TechLife的January 2020目录

I’M ONE OF those annoying types who constantly demands all around them must stop so they can take “that perfect shot”. Walking in the city at night? Gotta capture those wonderful neon light installations in Chinatown. On the street? Wait, that graffiti is too cool to ignore. Even in my apartment; WAIT! That sunset is perfect, open the window. And with Summer now in full swing, you just know I’m going to be taking the advice given in our Superguide this month – those hazy afternoons (even if it is mostly bushfire haze, which is more than a bit concerting really), well... too cool to ignore! And with the holidays coming up, it’ll be great chance to catch up with the decade’s best games. I’m embarrassed to say that more…

APPLE’S NEW 16-INCH MACBOOK PRO ALMOST CRACKS $10K SPEND A LITTLE MORE THAN TEN BUCKS ON A CASE, WE RECKON. Apple recently announced that a new 16-inch MacBook Pro would be taking the place of its 15-inch model, but with this new screen size comes a new extreme price. If you want to fully spec it out, you’ll be looking at $9,679 worth of laptop. This nets you a ridiculous 8TB of SSD storage and 64GB of RAM, amongst other things. INTEL’S ATOM LIVES ON THE CHEAPEST CHIP. The first revamped Atom CPU is expected to be seen in new low-powered devices soon – possibly before the end of this year. The Lakefield CPU is the first of the new family and is intended for laptops. Built using a 10nm+…

Tim Berners-Lee, regarded as the creator of the worldwide web, talked last year about a new plan for the internet, designed to protect it from ‘sources of dysfunction’. Now that contract – yes, it’s that official – has been revealed. The Contract for the Web sets out a number of core guiding principles for governments, companies, and users of the web themselves, to try and make the online landscape a better place on a number of different fronts. Tech giants will actually have to sign up to support the contract – which comprises of 76 clauses in total – and actively abide by it (or at least that’s the theory). Google, Facebook and Microsoft are among the big tech giants to have already signed up, among 150+ other firms, although…

FROM WHAT WE’VE seen of it so far, Disney Plus is a force to be reckoned with. Out of the gate Disney’s streaming service offers 4K HDR streaming with dozens of shows and movies for a scant $8.99 with the ability to setup multiple profiles and download shows for offline viewing. There isn’t as much content as we’d like on launch day but what’s there is enough to fill a few weeks worth of movie nights, especially if you’re a fan of Marvel movies and Pixar films. It’s tough to say if Disney will be able to release shows at a fast-enough pace for consumption considering its current stance on syndicated content (*cough* there isn’t any) but the groundwork of the platform is rock-solid. So what, exactly, can you expect…

unchecky.com We all love free software, but we don’t love sneaky software – if you’ve ever clicked through an installer and not paid quite enough attention while doing it, you’ll know how painful dealing with the little ‘extras’ many packages tack on can be. Unchecky makes that process so much easier: it knows when you’re running a software installation, it can sniff out those devious checkboxes and, as its name suggests, it can uncheck them on your behalf. No more unwanted software, no more bundled adware. If an installer is dodgy, if it’s going to install that software anyway, but it’s likely Unchecky already knows about it. Install something suspect and it’ll flash up a big warning so you know exactly what you’re getting in to. Unchecky has a minimal…

WITH THE HOLIDAY season now well and truly upon us, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer number of gifts needed to be bought for your many friends and family. Rather than volunteer as tribute in the battle that is visiting your local shopping centre, why not give Etsy a go. Over the last two months we’ve looked at buying and selling goods on the popular online shopping site eBay, but now we’re shifting gears towards a store of a different kind – one specialising in unique, handmade and one-of-a-kind items sold by people all over the world. Described as a global marketplace of independent micro-businesses, Etsy says its mission is to “keep commerce human”. On the site you’ll find hundreds of thousands of stores selling anything from personalised…

