Table of contents for October 2024 in Digital Camera Magazine

ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc286 Enter the URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc286 into the destination bar of your internet browser – we’re using Google Chrome, but other browsers work in a similar way. Please do not enter it in any search field or search bar. This will take you to a page on our website. JUST CLICK THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK Click on the link labelled ‘Download the files for Digital Camera 286’ and your download will start, delivered from our own server. Please override any browser warnings about downloading from a non-secure source – our server is safe! ACCESS YOUR FILES Open the. zip In your Downloads folder, or wherever you chose to download your files, double-click the dcm286-files.zip file icon. Then when it expands, double-click Digital Camera 286 files. The download content will…

Woods in autumn are magical places, with a golden-brown blanket of leaves above your head and underfoot. Narrow your focus, though, to concentrate on paths and trails, giving a sense of direction and destination to your photos. Aim to be there early, when there is likely to be mist or fog around, and look for the sun starting to shine through. There are two ways to shoot this – either with a wide-angle lens showing the breadth of the wood with the path leading through it or with a telephoto lens, zooming in on the path itself. Focus one third of the way in and use anything from f/5.6-f/8, but watch the shutter speed as there won’t be that much light unless there is a strong glow of sunlight coming…

At this early stage, you may be wondering why we’re suggesting getting to the coast to shoot seascapes. After all, most coastal locations barely change from one season to the next, but that in itself is one of their great advantages – you can capture them at any time of year and a shot taken in autumn or winter will be virtually indistinguishable from one taken in spring or summer. The main advantage of this time of year is that after the brutally early sunrises and annoyingly late sunset times of summer, autumn delivers a much-needed respite from photographers having to essentially wake up in the middle of the night to capture coastal sunrises. So whether you’re capturing seascapes or landscapes, now is the time to take advantage of the…

Time and availability are factors all photographers have to wrestle with. So if you’re unable to travel further afield to shoot, rest assured that there are many more achievable approaches to autumn photography you can try. Here, we have listed four simple yet highly effective projects you can try that require minimum effort. Even if you’re strapped for time, you can still enjoy shooting some of the best that autumn has to offer. FOCUS ON FROST 7 Autumn never comes at the same time of year; it can vary by a week or so. But one aspect of the season that always comes about is frost on cold mornings just before the trees fully shed their leaves. Ground frost encrusts fallen and brightly coloured leaves and browning ferns, coating them…

For a successful focus bracketed sequence, fix the camera on a tripod and use a single AF point. Brackets start from nearest the lens, so place the AF point on the closest part of the scene. Next, decide on the number of frames, the distance increments and the f/stop. For close-ups, you need lots of shots at smaller increments while for a wide-angle scenic, a few at wider increments will suffice with the aperture set between f/5.6-11. Every situation is different so if you’re new to the technique set, say, 10 or 15 frames and review the shots to make sure what you want sharp is sharp. If not, set more frames or a greater focus differential – or both. Practise this technique and you will soon know the number…

A burst of flash can improve your daylit macro shots. The extra light can soften dark shadows, provide better modelling or just add an extra zip to your results. The best, most convenient source for outdoor shooting is a ‘speedlight’ flash. Powerful, easy to use, sophisticated and portable, a hot-shoe-mounted speedlight will work well, especially when fitted with a diffuser and there are plenty to choose from. Most cameras have a flash sync speed of around 1/180 sec but in bright light, you will need faster speeds. Most speedlights offer HSS (high-speed sync) with correct sync up to 1/8,000 sec. For good results, it is a matter of setting the shutter speed to record the daylight and enough flash to suit the set aperture. The most convenient method is to…

NEW SERIES! ON1 PHOTO RAW Page 80 MEET YOUR TRAINERS Edit like a pro with their expert insights James Abbott Specialising in landscapes and portraits, James Abbott is an advanced Photoshop user and has created hundreds of tutorials. James Paterson With over a decade as a writer and photographer, James Paterson knows which Photoshop and Lightroom tools and techniques matter most. Sean McCormack A photographer and writer based in Galway, Ireland, Sean McCormack is the author of books including The Indispensable Guide to Lightroom CC. Wendy Evans The author of over a dozen books on the subjects of photography, CGI and Photoshop, Wendy Evans has used Photoshop since version 3.0.…

