer Benedek Lampert recreates the ill-fated Endurance expedition Sir Ernest Shackleton and his ship, the Endurance, make a captivating story. In 1915, his planned expedition to Antarctica ran into the ice of the Weddell Sea and, despite minimal chances of survival, Shackleton and his crew managed to escape its grip. Their perseverance and struggle remain an inspiration to this day and this is what captured my attention and motivated me to create a photo series in tribute. Since this is a true story, I needed to think in terms of a series, as one image wouldn’t suffice. It was also important to preserve the atmosphere and make the images resemble the original archival photos as closely as possible, which I…

THIRD PLACE, Plants ‘Flowing Kelp’ Sigfrido Zimmermann (USA) “As a marine biologist working in southern California, I am lucky to have the opportunity to scuba dive in kelp forests. This image was made during a surface interval between dives at one of my favourite dive sites on Santa Barbara Island in the Channel Islands National Park. My goal was to evoke a calm flow throughout the image to help show the elegance of giant kelp. “In this photograph, you can see the giant kelp’s pneumatocysts (gas-filled bladders), blades and stipe. The pneumatocysts help the kelp to stay upright in the water column. The blades or leaf-like structures are where photosynthesis occurs. The stipe holds everything together. In ideal conditions, giant kelp can grow at a rate of up to two…

If you take a series of shots of any outdoor scene at different times of the day without moving your camera, some shots will be more pleasing than others. So what’s the difference? Often the best landscapes convey not just a sense of place, but also an atmosphere. This can be created by natural light, which is why the hour or so around sunset and sunrise is such a great time to go out with your camera. The low angle of the sun creates directional light that rakes across the scene, highlighting forms and shapes and emphasising the rise and fall of the land. Colour changes at these times, too – often every few minutes. First, the scene can be bathed in warm light, then the cool blue of twilight.…

If you can pitch up at a scene and immediately nail the perfect composition, then you’re lucky. The rest of us rely on compositional pointers and some trial and error. The rule of thirds can be a useful springboard here. We simply divide the frame into three and position points of interest either along the third lines or at their intersections. Diagonal lines are another good starting point as they are more pleasing to the eye. Place points of interest along diagonals that run 45º from the corners of the frame. Keep these rules in mind if you’re struggling to hit upon the right composition. You might find it helpful to keep a note in your camera bag. We can also call upon handy aesthetic devices. The simplest and probably…

If you’re shooting at the start or the end of the day then the conditions will change rapidly. You might find that one part of a scene looks perfect at a certain moment, while a different area looks better in the next moment. If you have a tripod, then you can leave your camera in position and shoot several frames at different times (or even set up for a timelapse). Later on, you might find that blending two photos taken at slightly different times results in a stronger image. This can be especially useful in the half hour or so before sunset when the land is bathed in warm directional light. At a moment like this, the land might look spectacular but the sky might become more vivid a little…

This month: Photo projects Power up your photography by giving your imaging a greater purpose Will Cheung An imaging journalist and freelance photographer based in London, Cheung has a wealth of experience over several decades. www.williamcheung.co.uk One of the biggest challenges for the keen camera user is staying enthused and this is why photo projects are invaluable. The premise of setting yourself photo projects or themes to shoot is to help focus your creative energies that enhance your‘seeing’ skills as well as offer reasons to enjoy all that expensive camera kit. The word ‘project’ sounds worthy but don’t let it put you off. In this context, what I mean by a project is a set or series of photos that explores the subject, scene or event more deeply than a…

Q I’m after a reasonably priced full-frame DSLR with a ‘proper’ optical viewfinder that gives fast autofocus in Live View mode. Is there a used option that fits the bill? Tom Armstrong A Matthew recommends… Canon EOS 6D Mark II This and the Nikon D780 have hybrid phase/contrast detection autofocus in Live View mode. Unless you need 4K UHD video, the 6D II is better value. Released (year): 2017 Price new: £1,349/$1,399 ‘Excellent’ £725/$830 ‘Good’ £685/$775 I believe the EOS 6D Mark II doesn’t get the acclaim it deserves. I bought one in 2017 and immediately felt it was a major step up from the (already excellent) first edition. A key feature is the autofocus system, which combines a 45-point viewfinder-based AF module (all cross-type points) with Canon’s excellent Dual Pixel CMOS…

www.lksamyang.com The Samyang Remaster Slim is one of those lenses that needs explaining. Indeed, the bit that looks like a lens isn’t actually a lens; it’s a module into which you insert one of three, tiny, hot-swappable lenses: a 21mm, 28mm or 32mm. Essentially, the Samyang Remaster Slim is a pancake lens where you can swap the elements, like Lensbaby lenses allow you to swap optics. The difference is that it’s incredibly slim and boasts autofocus and electronic aperture control. It’s mad but brilliant. After all, if you’re the sort of person who wants a pancake lens, you’ll probably also want your lenses to be small. Rather than three pancakes, Samyang (Rokinon in the US) made one pancake with three lenses you can switch out in the smallest lens system…

This festival of all things still and moving images runs for four days at the ExCeL exhibition centre at London’s Royal Victoria Dock. Organiser Future Publishing (Digital Camera’s parent company) has been working flat out to make the show an unmissable one and you can get a flavour of what to see below and on the opposite page. In fact, there’s so much to enjoy that a multi-day ticket makes sense (one- to four-day tickets are available). And getting to ExCeL couldn’t be easier, as Custom House station, on the Elizabeth Line and DLR, serves one of the venue’s main pedestrian entrances. www.photographyshow.com Your favourite photo brands will be there… 1 The major camera and photography brands will be out in force at the show, including Adobe, Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon, OM…

www.courtneyvictoriaphotography.com This British photographer has her own YouTube channel with videos about outdoor photography, the techniques and creative processes involved and how to get inspired. She uses Nikon and OM System camera kit, plus accessories by Vanguard and Kase. How long have you been into photography, what inspired you to start and did you learn formally or are you self-taught? My journey began during my fine art degree at Aberystwyth University in 2009, where I discovered the magic of processing negatives and developing my own images in a darkroom. It wasn’t until 2016 that my love for landscape photography emerged, while I was living in South Korea – the country’s rich history and intriguing landscapes inspired me to capture its beauty. I took a few courses to grasp manual shooting…