We’re not going to lie – compiling this list almost saw our team come to blows more than once. We have many decades of gaming between us, and many decades of strong opinions to match... Happily, over the years we’ve also come to appreciate the role that a firm set of guidelines can have in ensuring participants don’t start duking it out next to the office water-cooler. Only one game per series was allowed, and only one per developer or publisher; these rules helped stave off the Dark Souls vs Bloodborne argument, and averted a battle for supremacy between Breath Of The Wild and Skyward Sword. The key is always the adjective: we decided that, rather than seek to name the best games of the 2010s – something every outlet…

THE STANDARD DESKTOP MODEL IN THE CONCEPTD RANGE (WHICH INCLUDES LAPTOPS, MONITORS, AND MORE) IS A HIGH-POWERED SYSTEM, MEANT TO INTEGRATE SEAMLESSLY AND UNOBTRUSIVELY INTO OFFICE SPACES WITH A SIMPLE, AESTHETICALLY PLEASING DESIGN. ACER HAS ZEROED in on a key problem with the computer hardware market: Content creators are experiencing a dearth of purpose-built systems, instead opting to buy powerful gaming PCs for their 4K video-editing needs. That wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, if it weren’t for the fact that many working professionals don’t want a giant, glowing RGB unit shooting red and blue lighting all over the place. So, the ConceptD 500. The standard desktop model in the ConceptD range (which includes laptops, monitors, and more) is a high-powered system, meant to integrate seamlessly and unobtrusively into office spaces…

The reason most photographers don’t like summer is because the quality of light is generally less photogenic than other seasons. The Sun rises quickly and gets high in the sky, meaning harsh shadows and little textural relief. There is more atmospheric haze, which can result in the landscape appearing flat and washed out. The day length makes things tricky, too. Let’s face it, getting on location in time to set up for sunrise is a real effort and staying out for sunset will get in the way of family life. While it’s definitely worth making the effort once in a while, there are ways of creating successful landscape images in the less photogenic times of day when the light is harsher. Shooting monochrome is one option. Harsher, more contrasty light…

Flowers From late spring until mid-summer, bushlands, fields and pastures come alive with flowers. Bluebells flower in woods during May, as does thrift on coastal cliff tops. In June and July, fields of poppies stretch into the distance – and in recent years, pale pink opium poppies have also been grown for pharmaceutical use, though you’ll need to photograph from a distance, as most pharmaceutial fields are strictly regulated in Australia. In mid to late August, heather blooms, covering Tasmanian hillsides with purple, while Christmas plants and waratah make for strikingly red compositions. To shoot wild flowers, you can get in close with a wide angle lens to exaggerate perspective or use the compression effect of a telephoto to create the impression of a thick carpet. Alternatively, use a macro…

Probably even more so than standard colour files, infrared images need to be processed to achieve their full potential. When they are first opened in the raw converter, they are quite a long way from the finished article, usually lacking in contrast and being almost sepia in appearance. In this tutorial we’re going to look at monochrome infrared, re-creating the look of black and white infrared film. 01 IMPORT THE FILE. Import the file into Lightroom and open it up into the Develop module. The histogram has space either side of the tones, indicating that it is somewhat lacking in contrast, and it has a somewhat sepia cast – normal for infrared files. 02 BASIC BLACK & WHITE CONVERSION. In the Treatment bar, click on Black & White, to render…

01 FLICKR. While known as a great platform for showcasing work, Flickr’s search features allow rapid recall of images tagged with appropriate keywords. Functionality is simple, while a map can be displayed if the uploader provided location data. The vast number of image contributors creates an inclusive database of preview images even of lesser-known sites. 02 GOOGLE MAPS. Providing interactive remote exploration of even the most geographically distant location, Google Maps and Street View offer a fantastic resource for assessing terrain, checking accessibility and planning potential compositions. Due to coverage and challenges of scouting affordability, these are especially useful for travel and cityscape locations. Save permalinks to maps for instant recall. 03 SOCIAL MEDIA. While not necessarily the best choice of photographic repository, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram provide an exhaustive…

