Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 267 i Digital Photographer

“I’ve got big plans!” These are the words every creative person on Earth has uttered at the start of a project or business venture, either to themselves or to a supportive, and diplomatically enthusiastic, friend or family member. Aiming big isn’t always the route to success, however, as it is easy to lose oneself in dreams of fortunes and global recognition. It is often the little ideas, carefully nurtured and focused, that lead to long-term creative fulfilment. This issue, we open with our Shoot Like A Pro feature on p14, where photographer John Erwin demonstrates how he has built up his business shooting local landmarks and selling prints. Discover the secrets to becoming recognised at a regional level and the benefits this can bring. Next, furthering our theme of simplicity,…

After years of rumours, the Nikon Z8 has finally been announced by the Big N – and, as expected, it is a ‘baby Z9’ in terms of both specs and price, which incredibly is around a thousand pounds less than the flagship camera. Indeed, the company itself used those words in describing the Nikon Z8, saying, “In a nutshell, it is the baby Z9,” while also labelling it, “the true successor to the Nikon D850”. Essentially, the Z8 is a Nikon Z9 in a regular body (it doesn’t have an integrated vertical grip or high-capacity battery). So, naturally, it packs all the same specs: a 45MP stacked sensor, 8K 60p and 4K 120p video, up to 120fps burst shooting, an exclusively electronic shutter, and intelligent AF built on deep learning.…

Hot on the heels of the Inspire 3, DJI has launched the Mavic 3 Pro, yet another variant of the high-end folding drone with a triple-camera gimbal – one wide and two tele cameras. The new camera system can be operated as a hybrid camera, with a pinch and zoom mode, or restricted to the three optical focal lengths. These are 24mm, the original Hasselblad camera first seen on the Mavic 3, with new 70mm and 166mm modes. While the previous Mavic 3 drone features a 7x camera, this is a new lens to improve resolution. The maximum flight time will be around 43 minutes with the new camera block. The Mavic 3 will be the new flagship drone for the consumer/ prosumer range and is being offered in both…

Capturing the entire dynamic range can sometimes be a challenge for your camera, especially when areas of both bright light and dark shadows are present. Hardware filters and exposure bracketing are two ways in which we can manage exposure differences and capture high-contrast scenes. Hardware filters, such as those made by Lee filters, reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor and balance the exposure between foreground and background. They are preferable to exposure bracketing as you only need to shoot one image instead of several frames at different exposures. Using a graduated neutral density filter in-camera helps to hold back the brightness of the sky, giving the correct exposure without the need to blend exposures in post-production. When it is not possible to capture the entire exposure range in…

With DSLR or mirrorless cameras, we have the luxury of investing in equipment such as highquality lenses, for example, that can gradually improve our experience over time. However, this isn’t possible with a smartphone camera, so when choosing a model, it is important to pay attention to the sensor size, megapixels, lens and aperture. All of these in combination will influence the quality of your images. It is often assumed that cameras with the highest pixel counts deliver the best picture quality. This is partly true, but the sensor size also plays a role. Each pixel needs a certain distance from the others to perform optimally. A high pixel pitch can mean greater resolution, but lower signal capture causes sensor noise to become more visible. Since it is not possible…

Photographer: Chris Owen Title: Yr Wyddfa Location: Pont Pen-y-Llyn, Llanberis, Wales @chris_owen_photography About the shot: Kayakers enjoy an evening paddle on Llyn Padarn beneath the snow-capped peaks of Yr Wyddfa. Chris Owen took this image from the village of Brynrefail near Llanberis, at the heart of the Snowdonia National Park. This lakeside spot is popular with photographers and couples posing for wedding day photos. Tag us @dphotographermag for a chance to feature here Every issue, we’ll be sharing the best images from our Instagram community. Tag us on @dphotographermag for a chance to appear as our Shot of the Month. WIN! SAMSUNG 256GB PRO PLUS MICRO SDXC MEMORY CARD WITH SD ADAPTER Every issue, one Digital Photographer reader wins a Samsung 256GB PRO Plus MicroSDXC memory card with SD adapter.…