While it’s better to shoot in raw format because it contains more image data than a jpeg file, sometimes, especially on a long trip, you simply might run out of memory card space. But switch to jpeg and while you may save on storage space, it’s at the expense of getting the best out of the captured image. That’s where this Photoshop Action comes in, offering a boost to contrast, colour, sharpness and impact. It uses a combination of blended layers and adjustment layers that can then be tweaked. You can either download the Action or follow the tutorial and create one yourself, which also means you can add elements or tweak the existing ones. 1 Start the action Load up your image, open the Actions palette and click on the…

£479/$589 www.sigmauk.com The Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary is, first and foremost, Sigma’s debut lens for the Canon RF mount. Without going into all the politics, I’ve waited six years for my first RF Sigma lens and the wait has been worth it – provided you’re an APS-C user. That’s because the Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN | C is specifically an RF-S lens – which means that, while you can use it on full-frame EOS R cameras in crop mode, it has been designed for APS-C bodies like the Canon EOS R7, R10, R50 and R100. With a 35mm-equivalent focal length of 28.8-80mm, weathersealing and a constant f/2.8 aperture (which means the widest-available aperture remains at f/2.8 regardless of the focal length you select), this is essentially a…

$199 (Lifetime), $129 (1 year), $89 (6 months), $69 (3 months) www.dehancer.com One of the reasons for the unexpected resurgence of interest in film photography is not a love of throwing money down the drain along with the developing fluid, but rather the variety of different looks that film stocks have to offer. The good news is that there’s no need to sell a kidney to return to these Dark Ages – with a plug-in such as Dehancer Film, you can take your pristine digital imagery and give it much the same veneer of retro coolness. This works with photo apps including Photoshop, Lightroom, Capture One Pro and, shortly, Affinity Photo as well. There’s also a version for video apps, including DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro, as well as…

Dappled patches of sunlight and cloud shadows can add a fantastic atmosphere D to drone photos. They can also be used to great compositional effect, painting the landscapes with light and dark tones and adding contrast – and this is the basis of your assignment. To achieve dappled light, you need the perfect conditions – summer days that start clear and cloud over as the day progresses are ideal. It’s always a good idea to have a preconceived image in mind and your camera settings dialled in. Then you just need to wait for cloud shadows and patches of sunlight to complement your composition, ideally with your focal point or points illuminated in patches of sunshine. It’s important to be aware of the wind direction, as from the elevated viewpoint…

Welcome to our monthly reader photo competition, where the best image wins a £50 voucher that can be used towards purchasing stunning wall art from the leading photo printing brand Cewe. This issue, the theme is woodlands. As we head into autumn, there’s change in the air and nowhere is it more evident than down in the woods. From misty mornings to sunny afternoons under a golden canopy, it’s the perfect time to capture a woodland scene. Enter via email or Facebook Email your entry to digitalcamera@futurenet.com with ‘Woodlands’ as the subject, including a brief description of the image. Or look for the ‘Woods’ post at www.facebook.com/digitalcameraworld and upload your entry into the feed. Enter by 10 October 2024 (only one image per reader, please). The winner will be announced…

About the competition The World Sports Photography Awards is the world’s biggest and most prestigious sports photography competition and is produced in partnership with the leading photography resale platform MPB. Across the four editions, thousands of professional and semi-professional sports photographers from around the world have submitted more than 22,000 images in 24 sporting categories, with the winning images gaining global media coverage. www.worldsportsphotographyawards.com…

The most obvious way to capture autumn colour is with what you might call standard or straight photography techniques; there’s certainly nothing wrong with these and we encourage you to try all of the projects covered here. But one method that never fails to put a smile on your face is the zoomburst. This technique simply requires you to shoot at a relatively slow shutter speed and to smoothly rotate the zoom ring on your wide-angle or kit lens to capture a rush of dynamic in-camera blur. You can shoot this technique at any time of year, but it often looks best during autumn when tree foliage has thinned out a little and features bright red, orange and yellow colours. HOW TO ACHIEVE A ‘ZOOM’ EFFECT SET TO SHUTTER PRIORITY…

