Table of contents for December 2023 in Digital Camera Magazine

STEP 1 ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc275 Enter the URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc275 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 files for Digital Camera 275’ 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 dcm275-files.zip file icon. Then when it expands, double-click Digital…

This image of 2021 MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo was taken in wet conditions during the third and final practice session before the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. It shows his commitment and bravery in conditions where the slightest error could have resulted in an accident. 1 Find the right position To capture an image like this, you need to be on the inside of a corner as the rider comes towards you. It helps if the light is behind so you can get a better exposure and make sure you have enough space to pan (see below) without bumping into objects or people. This image was captured through fencing, but many circuits have vantage points with no visual obstructions. 2 Choose a suitable lens Telephoto lenses are best suited…

Compatible with most DSLR and mirrorless cameras Compression strap to cinch up larger water bottles or secure a tripod As part of the Lowepro Green line, it’s made with recycled fabrics Great reasons to subscribe to Digital Camera magazine today ● Never miss an issue Enjoy 13 issues worth of Digital Camera for just £51.99 – that’s just £3.99 an issue – delivered direct to your door ● FREE Lowepro Adventura Go BP 150 camera bag worth £95! ● Pay less than you would in the shops ● The latest tips and insights A Digital Camera subscription will inspire you to take truly phenomenal photos every month and help you get the best results from your kit Get a Digital Camera magazine subscription today YOUR SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS PRINT ONLY £51.99*…

SMALL APERTURE, LONG SHUTTER SPEED When plenty of front-to-back sharpness is required, a wide-angle lens set to a small aperture is a potent duo. Here, a 14-24mm f/2.8 zoom is set at 19mm, and f/16 yields depth of field from just in front of the camera to infinity. However, using a small aperture is not always about getting extensive depth of field; it is using the best setting for the picture. The North Atlantic ocean hitting Iceland’s Diamond beach on this early morning was relatively calm, so a small aperture was used to enable a slow shutter to capture water movement. Shooting from a tripod and using an ISO of 50 permitted a 3 sec exposure, and a 0.6 ND grad was used to darken the sky. MEDIUM APERTURE, MEDIUM…

Depth of field is the amount of front-to-back sharpness in a photo and it varies with camera-to-subject distance – the closer you are to the subject, the shallower the depth of field becomes. You also get more depth of field with smaller apertures (f/11, f/16) and less with wide apertures (f/2.8, f/4). All things being equal, smaller sensor formats (APS-C and Micro Four Thirds) produce more depth of field than full-frame and medium-format. Focal length plays a part, too: shorter lenses give more depth of field than longer lenses. That’s the practical truth, but if you kept the subject the same size in the frame as you changed from focal length to focal length, then the depth of field is the same. This is shown in the images above, which…

Camera makers have worked hard to solve the problem of sensor nasties. Shoot at f/5.6 and sensor debris won’t show, but if you prefer f/22 and f/16 you may have dirty images such as that shown on the right, which will take a while to clean in editing. Many cameras feature a vibrating cleaning mechanism; one of the most effective is the Supersonic Wave Filter (SSWF) from OM System (formerly Olympus) which vibrates over 30,000 times a second to shake off debris. A recent innovation is the shutter protection blind, which reduces the risk of dust entering the camera body and landing on the sensor when swapping lenses. Top tip – turn the camera off when changing a lens and angle the body down to avoid catching airborne nasties. Many…

Pixel-based layers in Photoshop are those that contain pixels of some kind – essentially anything you copy from another image or image layer. This includes editing techniques that involve cloning or duplicating into empty layers. When possible, it’s often beneficial to use Adjustment Layers to apply effects, to keep file sizes small – but some techniques are either more effective the old-school way, or require a copy of the Background Layer to work at all. We’re going to take a look at some of these techniques, where the shortcut Ctrl/Cmd+J when the Background Layer is selected is the key to success. If you already have Adjustment Layers and other cloning layers in place, you can still achieve these effects: you just have to make sure the layer at the top…