01 PRE-DAWN. Before the sun rises, the cool hues in the sky complement foregrounds with good contrast and illumination. Cityscapes or landscapes with artificial light sources are perfect scenes for this time, as are reflective bodies of water. Reflective foregrounds can appear dull due to low contrast. 02 SUNRISE Once the sun is up contrast is much higher. The surface of water can quickly lose highlight detail, so look for compositions with a lower perspective to minimise their visibility in the frame, while featuring the sun and its directional lighting in the frame. 03 MIDDAY/AFTERNOON While not ideal for many landscapes, high-contrast midday lighting compliments modern architecture or strong black and white landscapes. This may not be the best time to scout locations as the light is not representative of…

Composition is likely the foremost ingredient on a photographer’s mind when location scouting, whether the intention is to capture a pre-planned frame, or to seek out effective images at an unfamiliar site. The question we should ask ourselves before heading out to find a location is whether our choice of composition will affect our selection of site, or if the inverse is true and we are willing to adapt our framing decisions, based on the picture opportunities provided by the location. This can help us form a structured plan of what to look for, what we hope to achieve in the final results and therefore the lengths we are willing to go to capture these target images. More challenging locations often provide image opportunities with a higher perceived worth by…

01 OPEN YOUR IMAGE Load an image suffering from camera shake. This image had to be shot handheld due to newly introduced restrictions on tripod use. Use Filter>Sharpen>Shake Reduction to load the filter dialogue to improve apparent detail. 02 ADJUST FILTER STRENGTH Move the Blur Trace Boundary slider to change the radius of the filter effect. For stronger blur use a higher setting. For the best results add more blur sources to customise the effect on a more local basis. 03 REDUCE NOISE Since the Shake Reduction Filter is essentially a sharpening tool, the process can introduce grain. If this occurs, as happened on this high ISO file, move the Smoothing Slider to compensate. Be cautious not to blur too much detail.…

WITH A TRACKPAD OR MAGIC MOUSE, CHECK MISSION CONTROL’S GESTURE IS ENABLED IN THE RESPECTIVE SYSTEM PREFERENCES PANE. MISSION CONTROL SHRINKS AND SPREADS OUT YOUR WINDOWS — CLICK THE ONE YOU WANT TO BRING TO THE FOREGROUND. MISSION CONTROL PROVIDES an overview of windows and ways to organise them. Enter it by pressing the key with three small rectangles. It’s in the top row on a traditional Mac keyboard, and in the Control Strip on one with a Touch Bar. With a trackpad or Magic Mouse, check Mission Control’s gesture is enabled in the respective System Preferences pane. Mission Control shrinks and spreads out your windows – click the one you want to bring to the foreground. At the top is a bar where you create and organize them. When…

REIN IN YOUR SONICS EDIT, ORGANISE AND BURN WITH ASHAMPOO MUSIC STUDIO 2019. FULL VERSION WORTH $30 Ashampoo Music Studio 2019 is a fully-featured music software suite used to edit, rip, organise and burn music and sounds in general. You can even design fitting covers for your projects, create device-compatible playlists or turn your songs into the perfect mix tape for your next party! Download link: www.ashampoo.com/techlife MAINTAIN PEACE OF MIND AVERT THE SCOURGE OF HACKERS WITH ABELSSOFT HACKCHECK. FULL VERSION WORTH $50 HackCheck takes your email addresses and instantly checks if they have been stolen during a hacking attack. The program tells you which online service has been compromised and in which way – and recommends that you immediately change the password. The program runs a new test every…

