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Issue 255 May 2022 www.digitalcameraworld.com
FORGET PHOTOSHOP
GET IT RIGHT
IN CAMERA!
O N TE ST
How to shoot smarter and save editing time Metering
Focusing
Drive modes
Live View
H OTSH OTS
Savour the world’s best scenic photos
Leica Q2 Reporter DxO PureRAW 2 Sigma 20mm F2 DG DN C
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9 All-new photo tips cards
3 expert videos for Photoshop
274-page Buyer’s Guide
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Contents
ISSUE 255 MAY 2022
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Shootout _ Two technique editors, six models and one country house… we get up close to Rotolight’s new LEDs
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Practical Photoshop _ Get the best out of Photoshop and Lightroom with our latest in-depth tutorials
GET IT RIGHT
IN CAMERA Photo skills
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Photo Active Fresh inspiration on every page – choose from 10 all-new projects
Ben Brain gives an anatomical heart model an all-new lease of life
Get it right in camera 40
Hotshots 32
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68 Reader Gallery
Expert advice on how to save time on editing and shoot more photos
Camera College Follow our urban photography tutorials and enter our reader challenge!
Affinity Photo 58
How to combine multiple colour and exposure effects
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Spotlight on… NFTs Everyone’s talking about them but what do they mean for photography?
Showcasing International Landscape Photographer of the Year 2021
Presenting the month’s best images across a variety of genres
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In Focus The latest camera kit and accessories from across the market
102 Jon Devo column
Do high-end cameras with top tech take the fun out of photography?
Gear & tests 104 Leica Q2 Reporter
Limited-edition compact with a rugged body finish and subtle colourway
107 Nikkor 28-75mm f/2.8 It’s not quite a trinity lens, but is this new zoom worth investing in?
108 DxO PureRAW 2
The Raw batch processing software now offers Fujifilm X-Trans support and seamless Lightroom integration
77 Practical Photoshop
118 Interview
112 CFexpress Type B cards
94 Photo Answers
130 What the f-stop!
115 Testing updates
Sharpen your image-editing skills in Photoshop and Lightroom.
Our expert answers your questions, plus Tech Check and Image Rescue
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Regulars The Art of Seeing 29
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Craig Easton gives the lowdown on his ‘Bank Top’ documentary project
Test your photography knowledge with our monthly trivia test
Pro-level capture cards get put through their paces in our new-look Mini Test
The lab test results are in for the Canon EOS R3, Nikon Z 9 and Sony A7 IV
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HURRY WHILE STOCKS LAST!
Contents
This month’s contributors Craig Easton Documentary photographer Craig is motivated by the intersection of social policy and sense of place, looking beyond the headlines to find the real story. Read more on page 118
Graham McCowen Photographer & art director
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Interview _ Long-form documentary photographer Craig Easton on capturing everyday life in Blackburn for his ‘Bank Top’ project, the professional competition winner at the Sony World Photography Awards 2021
Graham likes to tell stories with his photography, placing a high level of importance in his choice of lenses when on shoots. Find out more on page 11
PLUS
Win a copy of Affinity Photo in our monthly challenge!
Helga Stentzel Photographer & illustrator Taking pleasure in finding something sublime in the mundane, Helga likes to embrace surrealism in her work, as you’ll discover on page 12
Jon Devo Photographer & writer
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Jon enjoys celebrating the evolution of camera tech. This issue, however, he wonders whether you can have too much of a good thing. Page 102
Camera College _ Discover how to master the finer aspects of shooting in towns and cities, from skyscrapers to scaffolding and buildings to bright skies. Then learn from the tutorials and enter this month’s photo challenge!