Looking for landscapes Q What are the best kind of conditions and time of year for landscape photography? Courtney Harper A You can take really good landscapes in any conditions, Courtney. Have a look at the various winning images from the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition over the years, and you’ll see images taken in bright sunshine, mist, and even driving rain that have made the cut. It’s not so much about the conditions, but rather how you as a photographer adapt to them and tell your story. For me, changeable conditions tend to give the most dynamic and potentially dramatic options for photography. I don’t want bright blue skies and too much sunshine making my photos look like something you might see in a travel brochure or on…

Coming in under the significant 250g threshold, DJI’s latest top-of-the-range ultra-light camera drone has plenty of features for the price. Its 24mm f/1.7 lens and 1/1.3-inch 48MP sensor top a spec sheet that also features omnidirectional collision sensors, a 20km ‘O4’ radio range and ActiveTrack 360 subject-tracking AI. A flight time of more than 20 minutes and, theoretically, up to 34 minutes – is promised. Aimed at experienced drone users, the Mini 4 Pro’s image quality and 4K 60fps video is good enough for property and wedding work. Its field of view can be widened with an optional adapter (£29/$39). www.dji.com; from £689/$759 (Mini 4 Pro) or £979/$1,240 (Mini 4 Pro Fly More kit with RC 2 controller)…

The Photography & Video Show 2024 The leading event returns to Birmingham NEC on 16-19 March 2024, so save the date! Visit the website for more information: bit.ly/dcm274tps2024 OM System releases Tough TG-7 The latest iteration of the everything-proof camera is waterproof up to 15m, freezeproof to -10°C, shockproof to falls from 2.1m and crushproof to 100kg. A 12MP sensor, 4.5-18mm lens and 4K 30p video also feature. omsystem.com; £500/$550 New Tamron superzoom for Nikon Z-mount Tamron’s 150-500mm F/5-6.7 Di III VC VXD is now available for Nikon Z cameras. More affordable than Nikon’s 160-600mm, Tamron’s new superzoom offers features including VXD autofocus and a BBAR-G2 coating. www.tamron.eu; £1,250/$1,530 New 8-16mm manual focus lens from Laowa Available for Canon RF, Fujifilm X, Nikon Z, Sony E, and Canon EF-M mounts,…

buyrememberingwildlife.com The eighth book in the Remembering Wildlife conservation series went on sale last month and is a must for all wildlife photography fans. A hardback with 80 stunning colour photos, proceeds from Remembering Leopards will help increase awareness of the plight facing leopards and raise money to protect them. We caught up with Margot Raggett to find out more about it. What can wildlife photography fans expect to see in the book? It’s just the most beautiful book of leopard images, I believe, that’s ever been published. Anyone who thinks leopards are beautiful is in for a treat. We cover every type of behaviour from cubs to mating and from hunting to sleeping in trees – everything you would want to see of a leopard is in this book.…

LEXAR PRO CFEXPRESS B GOLD 256GB Speed thrills with up to 1,750MB/s read and 1,500MB/s write performance. £160/$170 lexar.com INSTAX SQUARE LINK Create square prints direct from your smartphone via Bluetooth. £130/$140 instax.co.uk SHIFTCAM PROGRIP STARTER KIT An ergonomic camera-like battery grip for shooting with smartphones. £130/$149 shiftcam.com TTARTISAN 100MM F/2.8 BUBBLE BOKEH A full-frame compatible lens that’s designed to deliver ‘soap bubble bokeh’. £179/$155 ttartisan.com 3 LEGGED THING L-BRACKET 3LT’s top-quality dedicated L-brackets now come in options for a huge range of cameras. £130/$150 3leggedthing.com ZHIYUN SMOOTH 5S PRO SMARTPHONE GIMBAL A smarter smartphone gimbal with upgraded motors and a fill light. £169/$169 zhiyun-tech.com SANDISK EXTREME PRO UHS-II SDXC 256GB This popular SD card features 280MB/s read and 150MB/s write speeds. £154/$119 westerndigital.com CANON EOS 7D Capture 18MP stills…