Brave is a web browser that promises to maintain the privacy of its users, protecting them from a variety of third-party ads, autoplaying videos, and trackers. Since launching the beta in January 2016, Brave was drawing in eight million monthly users before it officially let loose its first stable release. A good majority of web ads include some form of tracker that ties your identity to your browsing habits in order to better target you for advertising, and Brave blocks these. While users may rejoice at the idea of not being fed any intrusive advertising, ad-blocking does negatively affect the websites that serve those ads. Brave is claiming to offer a solution to this imbalance via a rewards program in which users can earn tokens by “viewing privacy-respecting ads” and…

PRO PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE a demanding lot and Sony knows exactly how to please them. The Sony Alpha A7R IV comes in with some impressive specs and features, including a bump in sensor resolution and the addition of near-perfect real-time tracking for eye autofocus (AF) when following both human and animal subjects for stills and video. There are some significant improvements to the camera’s weatherproofing as well and, to cater to the click-happy pros, there’s now dual UHS-II SD card slots. The 63MP sensor spits out 61MP photos with a promise of up to 15EV (exposure value) stops of dynamic range. That means your images will be bursting at the seams with details in both shadows and highlights. While 61MP images sound impressive, it’s likely going to be overkill for the…

PASSWORDS ARE A big issue for security. They’re the keys to your accounts, yes, but imagine that someone had swiped a copy of your house key without you knowing: they’d be able to get in whenever they liked until you wised up and changed the locks. If one of the services you use online has had some kind of password breach – perhaps their own security was not strong enough, or a hacker stumbled upon a master key – the problem could be even worse than that. Your credentials could be floating around any number of illicit communities, your house keys copied and handed out to every ne’er do well in the dark corners of the pub. But how would you know? First of all, you’ll need to keep a…

10.12.19 IS WHEN THE NEXT BIG WINDOWS 10 UPDATE WILL BE AVAILABLE. KNOWN AS 19H2 AS IT HAS PASSED THROUGH THE INSIDER TESTING RINGS, THE FINAL NAME IS THE WINDOWS 10 NOVEMBER 2019 UPDATE. BRACE YOURSELVES. 360% IS THE SHOCKING RISE IN TAX-BASED PHONE SCAMS BEING REPORTED. THERE WERE 60,000 SUCH INCIDENTS IN THE SIX MONTHS TO JANUARY 2019, OVER THREE TIMES HIGHER THAN THE PREVIOUS SIX MONTHS 171,000 WAS THE PEAK NUMBER OF VIEWERS OF THE OFFICIAL FORTNITE TWITCH CHANNEL AS THE POPULAR MULTIPLAYER GAME SAT THERE DOING NOTHING LAST MONTH. TO COVER SERVER UPGRADES ASSOCIATED WITH THE END OF ITS FIRST ‘CHAPTER’, THE ENTIRE GAME WORLD WAS SUCKED INTO A BLACK HOLE, WHICH STAYED FOR NEARLY TWO DAYS BEFORE REGURGITATING A NEW LEVEL. 24% OF AUSTRALIAN BUSINESSES PLAN…

STAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER BREAKS SALES RECORDS RESPAWN WANTS TO “KEEP TELLING” CAL’S STORY IN STAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER, AND EA’S LATEST SALES FIGURES ALMOST GUARANTEE A SEQUEL. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has become the fastest-selling digital Star Wars game in its first fortnight, and Electronic Arts’ best selling Star Wars PC title at launch, the publisher announced, beating both Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic against their original sales figures in the same period. RESIDENT EVIL 3 REMAKE IS REPORTEDLY COMING NEXT YEAR YOU GET REMAKE, AND YOU GET A REMAKE, AND… Resident Evil 3 is reportedly in active development at Capcom and will be released sometime next year, according to YouTuber Spawn Wave and multiple sources that spoke with Video Games…