Laurence Bouchard
Photo Active _ 10 things to shoot, edit or create this month, including super scenics, double exposures, creating surrealistic photos using household objects, and immortalising the beauty of classic steam trains
Street photographer Primarily focused on street photography, Laurence takes inspiration from his surroundings – in this case, Tokyo, as you’ll see on page 16
Sean Weekly Wildlife photographer Sean has travelled far and wide in documenting the daily life of the denizens of the great outdoors. He has been photographing pelicans, as seen on page 24
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10 things you can shoot this month, from landscapes and portraits to surrealism and classic steam trains
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Photo Active
1 | LANDSCAPES
The lay of the land
1/3200 sec
f/1.8
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Ben Wootton experiments with a range of settings for landscapes with a difference here is nothing better than spending time outdoors and creating memories with simple photographs. I often look back at my pictures and reminisce – this is something that runs in my genes. My grandparents would often give me photo albums from my childhood. They
in the middle or slightly underexposed. I always try to keep my ISO setting as low as possible to keep noise to a minimum. Then I wanted to enhance that shallow depth of field so I set my camera close to the ground – usually handheld, as a tripod won’t get close enough. Then you’re ready to take the shot! Instagram: @bilbobennings
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didn’t mean a lot to me when I was younger, but now I find them to be invaluable. In the photo on this page, I want to lead the viewer down the textured path and into the scene, so here’s how I did it. First, I set my camera to f/1.8 to enable shallow depth of field. Next, I amended my shutter speed so the exposure meter on my camera shows
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Laurence Bouchard
5 | CAMERA PHONES
One night in Tokyo
Laurence Bouchard takes to the streets of Japan with his iPhone aurence Bouchard is a Tokyo-based street photographer from Bath, UK. He recently won the Mobiography Photographer of the Year 2021 award, and his photography focuses primarily on street photography, although he occasionally incorporates his wife and daughter into his images. He moved to Tokyo in 2009 and purchased his first iPhone. The combination of the freshness of living in a new environment and the realisation of the iPhone’s image-making capabilities set him on a photographic journey that led to him working with Apple for its iPhone 7 campaign in November 2016. He now shoots interchangeably with both the iPhone and the Sony A7R II. However, it’s the iPhone that is (nearly) always with him. Laurence regards both cameras as essential. IG: @laurence__bouchard
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GET IT RIGHT
IN CAMERA Reckon you can fix everything in Photoshop? Nail as much as you can when pressing the shutter and free up more time for taking photographs, say Jon Adams and Andrew James
ontemporary photography involves two separate stages. One is the raw material you save to your memory card, and the other is the post-processing, where you fine-tune your capture to reflect the vision or mood you want to express. It’s all too easy to think that you can do everything in the second stage, especially with the flexibility that shooting raw gives you. But this isn’t the case, as there are certain fundamentals that you must get right in-camera. These are the
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elements that cannot be rescued or fixed, no matter how good your post-processing skills may be. It’s true that the raw format presents you with a plethora of floating values – all of which can be shaped to align with your creative ideas for the finished photo. However, certain things have to be nailed down at the capture stage because they simply can’t be changed. And these are the aspects we’ll be looking at in detail over the coming pages. If you get these right in-camera, then the standard of your images can only improve.
CONTENTS
1 Use the right file format page 41 2 Set the correct focusing mode 42 3 Choose the right aperture 44 4 Set appropriate shutter speeds 46 5 Use burst mode for action 48 6 Tame shadows and highlights 49 www.digitalcameraworld.com
GET IT RIGHT IN CAMERA
f/3.5
ISO 100
30 secs
Although many aspects of a shot can be enhanced in post processing, the fundamentals of shutter speed, aperture choice, focusing and timing have to be nailed down at the capture stage.
With today’s DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, there are basically two choices of file format: JPEG or RAW (or both at once!). If you want the best quality from your shots, then RAW is the default option, as it gives the ultimate flexibility for producing the highest image quality. This is because a raw file has a broad range of ‘floating values’, which can be adjusted in software after the shot has been taken. These include the contrast, colour, sharpening and even the exposure itself. With a JPEG, all these values are fixed in the file, and although it is possible to make changes, the image quality will be degraded and the amount of leeway for
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adjustment is much more restricted. The simple advice is to choose RAW (as below), but make sure you pick the highest resolution option, as many cameras offer the option of smaller raw file sizes. While these will save space on your card, they won’t offer the same scope for big prints.
