N-Photo: the Nikon magazine November 2021

Andrea Jones PAGE 6 Andrea leads our Apprentice up the garden path as he learns to take horticultural shots at a grand stately home. Andrew Mason PAGE 26 Forget lions, tigers and bears – Andrew shows you how to photograph more accessible badgers, squirrels and foxes. James Paterson PAGE 50, 52 & 54 James shows you how to make tricky cut-outs in Affinity Photo, use B&W profiles in Photoshop, and shoot portraits into the sun. Andy Parkinson PAGE 62 Nikon Europe Ambassador and wildlife pro Andy reminisces on his astonishing career in the N-Photo interview. Tracey Welch PAGE 70 Rock photographer Tracey reports on shooting a music festival after two years of pandemic-enforced absence. Matthew Richards PAGE 86, 102 & 104 Busy bee Matthew reviews the 7Artisans fisheye, between answering your technical queries and testing eight nifty fifties.…

Wildlife photography is responsible for some of the most compelling images of them all, but you don’t have to travel to the savannahs of Africa, jungles of Asia, or frozen ice deserts of the Arctic and Antarctic to get amazing animal photos. This issue, Andrew Mason shows you how to get brilliant shots of more accessible creatures closer to home. Also enjoying the great outdoors, our Apprentice heads to a magnificent stately home to learn how to photograph its gorgeous gardens with horticultural photographer Andrea Jones. We weigh up the options of eight ‘nifty fifty’ primes in our Big Test. Also in our Gear section, we advise on the best backpacks for carting about heavy gear, and reveal a remarkably cheap yet astonishingly good Z-mount fisheye lens – at this price, you’d…

It was third time lucky for Ian as he followed Andrea’s converted van into Melbourne Hall, a historically rich stately home nestled within the Derbyshire countryside. Inclement weather had meant two last-minute cancellations, but the 18th century gardens were now bathed in rays of golden light. “The conditions look great,” said Ian as he greeted his tutor. Andrea smiled: “Normally I’d start much earlier than this, because I’d want to do a recce well before suitable lighting conditions appear. Today, we’re shooting somewhere I’m familiar with, so providing we check our kit and head off now, we’ll be fine.” Ian slung his backpack over his shoulder and lifted up his holdall: “Well, you told me to bring everything, so I did…” Andrea laughed as she pulled a large covered object from her van…

LEVEL HEADED Andrea says… I attach a little spirit level to the hotshoe of my camera so I can ensure all my images are level when using a tripod. I also carry around small pieces of cloth that I place under my tripod legs when I’m shooting inside, so I don’t scratch the beautiful floors of the stately homes. DOF PREVIEW Andrea says… The depth of field preview button [Pv] allows you to observe – through the optical viewfinder – what the depth of field will look like by closing the aperture as per the selected f-number. I use this often-overlooked function almost as much as the shutter button! BRACKETING Andrea says… I use bracketing when lighting conditions make it difficult to capture a balanced exposure. I like to bracket at five one-stop increments, so…

Andrea says… You don’t always have to shoot from a low angle – sometimes it pays to find some height. I carry a small stepladder in my cart, so I can look straight through the viewfinder when my tripod is fully extended. If I want even more height I will shoot handheld atop a Henchman tripod ladder, which stands up of its own accord. Ian captured this image (right) while standing on the ladder in front of the hall. It allowed him to replicate the stunning view of the Great Basin from the hall’s second floor, without entering the house.…

EDIT YOUR SEQUENCE Andrea says… I opened my bracket sequence in Lightroom and ticked Remove Chromatic Aberration. I then reduced the highlights and cooled the tones slightly via the Temp slider. Next, I lifted the shadows and synced these changes to the other images, before choosing to discard the darkest image. PAINT THE HIGHLIGHTS Andrea says… I imported the images into Photoshop and chose a base shot before selecting and pasting the overexposed version on top. This was masked and inverted (Cmd/Ctrl+I). I then used a white brush to paint in the highlights. The two images were then merged together (Cmd/Ctrl+E). PAINT THE SHADOWS Andrea says… The underexposed bracket was then pasted in and the previous step was repeated to paint in the shadows. For even more control you can choose to lower the opacity…