“BOTH THE SURFACE LAPTOP 3S COME WITH IDENTICAL, SOFT AND RESPONSIVE, GLASS TRACKPADS AND SQUARE TEN-KEYLESS KEYBOARDS THAT ARE EASY TO USE.” WITH AMD DOMINATING the desktop CPU space this year, Microsoft has given it the opportunity to compete against Intel in the new Surface Laptop 3s. AMD was given the task of designing a custom CPU for the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3, while Intel was delegated the task of driving the less expensive 13-inch clamshell. Generally, laptop makers give the bigger units more grunt for creative professionals, while the smaller devices appeal to those looking for something that’s better value and more portabile – but because these units have competing chip makers driving them, they’re actually very different laptops that try to achieve different things. Before we dig into…

THE POWERBEATS PRO are the next logical step for Apple’s series of workout-focused earbuds – true wireless is the way of the future, obviously. And while Apple could’ve churned out a half-decent, sweat-resistant pair of true wireless buds and called it a day, the Powerbeats Pro are something special – they’re supremely comfortable, sound decent and seem to never, ever fall out. They might not be the best true wireless earbuds in Apple’s audio arsenal now that the AirPods Pro are here, but they are Apple’s most premium play into the true workout space, and are the buds we’d recommend to most workout enthusiasts. In terms of design, there’s a lot to like about the new Powerbeats Pro – it has a sport look to it, while still being practical…

THIS FOLLOW-UP TO Jabra’s excellent Elite 65t – one of the first sets of true wireless buds that ‘just worked’ – bundles together more than a dozen improvements in an effort to tackle with more-recent competitors, such as Beats’ Powerbeats Pro, Sony’s WF-1000XM3 and of course Apple’s AirPods. The upgrade has largely been a great success – as before, they’re comfortable and fast to both pair and reconnect, but the 75t’s more compact and discrete design also feels significantly tougher and more robust than its forebear’s, and they’re still exceptionally lightweight and well-balanced in terms of weight distribution. An extra 2.5 hours battery life, or 7.5 total, means they can effectively last a full working day, and the slimmed-down (and now USB-C) charging case somehow includes 3.5 additional full charges…

In Australia we tend to romanticise the summer as being full of long, warm days spent on the beach or at a local park, the reality is that the weather is often quite changeable: neither weeks of blazing sunshine nor unending rain but often quite a few heatwaves followed by thunderstorms. This unpredictability is actually great news though, as it can provide excellent opportunities if you get your timing right. Cloudy days can help diffuse the harsh sun and create interesting lighting effects even in the middle of the day. The sun poking through gaps in the clouds can create dappled lighting across the landscape or spotlight key features; with the right filtration and processing, these conditions can make very dramatic images. Cloudy days are also excellent for coastal photography:…

There are some filter effects that are difficult or even impossible to replicate in post-production: for example, removing glare from non-metallic surfaces with a polarising filter or extending exposure length with a neutral density filter. By removing glare, a polariser restores natural colour saturation and improves contrast; the resulting images have more ‘punch’. The effect is especially pronounced on foliage and blue skies, making it an essential filter for summer landscape photography. They are simple to use: polarisers have a rotating front element and as you turn it, you will see reflections and glare come and go, and blue skies darken and lighten. Simply rotate the filter while looking through the viewfinder until you see the effect you like. The effect can be very seductive and it is easy to…

01 Shoot coastal sunsets. You often get prolonged afterglows in summer. Make the most of the colour by shooting at the coast. 02 Shoot sunrise near water. After a cool, still night, shoot sunrise near lakes and rivers, where you may find mist rising. 03 Take enough layers. If staying out for sunset, remember that the temperature can drop rapidly in the evening, so pack suitable layers. 04 Anticipiate thunderstorms. Hot weather often brings thunderstorms. Look out for the build up of cumulonimbus clouds, which make dramatic skyscapes. 05 Embrace bad weather. Most summers, you will get some rainfall. On rainy days, shoot bush interiors or waterfalls – get creative with ND filters. 06 Respect nature. Don’t walk into the middle of fields of crops or flowers; this can cause…