www.venuslens.net Designed for both full-frame and crop-sensor mirrorless cameras, the Laowa Argus 28mm f/1.2 FF from Venus Optics follows in the confident footsteps of several predecessors in the Argus range. These have all shared an ultra-fast 0.95 aperture rating, but the 28mm is about an f-stop slower at f/1.2. That’s still superfast in our books – and an upside is that the lens is surprisingly compact and light for such a speedy, full-frame-compatible prime. Engineered for mirrorless cameras, it’s available in Canon RF, Leica L, Nikon Z (FX) and Sony E (FE) mount options; the L-mount version also hits the mark for Panasonic and Sigma bodies. Key features That fast f/1.2 aperture is the standout key feature but – as with other dubiously titled ‘dumb lenses’ – the Laowa lacks…

www.fujifilm-x.com Right now, the Fujifilm X-S20 is probably the best camera for photo enthusiasts and hybrid creators, offering a seamless shooting experience with its intuitive controls. Its compact form also makes it easy to carry around and capture stunning moments. However, the X-S20 is also an absolute powerhouse for content creation. As well as stunning 26.1MP images, a powerful processor records high-quality 6K videos with professional-level output, including raw codecs and ‘open-gate’ recording. Fujifilm’s advanced subject recognition tracking has improved hugely. Although the price tag may deter some, you should consider the substantial value it offers, when weighing up the features, controls and portability of this camera against the competition. Pound for pound, the X-S20 is now the hybrid camera to beat. Rival cameras Canon EOS R7 £1,349/$1,499 All the…

Lens release To remove the lens, press the button and twist the lens anti-clockwise. Use the protective body cap, so you don’t leave the sensor exposed to dust. Shutter release To shoot, press the shutter release button. To focus and meter the scene, half press the shutter release. Lens A DSLR is far more versatile than a camera with a fixed lens because you can change lenses and alter the angle of view. Sensor This is where your images are recorded before being processed and stored on your memory card. Mode dial The mode dial is where you access the camera’s shooting modes. For first-time users, the fully Auto mode selects all the camera settings for you. Hotshoe To attach a flashgun, slot it into place and tighten the catch…

Entry-level DSLRs have around seven to nine AF points, whereas a high-end mirrorless, such as the Canon EOS R3, has 4,779. Cameras that offer a densely populated array of AF points across the viewfinder make it easier to focus on subjects that aren’t in the centre of the picture. A large number of AF points also makes for smoother focus tracking, as the camera can ‘hand off’ autofocus from one point to the next and more accurately follow a subject moving across the picture. AF point array AF points are clustered towards the centre of a DSLR viewfinder. An AF point array typically contains standard AF sensors that measure sharpness in one plane and ‘cross-type’ AF sensors that are more precise. How they work The AF sensor detects a line…

Greg Oakley Visual artist A childhood love of mid-Victorian bird artists got Oakley hooked on ornithology – now, he transforms his photos of various species into distinctive artworks. Page 118 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 60 Claire Gillo Photographer and writer Digital Camera’s former technique editor now specialises in creative and fine-art photography – you can find her latest photo project contributions from page 8 Lukasz Palka Urban photographer Poland-born, but US-raised and now residing in Japan, Palka takes us behind the scenes of one of the photos to appear in his new book, Tokyo Unseen. Page 68 Jon Devo Photographer & writer Our…

When taking photographs the light at the beginning and the end of the day is some of the best to work with. To get the most out of it you might think you have to go out and shoot stunning vistas but this simply isn’t the case. In this project, we’re going to show you how to shoot during the golden hour in the comfort of your own home and create some incredible and different fine-art results in the process. If you’re not lucky enough to get good light through your windows at the start or end of the day, have a search close to home and select another location nearby. For example, the garden or the garden shed could also be viable, as you don’t need much to make…

You can use the Tone Curve panel in Photoshop to emulate the darkroom-based solarisation technique made famous by surrealist photographers such as Man Ray. This film-developing technique harks back to the 1920s. At first glance, a solarised photo may look like a negative version of a mono image. However, in a negative, all the shadows and highlights are reversed so that blacks become white and vice versa. In solarised images, only some of the tones are reversed. Another distinctive property of a solarised photo is the sharp white line that appears around high-contrast areas. By combining the Basic sliders in Camera Raw with the Point Curve, you can create a solarised image with ease. Here, we show you how… Recreate this darkroom image-processing technique using the Tone Curve panel 1…

