Photography News 14

In issue 14, we follow up last month’s Camera class with more info about the all-important focus as well as the importance of clarity in Lightroom. We take a first look at Samsung’s NX1 and put the Canon G7 X to the test. Also on test: the best paper for at-home mono prints. We round the issue out with our Buyers’ guide, which gives you some great photo gift ideas.

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18November – 15December2014

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Photography News , in association with Canon and renowned landscape photographer, David Noton, is proud to announce its brand-new Camera Club of the Year competition. Comprising five themes, the competition kicks off this issue, culminating with the announcement of the winning club in issue 21 (June 2015). First prize includes a Canon XEED WUX450 projector, worth £3,000; 25 subscriptions to Canon’s cloud storage service, Irista; and a workshop and talk with David Noton. In each issue of PN , an Image of the Month will be chosen too, putting the spotlight on the best entrants to the themes so far. The five themes will be announced in the subsequent five issues and clubs have until 5 May 2015 to enter. Entry is online only via www.absolutephoto.com. All camera clubs, groups and societies, whether online or works, affiliated or not, may enter. Each club may enter five images into every round, with the scores being added together to determine the overall winning club. Search for top camera club gets underway Photography News, in conjunction with Canon, launches first-ever annual club competition

Newkit fromCanon andLee, comps to enter, plus£10,000 landscapewinner

All the info you need on the latest photo launches

Plus 8 mono papers tested & Christmas photo gifts Hands-on: Canon G7 X, SamsungNX1 &Pentax 645Z Nikon Photo Contest prizewinner on the glory “Winning a Grand Prize is the same as winning anOscar”

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

π To find out more about the competition, turn to page 10.

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Issue 14 | Photography News

Photography News | Issue 14

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Latest photography news

Slimmer polariser fromLee The new skinny, but warmer Landscape Polariser

Stop press

NEWS INBRIEF MACPHUN PRESETS If you’re a user of Macphun Intensify Pro or Macphun Tonality Pro, you’ll be pleased to hear about the launch of Macphun Marketplace, offering a selection of creative presets and texture packs created by some of the world’s leading photographers. These one-click effects make enhancement easy in a variety of styles, and they’re very affordable, priced at $5 for five (about £3). Currently on the Marketplace are packs from Frank Salas, Laurie Rubin, Alan Hess, and more. www.macphun.com/ marketplace NEXT ISSUE There’s one more issue of Photography News due this year. It’ll be with you by Monday 15 December. And don’t forget you can sign up for a digital version too; register at photography-news. co.uk/register.

Lee Filters has added to its extensive line- up of filters and accessories with the 105mm Landscape Polariser and a new Field Pouch. The new Landscape Polariser is a circular polarising filter, featuring the usual rotating bezel design, but is a lot slimmer than existing types and this means that, when attached to a two-slotted holder, it can be used down to focal lengths of between 16 and 17mm on full-frame DSLRs without danger of vignetting. Mounting on the front of the standard Lee Filters holder, the new polariser leaves both regular slots free for other filters. The good news continues for landscape photographers because the filter is also specifically engineered to produce a slightly warmer than normal tone. While it produces all the usual polarisation effects – cutting out unwanted reflections and deepening colours, for example – it also enhances natural tones, giving a richer and more golden finish to your scenics.

If you’ve been toying with investing in the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens, don’t. Because Canon has just announced its successor, the EF 100- 400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM. Its long list of initials denotes its place in Canon’s L series of optics, a four-stop Image Stabilizer (IS), its status as a successor lens (II) and fast, near-silent focusing (USM). This compact, lightweight telephoto also boasts 21 elements with the new Air Sphere Coating, a Zoom Touch Adjustment ring and dust and water-resistant construction. It’s available next month for £1999.99. And we hope to have our hands on it for a test soon too.

So, essentially you get a warm-up filter and a polariser in one. The Field Pouch is available in black or a sandy colour. The pouch has a concertina design and will store up to ten 100x150mm filters. Padded for extra protection and made of durable fabric, the pouch has three strap options, so you can wear it over the shoulder, on your belt or even attach it to your tripod – whichever is the most comfortable for you. The Landscape Polariser costs £174, while the Field Pouch is £40.