1 ‘Burning Skies’ by Joseph Ladra “This sunrise photo was taken at the old Steetley Pier in Hartlepool, UK. I was amazed at the transformation of the sky, so I slapped on a 10-stop ND filter for added effect. I’m glad I didn’t hit the snooze button on my alarm for this one!” Instagram: @zeph_ladra Digital Camera says: A spectacular sunset and a long exposure of around a minute have helped turn the clouds into streaks of grey and red. 2 ‘Ruby-tailed Wasp’by Dorothy Mathews Devon and found a mudbank full of holes with these pretty little wasps coming in and out of them. I spent a couple of hours photographing them with my Canon EOS 7D.” Digital Camera says: Striking colours and the use of an f/8 aperture to maximise…

Look through the specifications for your lens and you will find a figure quoted for how close a lens focuses, often specified in both centimetres and inches. The minimum object distance is measured from the subject to the focal plane (either the sensor or the film). In some cases, the working distance is quoted, which is the distance from the subject to the front of the lens. In practice, this is the more useful figure because it tells you how close the front of the lens is to the subject. SEND US YOUR PHOTOS! Now you know how to shoot macro like a pro, show us what you’ve learned and you could feature in our monthly Reader Gallery or Instagram feed: digitalcamera@futurenet.com @digitalcameramag…

Shoot with your lens at maximum aperture for an extremely shallow depth of field – this image (right) was taken with a 70-200mm zoom at f/4. This will throw the background and foreground out of focus so you’ll end up with a pleasing blur and the subject looking dominant. Having such a limited zone of sharpness, which can be measured in millimetres, means that your focusing has to be more critical than normal because there is no latitude for error. Use a small single AF point or go manual focus and shoot lots to make sure you have a sharp result. Take on the challenge and get it right, though, and you will be rewarded with some great pictures.…

If you’re interested in image quality, then you need to know about the Enhance command. It features two of the biggest hitters Adobe has to offer – the Denoise and Super Resolution commands. Unlike the headline-grabbing Generate AI tools, these let us enhance what’s already there rather than supplement images with AI-generated fluff. They are also brilliant for revamping older photos that we might once have dismissed as too noisy. This hummingbird photo is an extreme example. I took it on an old Nikon D800 with a slightly soft lens in 2017. Shot at ISO 6400 and needing a hefty crop, the image was unusable. Seven years later, digital image editing has come on leaps and bounds and, after running the image through Denoise and Super Resolution (it requires a…

The latest version of Portrait Pro 24 has updated and improved a number of its original features but it has also included a few new ones, including batch processing. This is a handy feature if you are planning on doing the same kind of processing to a series of photos of the same person. Another new feature is the ability to paint in new teeth on your subject with a set of five different options. So if your subject has wonky or discoloured teeth and you are after a bright, even smile, this is worth having a look at – no need to travel to get the new teeth look! The important thing right from the start is to ensure the control points accurately outline the lips. 1 Tweak the selection…

£4,999/$4,999 (body only) www.fujifilm.eu With the release of the Fujifilm GFX 100S II, it appears that Fujifilm might have found its rhythm with its medium-format GFX line-up. You might find it hard to believe that it was only in 2017 that the Fujifilm GFX series burst onto the scene. Since then we have been treated to a few different shapes and sizes, but each new addition has pushed medium-format cameras, bringing more resolution, IBIS and professional video – all with prices that have been competitive with the best full-frame cameras. With this latest model, Fujifilm has simplified its GFX lineup, ditching the GFX 50S II – the last of its 50MP GFX cameras – and is now focusing on two 102MP cameras instead. On one hand, you have the GFX…

£749/$699 www.tamron.eu Let’s face it: many of us don’t really like swapping between lenses on our cameras. I’m certainly one of them. The ever-present risk of dust blowing into the camera and sticking to the image sensor plays on my mind, especially in inclement conditions. If I’m off to shoot landscapes, cityscapes or architectural interiors, it’s simply a pain to switch between wide-angle and standard lenses. The Tamron 17-50mm means I don’t have to. On a full-frame Sony body, it has a range of viewing angles that covers everything from 103.7 to 46.8º. In practical terms, that’s really wide-angle coverage at the short end and an entirely natural perspective at the other. The zoom range also works really well for vlogging, giving the opportunity to set the scene by including…