When we think of great locations to view the Northern Lights, Iceland, Scandinavia or the far north of Scotland may spring to mind. However, in recent times, the aurora borealis has been witnessed much further south, even as far as southern England. I captured this image at Glastonbury Tor in Somerset, which is one of my regular astrophotography haunts, as seen in the July issue (270). In early September, Met Office forecasts indicated that the aurora borealis would be visible with the naked eye across southern parts of the UK and a red alert was duly issued – typically, we only ever get green alerts, which indicate minor levels. I was hoping the weather forecast would allow for clear skies, so when I received a notification that the solar wind…

WINNER: CLASSIC VIEW ‘The Needle’ Julien Delaval “It’s a classic point of view, but this is an incredible place for sure. On this November morning, I decided to explore the entire area of the Quiraing on the Isle of Skye in Scotland and, of course, the famous needle was on my list.” OVERALL WINNER & CHANGE IN THE LANDSCAPE WINNER: ‘After The Fire’ Mik Dogherty “After a large heath fire near Beaulieu in the New Forest National Park, I realised that to get a worthwhile picture, I would need a misty morning to hide the large oil refinery complex that sits on the edge of Southampton Water and which would be visible above the tree line in the background. Much like the cement works in the Peak District, the refinery…

1 ‘Iceberg’s Watery Veil’ by Shaun Antle “Captured just off the coast of Twillingate, Newfoundland, this iceberg is adorned with a crystalline waterfall, where frozen beauty meets the gentle flow of water. It’s a stunning collision of elements captured in one mesmerising frame.” Digital Camera says: A perfect example of capturing the moment, Shaun’s photo expresses a feeling of power and marvel in the natural world. The inclusion of the waterfall adds movement to what would otherwise be quite a static image. 2 ‘Milky Way over Pangong Tent’ by Soumyadeep Mukherjee “Situated at an altitude of 14,000 feet, Pangong Tso is one of the highest lakes in India. The image shows the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way over the Heritage Camp tents where we stayed for the night. The…

Getting the correct exposure is about balancing aperture, shutter speed and ISO, but the f/stop used and where you focus in the frame are pivotal to the look of a photograph. Digital cameras, especially mirrorless ones, have advanced autofocus systems working with hundreds of zones within the image frame and are supported by subject and eye detection functions. Yet there are often situations when using a single or small AF zone is better for offering precise control of where the camera focuses. In this picture, taken with a 24-105mm lens at 100mm on a Canon EOS R5, the AF point was aimed at three different points and shots were taken at a range of f/stops. The images below show the camera’s rear screen previews that indicate each autofocus point position.…

Shooting at the minimum aperture of a lens is not generally advised because of the negative impact of diffraction on image sharpness. How much this diffraction impacts on image quality varies from lens to lens, so it is worth testing your own lenses. Shoot a scene with sharp edges and detail, using a tripod-mounted camera at the three smallest apertures. Close inspection of your test shots will very likely show a softening in the shot taken at the smallest value. Shooting scenes that include strong light sources at the minimum aperture of the lens can produce starbursts, as seen in the images above. While there’s nothing at f/4, the starburst starts to appear at f/11 and the effect is much more pronounced at f/22. The lens used here, a Canon…

Aperture Priority AE (‘Av’ on Canon cameras) is a popular semi-auto exposure mode where the user selects the aperture to suit the lighting or the scene, and the camera chooses the shutter speed. While Shutter Priority is favoured by sports and action photographers because using a fast-enough shutter speed is essential for capturing sharp shots, Aperture Priority is a go-to option for landscape and portrait photographers because the f/stop used has a profound impact on the relationship between the foreground and the background in the scene. SEND US YOUR PHOTOS! Now you know how to use apertures like a pro, show us what you’ve learned and you could feature in our Reader Gallery: digitalcamera@futurenet.com…