TPE is an established method of calculating lighting for future shoots. Available as a web interface or as an application for mobile devices, the software enables the photographer to enter information about the time and date of a proposed photoshoot and will display a diagram of where in the sky the sun or moon will be. This enables a shooting position to be chosen in advance and with accuracy, to deliver images with the ideal composition and an appropriate exposure.…

01 WORK WITHOUT A TRIPOD. While you may use camera support on your final shoot, working handheld when testing possible compositions allows you greater freedom to try creative framing options. A more rapid re-framing procedure enables a far more efficient visit. 02 VARY THE FOCAL LENGTH. Once you have secured some standard, ‘safe’ compositions, try changing lenses to experiment with framing options at other focal length extremes. A 70-200mm lens is an effective tool for isolating smaller location details or lightly compressing perspective. 03 SHOOT BOTH ORIENTATIONS. Switch to an alternative framing arrangement to see what effect this has on your images’ context. A portrait frame will emphasise foreground and scene depth. For every frame consider rotating the camera to maximise image possibilities in future shoots. 04 TAKE BEHIND-THE-SCENES SHOTS.…

01 MAKE BASIC TEMPERATURE ADJUSTMENTS. Open the RAW file in Camera RAW, Lightroom or Capture and adjust the white balance. Try selecting Shade from the Preset list and increase Temperature and Tint further, to introduce a warm cast. Increase Vibrance to improve understated colours. 02 OPEN IN PHOTOSHOP. Many of the steps in this tutorial can be conducted in Camera Raw but here we will use the power of layer masks in Photoshop to achieve more interactive colour control. Photoshop also offers multiple colour correction features, which can easily be combined 03 HUE/SATURATION. The first step is to strengthen the global warm cast. Create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and make small alterations to the Hue of the reds and yellows in the image, to emphasise the dominance of these colours.…

It is true that the best laid plans rarely solve all problems relating to getting what we want – a notion universally accepted by photographers with experience. Location scouting is an essential step towards ensuring we are as prepared as we can be to capture the best aspects of a site once we arrive, but there are certain factors we simply can’t account for in our planning. Nature is notoriously difficult to predict, hence the requirement for adaptability to weather, but there are other contributors to the success or failure of a photoshoot. For example, people play a larger role than is perhaps obvious in some genres. Even landscape photography can be impacted on by human factors. Land itself is often owned by an estate or individual, so it is…

[WINDOWS] Local accounts in Windows With the recently released 1903 update, I decided to reinstall Windows from scratch. During the setup process I was only given the option to create a Microsoft Account using an email address. Has the option to create a local account on a PC been scrapped? JAY DERBYSHIRE The local option is still present in the 1903 update, and in fact is slightly easier to find now – when prompted to create an account, click ‘Offline account’ followed by ‘No’. Some PC manufacturers have hidden the option during the setup process – if you can’t find it, restart the setup process while disconnected from the internet to hopefully force it into view. SOME PC MANUFACTURERS HAVE HIDDEN THE OPTION DURING THE SETUP PROCESS – IF YOU…

THE RAZER BLADE 15 Studio Edition is a mobile workstation that’s packed with some of the most powerful laptop components on the market today, and is part of Nvidia’s RTX Studio program, which brings its powerful RTX Quadro professional GPUs to laptops. While Razer is best known for creating gaming laptops, the Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition is aimed squarely at creative professionals – especially those who need a laptop or workstation that has some serious graphical grunt to render high resolution images, photos and videos. In many ways, Razer’s move to catering to creatives makes a lot of sense – after all, it’s excellent gaming laptops already pack some of the most powerful mobile components into thin and portable bodies. By keeping largely the same hardware (except for the…

THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF a new installment of the Half Life franchise and a software update to the Oculus Quest that’ll make it capable of running PC VR via a tethered USB-C are pretty big wins for VR this month. Minecraft Earth is now out and if you are a fan of either Pokemon Go or the original Minecraft, then this free to play smartphone AR title is worth a go. Beyond this, AR is making some headway on realistic lighting and quick scene capture that show the bright future of the space. This month AI is analysing your skills at singing Queen songs, using solar power to make cement, turning rubbish into recycling and analysing the various writers’ contributions to Shakespear’s Henry VIII, to name a few. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Freddymeter…