Getty Images
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PRO ADVICE USE THE RIGHT FILE FORMAT
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Spotlight on… NFTs What are nonfungible tokens, how do they work and what do they mean for photographers? Pro Jordan Banks explains more hat are NFTs? This is a question that has been asked a lot of late. NFTs or non-fungible tokens are a new form of digital investable stored on the Ethereum blockchain. NFTs can be collected in the same way editions of photographic prints are in the traditional market. The result is a potential new avenue for photographers of all levels and genres to market and sell their work. The only difference from the traditional art market is that everything from transactions to ownership is conducted in a digital manner via the blockchain. If you’re thinking this doesn’t make much sense then I will explain all…
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What is an NFT? What does nonfungible token even mean? One of the main confusions around NFTs is simply the name. Once we make sense of this things usually become a lot clearer. ‘Token’ is the name given to a digital asset that can be transferred between people/buyers/collectors on a blockchain. ‘Non-fungible’ references the fact that the token can’t be replicated or divided into sections as you could say with a more common token such as bitcoin. What makes NFTs unique is the digital asset attached to the token. Where did NFTs come from? The tech behind NFTs has been around since 2015 when unique tokens were added to the Ethereum blockchain but didn’t become a big deal until early in 2021 when artist Beeple’s composite NFT sold for $69.3 million at auction. News of other big-figure sales along with the ever-growing list of success stories from far lesser-known creatives has attracted a lot of attention to NFTs, which doesn’t look to be dying down. How do you set up an NFT? Getting set up to sell NFTs isn’t quite as simple as just uploading them to an auction site and away you go.
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Spotlight on…
© Jordan Banks
Below: Alone ‘Alone’ is the first single image I have listed on Foundation, a creative platform for artists, curators and collectors.
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Reader gallery
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‘The Moods of a Scottish Day’ by Clive Ingram
“This was my first trip to Glencoe, so I attended a photo workshop. The composition was suggested, but ultimately framed by me to take in the lone tree framing the mountain with the gorgeous light.” 72
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Digital Camera says: Although the composition
might have been suggested to you, Clive, it’s only half the battle. It looks like some serious finesse has gone into the editing – some dodging and burning to certain areas to tease out the best parts of the image. You should feel very proud to be this month’s winner. www.digitalcameraworld.com
READER SHOT OF THE MONTH Clive Ingram wins a year’s subscription to Digital Camera for this image. Well done, Clive!
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KitZone
Compact Leica Q2 Reporter
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Without even the hint of a grip, the Q2 Reporter needs to have the extra security of a strap. 2
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The Summilux 28mm f/1.7 has a fixed focal length, but it’s a beauty.
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The olive green finish of the Reporter edition gives it a very stylish look.
Leica Q2 Reporter £1,999/$2,198 (body only) A luxury compact camera built like a tank h t t p s : // l e i c a - c a m e r a . c o m
Specifications Sensor: 47.3 megapixel full-frame CMOS Image processor: Maestro II Autofocus: Contrast detect; 225 points ISO range: 64 to 50,000 Max image size: 8,368 x 5,584 Metering modes: Spot, Centre-Weighted, Multi-Field Video: 4K UHD at 29.97 or Cine 4K at 24p or 1080P at 119.88p Viewfinder: 3,68m dots, 100% coverage Memory cards: SD/SDHC/SDXC, UHS-II LCD: 3in fixed touchscreen, 1.04m dots Max burst rate: 10 fps Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Size: 130 x 80 x 91.9 mm Weight: 718g (battery)
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he Leica Q2 has been in our list of best compact cameras for some time, and for good reason – we love it, not least for its image quality. Now the limited edition Leica Q2 Reporter is here, but does it steal the original Q2’s thunder? Leica’s camera range could get confusing, so here’s a quick run-down. This German brand is probably best known for its Leica M rangefinders, which take interchangeable M-series lenses. The Q2 Reporter shares the same ‘look’ as the M-series, but it is a different design – a compact camera with a fixed lens. Leica also makes SL-series L-mount mirrorless cameras, including the professional-level Leica SL2 (which has a lot in common with the Panasonic Lumix S1R). There’s also the rarely seen Leica S3 medium-format SLR.