Artificial intelligence might be causing concern within the photographic community, but there are lots of ways in which machine learning makes editing our photos quicker and more easy. For me, the best implementation of AI in Photoshop is its object selection technology. This lets you quickly isolate areas of an image so that you can make local tonal adjustments – perhaps to lighten an area, boost the detail or tweak the colours. As anyone who’s spent time making a mask or selection by hand will know, automatic object masking is very welcome. These kinds of tonal adjustments are best done to raw photos: they contain more colour information than JPEGs, and therefore more headroom for tonal adjustments, as well as the option to alter white balance after the fact. Our…

sRGB is the colour profile that’s set as the default mode in most digital cameras. The ‘s’ stands for standard, and ‘RGB’ for red, green, and blue. What does the colour profile do? The colour profile dictates the extent of the colour that can be displayed within your image. Is the colour profile I have in my camera fixed? No: most cameras allow you to choose between sRGB and Adobe RGB. sRGB is the colour profile used on most colour monitors, so it’s set as the default profile in cameras. However, Adobe RGB offers a greater range of colour and improved saturation, so if you like to print your photos out it could be an advantage. OK. So what do I do to change to the Adobe RGB colour profile…

POWEROWL AA GOLDTOP A 16-pack of high-capacity 2,800mAh Ni-MH batteries that can be recharged up to 1,200 times. £21/$23 powerowl.net MANFROTTO PIXI EVO 2 When you need a little support, this tabletop tripod will do you proud. £43/$39 manfrotto.com UGREEN NEXODE 45W USB-C CHARGER This smart dual-port charger has fold-away pins to keep it compact. £27/$40 ugreen.com COOPH ROPE HAND STRAP A cool camera strap that’s immaculately crafted and safe as houses on location. £47/$48 cooph.com MPB MIDNIGHT NECK STRAP Essential if you’re on-the-go and need your camera ready at any moment. £20/$25 mpb.com…

www.panasonic.com It has been almost six years since Panasonic released the original G9. It’s been a long wait, but the Lumix G9 II is a fully-fledged upgrade that you can honestly get excited about. With Panasonic’s recent focus on its full-frame cameras (such as the well-received S5 II) and the growing number of L-Mount Alliance members, many were speculating that Panasonic might phase out its Micro Four Thirds lineup. Panasonic and Olympus were the pioneers of the MFT sensor and mount, pushing it as a solution to achieve high-quality images with smaller cameras, such as the technical marvel of the Panasonic GM1. But as market forces moved toward full-frame cameras, it looked like Panasonic’s MFT ambitions might have been put on ice. With this release, Panasonic is certainly not letting…

www.nikon.co.uk The Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR aims to deliver serious ultra-telephoto focal lengths along with an impressive overall zoom range, at an affordable price of around £1,799/$1,699. To put that into context, the Nikkor Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 VR S (£2,299/$2,497) zoom and the Nikkor Z 400mm f/4.5 VR S (£2,871/$2,997) prime lenses give less telephoto reach and are considerably pricier to buy. The Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S (£6,299/$6,497) ultra-telephoto prime is another few rungs up the price ladder; while the Nikkor Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S (£13,499/$13,997) and the Nikkor Z 600mm f/4 TC VR S (£15,499/$15,497), with their built-in teleconverters, are far too expensive for most of us to consider. The Z 180-600mm is more like an ultra-telephoto zoom for the masses: it follows in…

www.leica-camera.com The Leica M11 Monochrom is a difficult camera to recommend – an exclusive model that caters to a specific audience. It features a black and white sensor, is manual focus only, lacks the ability to shoot video and has a price tag of £8,300. However, these limitations are what make this camera so unique and desirable. It requires a thoughtful approach to each shot and evokes the nostalgic feel of film photography and using this camera is one of the most enjoyable photography experiences you will have. Leica designed this camera for a targeted audience but it’s probably the best version ever made. Once mastered, Leica M cameras offer a unique way of seeing and capturing the world. Despite the price, the design and functionality make it a worthwhile…

When you push the ISO higher on a camera, colours become muddier, and dynamic range (the amount of detail captured from shadows to highlights) drops off. But the most obvious side effect is an increase in the ‘noise’ – this is the digital equivalent of film grain but even less palatable, with the image covered in ugly coloured speckles. ISOs in the region of 100 to 400 produce cleaner, richer and more detailed images; however, they require more light to make an exposure. This can be achieved by shooting with either a larger aperture or a slower shutter speed – or both. You can take a picture at low ISOs without making these adjustments, but it will take longer to make the exposure and that could result in a blurred…