MAYBE IT’S THE emergence of dual-screen smartphones or a realisation that lots of people use dual-screen workstations, but either way Asus’ laptop division seems fixated on inserting a second screen wherever it can on its latest devices. We tested out a Zenbook Duo recently and were pleasantly surprised by the usefulness of the oversized touchbar/second touchscreen, so we were actually looking forward to testing out the ZenBook 14 UX434FL with the trackpad-touchscreen combo interface. After a bit of use we learned that excitement was the incorrect emotion to have for this configuration – the correct one would’ve been dread. On the Duo the second screen is the same width and the same horizontal resolution as the main display and it directly abuts the bottom edge of the primary screen, which…

GOPRO’S HERO 8 Black sucks up a lot of the air around action cameras, but its new Max 360 action camera is arguably a much bigger upgrade with a more novel feature set. Like its predecessor, the GoPro Fusion, Max uses two 180-degree fisheye lenses to capture everything in its direct line of sight. The Max however, is the first to stitch these two hemispherical video files together automatically into a single 5.6K video file, which is a massive time saver. What’s perhaps even more impressive is that the updated app allows you to edit and publish spherical media from start to finish entirely on a smartphone. The app update’s major ticket is the inclusion of GoPro’s OverCapture reframing software which can crop your 360-degree video into a 2D format,…

WITH SUMMER JUST around the corner, most normal people are getting excited and looking forward to long, warm evenings in the Sun, sitting in the backyard with a glass of wine, eating ice cream and spending weekends at the beach with the family. Landscape photographers, however, are different. They seem to have reached a consensus of opinion that the summer months are a waste of time, when there are few opportunities to get your camera out and create decent photographs in the harsh summer sun. As a result, instead of relaxing and enjoying the summer months like the rest of the population, they can get a little grumpy as they go into a kind of reverse hibernation: hiding away for the summer and not resurfacing until the autumn, which brings…

Finding an ideal location for photography is a far more complex process than many new photographers appreciate. Picking the right place to make images may seem like an obvious step, but there are more considerations involved than simply where to visit and from which direction to shoot your images. Every location is an extensive arrangement of potential frames, overlapping and interacting with one another – finding order in this cacophony of textures, light and colour requires experience, timing and a little experimentation. Deciding on the location itself is a choice that is determined by numerous factors. On some occasions the decision to make images at a location is merely influenced by personal tastes and an ambition to capture a pre-visualised composition. Perhaps you have seen images made at a place…

The one contiguous element in all images in any genre of photography is lighting. Whether you aim to shoot portraits, landscapes, wildlife or macro images, the intensity, direction, variance and controllability of light will impact on the success of your images. Unless you are working in a studio, where you have full, unlimited control over every light source and its spread, planning for changes in lighting and learning to adapt your approach to exploit that which is available to you is an essential professional skill. When scouting locations, light should be high on your list of parameters to assess. This may be a case of working out where the sun will be in the sky at the time you intend to conduct your shoot, or when it will appear at…

01 EXPLORE THE LOCATION. When you first arrive leave your camera gear packed away and explore on foot. If completely unfamiliar with the location check for potential subject matter, or if it’s well photographed, look for the key aspects. 02 SHOOT WIDE. Start with a wide focal length and frame image that incorporate a large amount of detail. This compresses the scene into the confines of a frame, which will help you identify where it is best to try and direct viewer attention. 04 CHANGE CAMERA HEIGHT. Vary the level of your camera to increase or reduce the presence of foreground detail in your shot. This will also alter the way your subject is represented and can change the wider context of the location. 05 CHECK THE FOREGROUND. Look for…