• DSLR & MIRRORLESS CAMERAS PLUS: Our best-buy accessories DSLRs Seen something that doesn’t look right? Email us at digitalcamera@futurenet.com with ‘Camera Guide’ in the subject line What to look for in a… DSLR 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…

Charles Glatzer Wildlife photographer Having enjoyed a long association with Yellowstone National Park, Glatzer was a wise choice for a new conservation collaboration. He tells us all about it on page 118 Nathan Lee Allen Photographer and filmmaker Based in Kentucky, Allen crossed the US to join forces with Charles Glatzer at Yellowstone. He talks about the project, in our exclusive two-hander interview on 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 62 Sherrie Nickol Photographer A combination of portraits and street photography features in the debut book by this American photographer, exploring youth, relationships and family. Page 94 Jon Devo Photographer & writer Our…

While canal-building has been around since Roman times, W when the Fossdyke was built to connect Lincoln to the River Trent, it wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution that it really took off in the UK. Burgeoning industry needed a better method of transporting goods and raw materials than by road, and canals offered the solution. A horse could tow up to 50 tons of cargo in a boat, connecting mines with factories and factories with cities. From 1759 to the end of the 18th century, there was a frenzy of canal building but it was to be short-lived as a competing form of transport – the railways – took off by the middle of the 19th century. The profit in canal building disappeared and the waterways slowly fell out of…

Richmond Park to the west of London is home to a variety of wildlife, providing plenty of photographic opportunities. In particular, the 600-strong herds of red and fallow deer that have roamed the park since 1637. The best time of year to photograph these animals is in the autumn, during the mating season, also known as the rut. During the rut, the red deer stags and fallow deer bucks compete with each other to attract as many mates as possible while fighting off rivals. The behaviour of the stags, as they roar and bellow at each other and clash antlers in their battle for supremacy, or just keep an attentive lookout over their herds, provides great opportunities for wildlife photographs. www.photocrowd.com/photographer-community/21018/ 1 Stay safe Be careful, as these are wild…

Tourism and travel are themes that have underpinned most of my photography for the past six years or so, albeit with a little break for the Covid-19 pandemic, although, strangely, I have never considered myself a ‘travel photographer’. I’ve recently started to dig deeper into what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. I’ve always been more interested in why we make photographs than how, so I enrolled in an MA Photography course at Falmouth University. I’ve just completed the first module. It’s great – hard work, but I’m being challenged to examine what I’m doing and why. Not only that, I’m also obligated to research my subject and aspects of critical theory in much more detail than I would if left to my own devices. Some of it is…

An eruption of colour and beauty, autumn is the natural world’s final and arguably most impressive performance before the onset of the winter months. It’s not that winter doesn’t have advantages, but autumn is one of the most highly anticipated seasons in the photographers’ calendar – and for good reason. Beyond the warm colours that bring the landscape to life, autumn also delivers an abundance of misty mornings and more palatable golden hour times after the long days of summer. This not only makes getting out and shooting at these times more achievable, but the opportunities for fantastic images naturally increase. One of the most impressive aspects of autumn is that it’s perfect for all types of photography: from landscapes to macro, wildlife and portraits. Here, our 10 projects focus…

Landscape photography should always include the sky in the frame, shouldn’t it? Not really. Ultimately, it depends on what you are aiming for. Plus, if the sky is a bright featureless blue, it would ultimately let the final shot down, unless there was an inversion in the valley you’re shooting into. With that in mind, this is a technique that works best using telephoto lenses shooting from an elevated position. HOW TO FILL THE FRAME EFFECTIVELY FIND AN ELEVATED SPOT 1 The best viewpoint for frame-filling landscapes is an elevated spot above a valley. Shoot down, picking out interesting details and colour, plus the autumn mist. USE A TELEPHOTO LENS 2 A telephoto lens such as 70-200mm is ideal as it’s the right focal range to crop into the scene.…