The digital advantage Digital magazines can travel with you – even if you delete them, they are free to download again later. Subscribe today by visiting: www.magazinesdirect.com/categories/photography-and-design Available on Available on the following: Apple iOS devices Get the free Digital Camera app for your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch at: www.bit.ly/app_DCM (UK) or www.bit.ly/app_DCW (outside UK) Then browse through our back issues or buy a subscription (see page 40 for offers) using the app. Android, PC or Mac Zinio www.bit.ly/DCW_Zinio Pocket Mags www.pocketmags.com Other options Digital Camera is available for Kobo, Kindle, Nook and more (see above). It can also be found on the all-you-can-read Readly magazine app: https://gb.readly.com/ Printed back issues Prefer print? We also sell a limited selection of recent back issues – issues 267-274 are currently available.…

9 PHOTO TIPS CARDS TO TAKE ON LOCATION! Our latest selection of tips cards gives wallet-sized advice on how to take better photos ALL-NEW TIPS CARDS! ✓ 9 subjects ✓ Techniques ✓ Settings ✓ Kit list Transform your images with the latest batch of software extras for Photoshop and Lightroom Our latest selection of presets and actions will give your captures a professional and creative look in a matter of seconds. Find out more about each pack on page 76 and download them by following the instructions below. Buyer’s Guide ebook Featuring over 250 pages of camera and lens reviews, plus buying advice for accessories. See the Gifts folder in your download files.…

With the autumn months now upon us, bird life is getting ready for the winter. Migrating birds have left and native birds are searching for food and settling in their preferred spots for the winter. This means that now is a great time of the year to start packing your essential clothing and kit, such as a long telephoto lens and a sturdy tripod, and attempt to broaden your wildlife photography portfolio by visiting your local wetlands. Many wetlands have hides where you can set up your camera and tripod and, with the right settings, you can capture some great shots of native birds in flight or on the water. In the UK, birds such as egrets, mute swans, Bewick’s swans and a huge range of wildfowl can be found…

Since the turn of the century, improvements in building materials and structural engineering, plus a greater awareness of the importance of the built environment, have really pushed the boundaries of modern architectural design. This stunning image of the Rainbow Bridge in Qingdao in China’s Shandong Province was taken at night when the bridge was lit up, using a Sony A7R and a 17mm f/4 lens. A narrow aperture (f/13) was selected for ultimate sharpness and a tripod was used to help reduce any camera shake from the long shutter speed. Here are three things to consider when shooting your next architectural masterpiece. 1 Leading lines Draw the viewer into your image by using leading lines to guide the viewer’s eye into the frame and provide an engaging subject. 2 Composition…

There are several reasons why a photographer may wish to shoot interior spaces, including property photos for estate agents or capturing inspirational editorial lifestyle shots. Shooting an interior space is not a complicated thing to do and can be achieved using a property’s natural and ambient lighting. However, shooting on a sunny day will add an extra dimension to your shots, so use this to your advantage. You’ll also need to think about styling, so some forward planning will be essential for getting the best results. When considering styling, a few key props will bring any property alive. These include plants, food (bread, croissants or fruit work well), drinks, blankets, cushions, candles, books, magazines, lamps and wood for a fireplace. These types of props create a desirable living space and…

media://artofseeing-1.jpg/ I am sure you were all as shocked and saddened by the barbaric felling of the wonderful tree at Sycamore Gap in Northumberland as I was [non-UK readers can find out more here: www.bit.ly/dcm275sycamore]. I couldn’t believe my eyes when the news appeared on my social feeds. I initially thought it was an AI-created joke until the reality slowly sunk in. It was one of the UK’s most photographed trees and instantly recognisable. A veritable rock star of a tree. It’s one of those honeypot locations that appear on the bucket lists of most photographers. I visited there several years ago for a reader Shootout [issue 199] when I was the editor of Digital Camera. Thinking about this column with a view to discussing the iconic tree, I looked…