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Key features
The Leica Q was one of the best sellers in Leica’s illustrious history, and this wave of new adopters and upgraders continued with the release of its successor, the Leica Q2. Now the Q2 series features a dedicated Monochrom version, and the new Reporter ‘Green’ colourway has been added to the list of this compact powerhouse hybrid, in the form of the Leica Q2 Reporter. Essentially, the Q2 Reporter is the same as the original Q2. It still features the amazingly sharp Summilux 28mm f/1.7 ASPH wide-angle lens and has full manual control, so those coming from the Leica M system need not worry – you can still manually focus the lens if you want to, but you don’t really need to. Along with the Reporter colourway is the omission of the red dot Leica logo, which you will only ever see on www.digitalcameraworld.com
Leica Q2 Reporter Compact
While beautiful and streamlined, the screen isn’t moveable.
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The LCD is touch sensitive, and contains 1.04 million dots.
The original leather grip has been replaced with Kevlar.
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The styling of the distance scale – now in white and grey – makes for a more neutral and distinct look.
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The optical performance of the Summilux 28mm f/1.7 lens is outstanding. Its 28mm focal length is ideal for ‘wide’ street photography.
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the Q2 Reporter when the camera is powering off. All lens distance scales and focal length colours are now in white and grey to give a cleaner, more neutral look. Of course, you cannot forget that this Reporter version brings across the dark green colour in matt, which is similar to Leica’s ‘Safari’ editions, making it more inconspicuous than its counterparts, allowing the photographer to go unnoticed when covering reportage or documentary-style photography, according to Leica. Whether this really makes you more unrecognisable is up to the subject matter you are shooting, but there is no denying that the Q2 in this colourway looks absolutely stunning. For the Reporter variant, the textured leather grip that surrounded the Q2 has gone and is replaced with Kevlar that has been designed to ‘wear’ as you use the camera, so www.digitalcameraworld.com
With the physical aperture ring on the lens and a shutter speed dial, the Q2 has oldschool exposure controls.
the texture and weave of the kevlar becomes slightly fibrous, which will give you better grip of the camera the more you use it. This is an interesting concept, and I like it. As well as being a great stills camera, the Q2 Reporter, like the original Q2, offers 4K video shooting. You get a choice of standard 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels) or you can opt for Cinema 4K with a resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels. You can choose either 30fps or 24fps frame rates with 4K, but are limited to 24fps with C4K. Switch down to Full HD and you get useful slo-mo options of 120fps or 60fps. Even though I see this camera targeted at photographers, having these video options as someone in the field out reporting and having the ability on the fly to tap the touchscreen and quickly take a video can be very handy, especially for multi-media news coverage.
Sebastian Oakley
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The physical aperture and shutter speed dials make it easy to select manual exposure settings for difficult lighting conditions, even before you raise the camera.
“As well as being a great stills camera, the Q2 Reporter offers 4K video shooting” MAY 2022
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Next month
SHOOT WONDERFUL
WILDLIFE
Pro advice for your best-ever creature captures! Camera settings
Lens choice
Essential kit
Fieldcraft
PLUS!
10 all-new photo projects One to One pro masterclass Reader Shootout Editing tutorials
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Fujinon XF 56mm F/1.2 R APD Group Test: Super-telephoto zoom lenses
ON SALE Friday 27 May Contents subject to change
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