This month: Get closer to nature For more striking photos with extra detail, let’s move nearer to the subject Every lens you own has a minimum focusing distance and although it varies from lens to lens, it’s often remarkable how close you can get. If you want to get even closer, the opportunity is there too, as we’ll see. A standard zoom might focus as close as 50cm or so, while wide-angles will let you in even closer. With a telephoto, you are likely to be further away from the subject but the longer focal length gives a good image size. Many lenses have the term ‘macro’ in their name and while that can be a clue as to its minimum focusing abilities, a true macro lens means you get…

When photographing newborn babies, you often find yourself having to fake situations and use editing to create something that looks spectacular. Take the before shot here; it’s obvious the baby is posed on a bean bag (actually a Perfect Posie). But through the magic of editing, we trick our eyes into believing that the baby is suspended in mid-air. You will still need to take care with the posing and wrapping of the baby – and these techniques will need to be practised. Variations on this pose could include the parents’ hands coming from the bottom of the frame as though the baby is being held up. If you suspect that Masking is involved, you are correct, of course. However, unlike the typical Subject or Background mask, you will need…

Photo RAW 2024 from ON1 software is a great non-subscription option for photographers. It offers excellent photo management and non-destructive editing options, plus it also supports raw processing for over 800 cameras. Combining the best of features found in editing software such as Lightroom and Photoshop, ON1 Photo RAW 2024 includes layer-based editing, sky replacement, AI editing and noise reduction, along with extensive effects. We’ll look at its editing features in detail during this series, but for this first part, let’s take a look at the options related to file management. The program works in two main modes: Browse and Edit. Browse shows the grid of images available based on your chosen location between Local Drives and Favourites. 1 Import Photo RAW uses a browser, but that doesn’t prevent you from…

ENJOY DIGITAL BACK ISSUES DATING FROM 2009!* Read issues 90-279 of Digital Camera on your computer or mobile device when you subscribe! Page 32 *2012 when using Pocketmags iOS users can access our back issues archive dating from 2009 by downloading the Digital Camera app from the Apple App Store (www.bit.ly/app_DCM). Android and desktop computer users can access our back issues archive dating from 2012 by using the Pocketmags app (www.pocketmags.com) or the Pocketmags website. Find out more at: www.magazinesdirect.com/digital-instructions/…

In this image, we have all the lovely details of a mountain stream with tumbling water and beautifully mossy rocks. However, in an attempt to hold all the detail in the water, the whole image has been somewhat underexposed, so let’s open it up in Adobe Camera Raw and see what we can do to fix it. The first thing that we are going to do is tighten the composition and lose that slightly messy area at the top 1. Go to the Crop Tool and scale the image up so we don’t lose any of the resolution. Now tighten the crop to draw more attention to the water. We could just use the universal Exposure slider to brighten this image, but we want to keep that same density of…

The Summer Olympic Games have always been a showcase for T the latest cuttingedge technology. As a photographer, I’ve always looked forward to Olympic years because it’s typically when camera makers roll out their greatest flagship models. But beyond the hardware, there’s a tonne of other innovation that goes into making the games fairer and more fun to watch, from unique camera and sensor systems that support precision-timed finishes to increasingly immersive broadcasts. “At the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964, before photo-finish technology, 22 people had to stand at the finish line to judge the result by eye” At the Paris Olympics, one particular advancement blew me away; volumetric video production. These systems use hundreds of cameras positioned around a venue to capture real-world objects and spaces in 3D, allowing…

£649/$597 www.nikon.co.uk Call me old-fashioned, but I’m of an age where enthusiast photographers with deep pockets bought f/1.4 prime lenses, and those on a tighter budget settled for cheaper f/1.8 alternatives. That was certainly the case with Nikon’s F-mount lenses for its DSLRs; but, in its Z-system line-up for mirrorless cameras, we’ve so far seen f/1.8 premium S-line lenses, jumping straight to the likes of the super-fast Nikon Z 50mm f/1.2 S and Nikon Z 85mm f/1.2 S, taking time-honoured f/1.4 lenses completely out of the equation. Stranger still, while the Nikon Z 35mm f/1.8 S was one of the very first Z-mount lenses to be released, the new f/1.4 option – following about six years down the line – is not only faster, but cheaper to buy, lacking S-line…