Making photographs in an urban or even semi-urban environment can be utterly rewarding. There are so many opportunities to explore that it can initially seem overwhelming. Over the following pages, we’ll look at ways to explore cities, towns, suburbia and everything in between. You only need a camera, an inquisitive eye, and an open mind. From contemplating composition and appreciating light to thinking philosophically, artistically and creatively, you will discover skills that’ll help you get the best out of your urban photography. Sometimes, getting started can be the hardest thing. The Norwegians have a saying about “the doorstep mile”: the first mile, the mile from your front door, can be the hardest part of any journey. Getting out of the door and taking those first steps is a crucial part…

This month: lens aperture The f-stop you use has a profound impact on the outcome of a shot The camera’s shutter hogged the limelight last issue, and now it’s the turn of its close partner, the lens aperture. While the shutter determines how long the sensor or film is exposed to light, the aperture actually controls how much light reaches the sensor. Essentially, the aperture is a hole or opening in the lens through which light passes on its way to the sensor. The actual amount of light transmitted is controlled by a device called a diaphragm, which is made up of a number of very thin blades that operate at the very instant of exposure. This is the case with most lenses but there are few exceptions, including fixed…

LENS SPEED A ‘fast’ lens is one with a wide maximum aperture for its focal length; it has nothing to do with the speed of autofocus. A 50mm f/1.4 lens is fast and f/1.0 is even faster, while a 50mm f/2.8 is said to be ‘slow’ or have a modest maximum aperture. Perhaps confusingly, f/2.8 is a fast aperture for some focal lengths: a 300mm f/2.8 is a fast lens while a 300mm f/5.6 is a slow one. In general, fast lenses have low f/numbers and tend to be more expensive than modest aperture lenses. OPENING UP AND STOPPING DOWN If a lens is set at f/5.6 and you change the value to f/4, you are opening up the lens by one f/stop, or ‘stop’ for short, and this doubles…

Modern cameras can do all the heavy lifting for you and when it comes to exposure, there is no need to interfere with the technology at your disposal. Set fully Automatic (green square) mode or Program AE and the camera will select the aperture, shutter speed and ISO itself. That’s easy, but not much fun, plus the camera can’t read your mind. So taking control is the way to achieve the kind of photos you want to capture. ✔ Blur the background At wide apertures, the amount of depth of field in a scene can be very limited, particularly if you’re very close to the subject, so focusing has to be spot on. Use a single AF point and place the working AF point or zone on what you want…

Deciding which aperture to set can be challenging, but it gets easier with practice and experience. And the kind of photos you like taking matters a great deal. If you shoot wildlife, most of the time you’ll be using wide apertures, high ISOs and a fast shutter, while for landscapes it’s more about small lens apertures, low ISOs and a slow shutter. If your photo interests are more general, however, then you’ll need to think on your feet – varying settings to suit what you’re photographing. If your camera offers custom shooting modes, you could dedicate a subject to each setting to make life easier. Custom mode one could geared up for landscapes, for example, mode two for birds and mode three for macro. Portraits by f/number Many expert portrait…

Winter is Milky Way season in Galway. The long nights make it an easy subject – weather-dependent, of course. I’ve always shot the Milky Way as a single exposure. This year, I’ll be using a tracker. This allows for either more prolonged exposures without star trails, or for sequences of shorter shots that can be stacked later. Most people will still be going down the single-exposure route, getting out while they can. These may not have the impact of the tracked shots, but you can still improve these captures in Lightroom Classic (and Camera Raw). Your main aim is to correct the overall image, then the sky, and work on the foreground. Given that most night exposures of this type are ISO 1,600 or higher, it’s also a good idea…

Digital Camera’s 2022 Collection USB contains the 13 issues published in 2022 (250-262) plus all tutorial videos, tutorial start files, photo tip cards PDFs, buyer’s guide PDFs and other digital gifts… giving you one-click access to a wealth of photo technique projects, camera, lens and accessory reviews, galleries of inspirational images, interviews with the world’s leading photographers – and more! (Adobe Reader or Acrobat required) Buy the 2022 Collection today at: www.bit.ly/dcm22collection CONTAINS ALL DIGITAL ISSUES FROM 2022 Enjoy issues 250-262 of Digital Camera on your PC or Mac desktop or laptop computer!…