01 DUPLICATE THE BACKGROUND To make the process as non-destructive as possible and ensure we can adjust any automatic changes from Photoshop, make a copy of the background layer (Cmd/Ctrl-J) and work on this. The ability to use layer masking will be useful later. 02 MAKE A SELECTION Use one of the Lasso tools to make a selection of the object you need to move within the frame. We used the Polygonal Lasso here to roughly draw an outline around the tree. Make sure you try to follow the object’s shape as much as possible. 03 MOVE THE OBJECT Here the tree is a little too close to the frame edge – a placement that was necessary to compose out visual distractions. To move it further into the scene, we…

Opportunity for movement During initial scouting the photographer could identify that these water channels would introduce movement in longer exposures, breaking up the static bottom half of the frame. Emphasised texture By arranging the foreground carefully a good feature can be made of the visible patterns in the scene – a main attraction of the location. Strong subject As well as having good foreground potential, the main reason for shooting here was the castle, shown in a wider context. Compositional direction The subtle leading lines in the foreground may not be a reason to select a location, but here they helped the decision to choose this spot.…

BEING A PARENT is stressful and time-consuming enough without having to worry about either what your child is using their (or your) PC for, or for how long. To save you from having to constantly monitor their use in person, Windows 10 includes a powerful collection of parental control options that can act as your eyes and ears when you are busy with other things. Using built-in parental controls, it is possible to place restrictions on the websites that can be visited, the apps that can be run, and when the PC can be used. While you might expect the options to be configured in Settings, you’ll need to visit your Microsoft account online, and from there manage all the user accounts you have set up on your PC and…

MINDFULNESS HAS TAKEN off in a huge way in recent years, with scientific research backing claims that it can help improve your concentration and reduce everyday stresses. So what exactly is it and how does it work? Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing your attention to what you’re experiencing in the present moment, rather than thinking about the past or imagining the future. Techniques for gently nurturing this kind of centred awareness can include simple guided meditations that focus the mind on body sensations without judging them. Other methods for developing the skill, such as interactive sound therapy and the use of coloring books, have also proven to be particularly effective. Here we’ll introduce you to three of the best apps we’ve come across for achieving your zen. With…

FOR ALL THE high security VPNs, end-to-end cryptography and phone lockdown and anti-theft software we have now, the good ol’ thumb drive remains pretty much as vulnerable as ever. Flash drives remain a major cause of corporate and personal data breaches as people carry around huge amounts of unencrypted data on them, with their only security mechanism being “I hope I don’t lose it.” Now there are hardware encrypted flash drives on the market, but they tend to cost a lot of money, at least compared to a regular flash drive. But you don’t need to spend that money – there are software utilities that will create an encrypted flash drive for you, and this month we’re going to look at one of our favourites: SecurStick. WHAT SECURSTICK DOES SecurStick…

HAVE YOU EVER thought about setting up a home server of some kind? Perhaps your own Minecraft server, a remote control server, or maybe a private VPN that lets you remotely dial into your home network and securely access your other devices. If that’s the case, then you may have run across one big problem: dynamic IP addresses. Even in 2020, most internet accounts don’t come with a fixed IP address. Every time you connect to your ISP, you’re assigned a new internet address. Sure, that IP address may stick around for a long time if you don’t have any power, router or internet outages; but eventually it’s going to change. If you turn your router off and on again, or lose internet even for a moment – boom, new…

Air Card THIS IS THE BLACK AMEX OF AIR SUPERIORITY. $40 | kck.st/2quN0tL For any budding tech disruptors, having a meticulously designed business card that displays how much better you are than others is a ‘must have’, but there’s a new card that may be even more important. The Air Card is your very own personal air purifier that does away with all conventional air purification methods, for a card that’s soaked in undisclosed chemicals to generate highly reactive molecules that can interact with the small particles you might be allergic to. It might only be able to remove 70-90% of the dust and pollen from a tiny box if you wait a whole hour and there’s no knowing how toxic the newly created compounds are, but it’ll give you…