GROUP TEST The contenders 1 Radiant Photo £159/$159 2 Affinity Photo 2 £59.99/$69.99 3 Adobe Photoshop £9.98/$9.99 per month 4 Adobe Lightroom £9.98/$9.99 per month 5 Skylum Luminar Neo £129/$149 6 DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite £199/$219 7 Exposure X7 £134/$129 8 Capture One 23 £24/$24 per month For a long time, Photoshop was considered the definitive professional photo editor, and still is by many. But today, when it’s compared to other software, its specialist focus and limitations become apparent. Photoshop may still be the best for in-depth photo editing, manipulation and compositing, but it’s really designed for working in-depth on individual images. Lightroom, for example, is better suited to busy photography, where it can quickly display, organise and enhance whole batches of…

DOWNLOAD TEST SHOTS https://bit.ly/3IxUT66 PRICE: £2,999/$2,797 FOCUS DISTANCE: 0.85m WEIGHT: 1,160g Build and handling For DSLRs, Canon has been making 85mm f/1.2 lenses for around 35 years. By contrast, Nikon’s F-mount prime lenses with autofocus generally topped out at f/1.4. That’s surprising because Nikon launched a manual-focus 50mm f/1.2 AI lens way back in 1978. There’s no denying that this is a chunky lens. It’s about an inch longer than the competing Canon RF 85mm f/1.2 lens, but it feels perfectly manageable and well-balanced on a full-frame Z system body. Build quality feels solid, as you’d expect in a lens at this price, with multiple weather-seals fitted around all of the joints. Meanwhile, handling is enhanced by the inclusion of a customisable L-fn button and a smooth, precise, electronically-coupled manual…

To master exposure technically, we first need to touch on the exposure triangle. Balancing the three components of aperture, shutter speed and ISO helps to control the volume of light accessing the sensor and is paramount to producing a perfectly exposed image. When these are set correctly according to the light falling on your subject, you will produce the best image possible. A well-balanced, detailed and correct exposure will result when shooting with a predetermined ISO and selecting the favoured shutter speed or aperture, such as f/11, f/16 or f/22 for landscapes. A correct exposure is one where the camera has captured all the details in the shadow and highlight areas without any loss of information, resulting in an evenly exposed photo. As humans, our eyes are incredibly efficient at…

Mastering exposure is one of the most fundamental elements you can learn in photography to help bring your creative vision to life. With the variable light that can be present within a scene, getting the correct exposure in camera is crucial. While this is less of a restriction today than for photographers shooting on film, for example, a correct image in-camera is likely to be of a higher quality. That said, photography is a creative medium and the definition of ‘good’ or ‘correct’ images is subject to personal preference. There are also differences between the practical considerations and artistic ones. It isn’t always desirable to have a perfectly centred exposure. There are times when underexposing by a small amount can add drama and colour saturation to an otherwise flat scene.…

“We stumbled across this sunflower field while we were in Northern Ireland. I was using a wide-angle lens so Ciri’s face looks extra large” Cat Race & Michael Higginson Together known as CatsDog, this dynamic duo of dog photographers aim to create loud and colourful portraits, capturing canine characters through epic adventures. Founded in the UK by Cat in 2013, CatsDog is now recognised internationally, and their award-winning work has taken them all over the globe. www.catsdog.co.uk @catsdogphotography Youtube: CatsDog Photography Do you remember those red and yellow Fisher-Price plastic cameras that were popular in the 1980s and 90s? That’s where it all began for pet photographer Cat Race. Influenced early on by her parents, who were keen amateur photographers, Cat’s initial passion for photography was transformed into a career…

For our latest competition in association with Photocrowd, we challenged you to submit your best painterly portraits and, after working through all the entries, the winners have been selected. As a prize, the expert winners will win a licence to Affinity Photo professional editing software. Congratulations to all of the winners – as usual, the standard of submitted images was extremely high and it was a difficult task to select the best ones. 1 STPLACE WINNER Talisker Photographer: Paul Curd   Our comment: What a cinematic image! We love the low-key lighting that lends the shot a wonderful film-noir style. There is just the right amount of detail visible, which adds to the drama of the scene. The character is perfectly posed too. Nicely put together, demonstrating excellent lighting and…