The latest iteration of this digital asset management software launched last month. New features in v24 include Dynamic Search with an AI-created Dynamic Index, Spaces with subject-specific views of the Mylio Photos library and Family History Metadata, where you can add information that conforms to widely used genealogical standards. Mylio Photos is free to download; Mylio Photos+ is available on subscription and offers extra features, including a universal library for keeping mobile and desktop files synced in the cloud and a Photo DeDupe photo culling tool for reducing storage space. mylio.com; free (Mylio Photos) or £10/$10 per month (Mylio Photos+ subscription)…

If you’ve ever owned a simple point-and-shoot digital camera or a bridge camera you’ll be familiar with ‘Intelligent Auto’, ‘Superior Auto’ or ‘Creative Assist’. Intelligent auto functions are designed to help people get the best shots, depending on the scene or scenario. It uses algorithms built into the Image Signal Processor (ISP) of the camera to assess the shooting conditions and automatically select the best settings. This function is often designated to the ‘iA’ or ‘iA+’ position on the mode dial and has been around for over a decade. In 2023, the buzzword ‘AI’ is heavily used to market cameras and especially smartphones, perhaps because there’s little else to tell them apart from year to year. But what does it mean for us as potential purchasers of kit being touted…

www.apple.com/uk The 15 Pro Max is the new flagship of Apple’s iPhone line-up, so you’d expect it to offer a compelling camera technology – and that’s indeed the case. The 15 Pro Max’s optical reach is a 5x zoom equivalent versus the 3x zoom 15 Pro, and the phone also introduces Apple’s tetraprism periscope zoom camera, the most powerful zoom ever to grace an iPhone. A 5x zoom is equivalent to a focal length of around 120mm in full-frame terms. While that’s a mighty reach, with just three cameras, Apple’s priciest iPhone also leaves a massive void of optical coverage between 1-5x. Thanks to the Pro Max’s powerful primary sensor, a 1-2.5x reach up to around 60mm should still look great; but at 60-120mm, we’d expect quality to start crumbling…

www.dxo.com The newly released PhotoLab 7 is the latest incarnation of DxO’s powerful digital asset manager (DAM) and photo editor. Like most DAM apps, PhotoLab 7 lets you organise your digital images by assigning colour labels, ratings and keywords that you can then filter to find specific files quickly. You can pick or reject shots in a click and filter files through metadata information, such as ISO speed, to find the ‘noisiest’ photos to fix. PhotoLab 7 is packed full of these powerful digital darkroom tools. It uses a comprehensive collection of optics modules to quickly and effectively counteract lens artifacts such as distortion, vignetting, and chromatic aberration (colour fringing). These are useful if you’ve been shooting in raw formats for years because, thanks to the ongoing advancement in AI,…

While the majority of interchangeable lenses are designed to fill the proportions of a full-frame sensor, plenty of digital cameras use sensors that are smaller than full-frame (see page 107). As they are exposed to a smaller part of the picture projected by a lens, smaller sensors produce a magnification effect, with the ‘cropped’ image looking as though it has been taken with a longer lens. The focal length of the lens hasn’t increased – a 50mm lens is a 50mm lens, regardless of the camera it’s attached to – but the ‘crop factor’ of the sensor makes it appear that it has. Other differences that the sensor size makes include the larger pixels gathering light more efficiently so you’ll get cleaner, better-quality images at high ISO settings. Plus, it’s…

Before starting to record video, the fundamental decision to make is which movie-recording size to use. This is largely determined by three functions: the image size or resolution, the frame rate (how many images are recorded each second) and the level of compression. The choice of resolution is key, as this determines how much detail can be recorded, with 4K being offered by the majority of current cameras. There are, in fact, two 4K standards: TV-friendly 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) and a wider, more cinematic 4K ‘DCI’ (4,096 x 2,160). If you have space available on your memory card or external recorder, it pays to shoot at the highest resolution your camera allows, as you can always reduce this later. That said, shooting at a lower resolution usually…