Price: £8,300/$9,195 Sometimes, reviewing cameras for a living isn’t easy. For example, how do you objectively compare a highly specialised camera aimed at the upper echelons of photography connoisseurs with the all-bells-and-whistles best mirrorless cameras? While cameras such as the Sony A7R V or Canon EOS R3 are technical marvels, the Leica M11 Monochrom is almost the exact opposite. It’s a rangefinder design, manual focus only, black and white sensor camera, that doesn’t shoot video and costs nearly the same as those two aforementioned cameras combined. On paper, it should be laughed out of the room. But this is Leica, a company renowned for its prestige design and build that attract only the most well-heeled photography enthusiasts, who aren’t seeking groundbreaking technology, but instead the image quality and the sheer…

VANGUARD VEO CB24 CROSS BODY BAG Website: www.vanguardworld.co.uk Price: £90/$112 (approx) Available in green, grey or blue, this threelitre bag is the smallest cross-body bag in Vanguard’s City range. It has a tough water-resistant outer but comes with a rain cover and is capable of holding a mirrorless camera and a small zoom lens, plus a few other accessories. VANGUARD VEO3+ 303CBS WITH DUAL AXIS BALL HEAD Website: www.vanguardworld.co.uk Price: £500/$625 (approx) As well as this carbon fibre tripod kit, Vanguard makes an aluminium version of the Veo 3+ 303 tripod and both are available with or without a head. This is Vanguard’s most stable tripod to date and features a centre column that can be moved by almost 360° in any direction. WESTERN DIGITAL RED PRO NAS HARD DRIVE…

Canon has expanded its RF mirrorless camera line to a total of 14 with the new EOS R100 and takes the RF lens tally up to 35 with the RF 28mm f/2.8 STM. The EOS R100 becomes the most affordable entry point into Canon’s RF camera line and is the spiritual successor to the Canon EOS 2000D entry-level DSLR. The EOS R100 uses the RF mount so can be paired with a full-frame RF or APS-C RF-S lens. It features the 24.1MP APS-C sensor from the Canon M50 Mark II but has been optimised. It also has Dual Pixel CMOS AF Mark I across about 88% of the frame, a DIGIC 8 processor, 3.5fps burst mode, 4K video a fixed non-touch 3in 1.04m-dot screen and a 2.36m-dot EVF. Canon’s RF…

Tamron has revealed it has redesigned the existing Sony-fit 11-20mm f/2.8 Di III-A RXD for Fujifilm X-mount, making it the fourth Tamron lens for the Fujifilm APS-C mirrorless system. With a full-frame equivalent focal range of 16.5-30mm, paired with a constant f/2.8 aperture and low 335g mass, this lightweight lens is ideal for travel and landscape photography. It focuses down to an impressive 15cm at 11mm, which with the maximum magnification ratio of 1:4, allows for creative close-ups. Constructed of 12 elements in 10 groups, the lens also incorporates two Glass Molded Aspherical elements to improve sharpness, with one eXtra Low Dispersion and two Low Dispersion elements to reduce fringing. Tamron’s BBAR-G2 coating suppresses ghosting and flare, along with a moisture- and grease-resistant fluorine coating on the front element. Further…

Knowing when to use aperture or shutter priority can help control exposure creatively. Even pros can get stuck in a cycle of using the same modes out of habit. Capturing seascapes and the dramatic flows of the ocean crashing against the rocks is a great time to choose shutter priority. The shutter time has a significant impact on the desired exposure. Slowing down the exposure can help blur the water’s movement, add motion and result in a creatively correct exposure. This can be more interesting than freezing the water with a faster shutter speed. If your aim is to be inventive with the depth of field while exposing accurately, shoot in aperture mode and vary the focus. A striking portrait of a surfer captured at f/2.8 looks different to one…

As the famous Chase Jarvis quote goes, “The best camera is the one that’s with you,” and for most people these days, that’s likely to be the smartphone in your pocket. So unless you are carrying your bulky DSLR or mirrorless camera equipment around with you, a smartphone is often the next best thing. Smartphone cameras have come on leaps and bounds over the past few years. Even mid-range models now feature powerful devices and many of us may not be aware of the sophisticated technology that now makes them comparable in quality to the compact digital cameras of a few years ago. “Mobile phone photography is a great way to capture memories and moments on the go,” says professional smartphone photographer Himanshu Roy. “Smartphone cameras have made great strides…

If you want to take your smartphone photography to the next level, additional lenses are great tools to discover. As many genres in photography require taking a different technical approach, we are used to quickly and easily changing the lens of our DSLR or mirrorless camera. Extra lenses for the smartphone camera work in the same way although they are much lighter and smaller, of course. Smartphone lenses are easy to use and they attach quickly to your phone. Their metal structure means they are more durable and resistant than you’d expect, making them the ideal equipment for travelling. In addition, the extra lenses are compatible with various smartphone models, even from different brands, and are significantly cheaper than the pro gear for digital cameras. When considering whether to invest…

Lr LIGHTROOM TUTORIAL There are many techniques that can only be applied in Photoshop, but as the number of controls available in Lightroom increases, you can do much more with your RAW files. Using Texture, Clarity and Dehaze for a more ethereal look requires a slightly different approach to how these controls are often used. However, the result is similar to the Orton Effect, with a soft glow and increased haze added to your photos. What you’ll be using ●Presence controls ●Lens Corrections ●Basic controls ●Tone Curve ●Calibration KEY TIP THE ORTON EFFECT IN LIGHTROOM By reducing both Texture and Clarity to around -25, the result is essentially the Orton Effect, where overall sharpness is maintained but a subtle blur is also added to the image that works well with…

Are you excited or worried about AI technology and how do you think it will change the photography industry? The answer is both! I’m excited to see what happens with features such as autofocus and to see the ease at which image processing will progress – creating masks and editing and all of that sort of thing. Bear in mind that we can’t stop it though and it’s just the way the world is going. As photographers, the most important thing we can do is tap into it, learn from it and see where it will take us. For example, wedding photographers in the future may need to shoot lots of video and then use AI technology to create still images from the footage. I don’t know how that would…

The Close Up Photographer of the Year Since it was launched in 2018, the Close Up Photographer of the Year competition has become one of the most respected photography competitions for the genres of micro, macro and close-up. Supported by Affinity Photo 2, CUPOTY celebrates photographers with a passion for capturing things that we often miss with our eyes – from microscopic bacteria and algae to delicate mushrooms and striking insects. For further details on the 2023 contest, visit cupoty.com…

96 Image-editing software Photo editing programs have evolved, so is Adobe Photoshop still the best around or have its rivals finally caught up? Rod Lawton tests eight software packages to find out 104 Leica M11 Monochrom Leica’s iconic black-and-white camera is back and better than ever. But our expert reviewer Gareth Bevan wonders whether a limited feature set means it’s worth the £8,300 price 108 Profoto A2 The A2 is a powerful, portable flash-light, designed with the travelling photographer in mind. Hannah Rooke puts it to the test 110 Lenses Every issue, we take two professional optics out into the field to test their performance. This month, it’s the turn of the Nikon Z 85mm f/1.2 S and the Sigma 17mm f/4 DG DN | C 112 Accessories It’s the…

Recently, I had the pleasure of inviting Michael James Shaw, a well-known actor who has appeared in popular TV shows including The Walking Dead and Limitless, to my Los Angeles studio for a photoshoot. As a professional photographer, I’m always seeking out exceptional people to pose for my projects and Michael was the perfect candidate for this particular shoot. For the photoshoot, I used a Hasselblad X1D II camera with a 90mm F3.5 lens, which is an excellent combination for portrait photography. The camera’s large sensor and high resolution allowed me to capture stunning image quality, while the 90mm F3.5 lens created a shallow depth of field that beautifully blurred the background and brought the viewer’s attention to Michael’s face. Additionally, my camera was set to f/5.6, which enabled me…