π To find out more, go to www.canon.co.uk.

π To find out more about the polariser and pouch, go to www.leefilters.com.

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Issue 14 | Photography News

Latest photography news

Interfit lights upmarket Among themaker’s exciting announcements are LED lighting and off-camera flashguns

more powerful studio style lights. The construction includes metal-bodied versions aimed at professional use (HS), mid- range lights made from ABS plastic (CSA) and a value range (SA) for hobbyists. Some of the lights can also be switched between 3200K and 5600K colour temperatures and used with a soon-to-be-released remote. The range starts at £55.

pack (which can power most speedlights with the correct cables), but you can get a second head on its own for £100 less. Triggers and spare batteries are sold separately. With continuous lighting becoming more popular with photographers, especially on location, Interfit’s second announcement is a range of Nanguang LED lights. The lights are battery powered for portability and the range consists of everything from hotshoe mounted LEDs to

First up is the Strobies Pro-Flash 360. Designed to be used off-camera, it can also be mounted like a speedlight, and it’s powered by an external power pack providing over 450 full-power bursts. Recycle times are claimed to be a speedy 0.5-4.5secs at full power and the Pro-Flash 360’s high-speed sync allows shutter speeds up to 1/8000sec to be used, so you can shoot with very wide apertures. The Strobies Pro-Flash 360 is priced at £450 with the power

π To find out more, go to www.interfitphotographic.com.

Ricoh backwith a splash Ricoh is adding to its WG series of waterproof compacts. The WG-30 and WG-30W are claimed to offer waterproof shooting to a depth of 12 metres, withstand falls from up to 1.5 metres and operate in temperatures as low as -10°C. The difference between the two is the WG-30W’s additional Wi-Fi functionality, which allows remote shooting and easy downloading and sharing of pictures. Performance in low light is said to have been improved via a back-illuminated 16-megapixel CMOS sensor and redesigned processor, while the ISO tops out at 6400. There are three anti-shake modes, and six lights around the lens to assist close-up shooting. Full HD movies are offered as well as a new pet detection function. The WG-30 will cost £229.99, while the WG-30W is arriving in January, costing £30 more.

π To find out more, go to www.ricoh-imaging.co.uk.

Photography News | Issue 14

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Latest photography news

Entries wanted Two epic once-in-a-lifetime trips are on offer for the winners of the Lovers of Light photography competition

NEWS INBRIEF PNY POWERPACKS The M3000 (£22.99) and LM3000 (£29.99) are the latest in the PNY PowerPack range, offering built-in Micro- USB and Lightning cables to charge Android and Apple devices, respectively. Around the size of a credit card, with a thickness of 13mm and 14mm, and weighing only 84g, the devices are extremely portable and convenient, requiring no additional cables. The 3000 mAh battery capacity ensures up to two full charges are possible for a smartphone and LED battery level indicators show when a recharge is needed. www.pny.com modifier is a four-foot Octa softbox, filling the gap between the three- and five-foot versions. Perfect for a lovely round catchlight in the subject’s eyes. Priced at £252. www.profoto.com Joby has introduced a supersized GripTight system for larger smartphones like the iPhone 6 Plus. A GripTight XL Stand XL costs £28 and will hold a load of 325g. Existing owners of GorillaPods can just buy the Mount XL for £15. www.joby.com PROFOTO LOVELY SOFTIE Profoto’s latest SUPPORT YOUR PHONE GorillaPod maker

ABOVE 2013’s winner, Martin Dawe, Snow Before Melting. RIGHT Third place in 2013, Stephen Banks’s Winter Sunrise.

Leading windowmaker Velux has launch its third Lovers of Light photography competition. Open to pros and enthusiasts, it is looking for creative pictures that capture a moment of daylight, whether that is in the mountains, on a woodland walk or at the coast.

Two once-in-a-lifetime trips are the prizes. The closing date is 20 February 2015 and the winners will be revealed in March 2015.

π To find out more, go to www.velux.co.uk/loversoflight.

John Gravett, who owns and runs Lakeland Photographic Holidays in Cumbria, is holding his latest exhibition as a homage to the number of people who question him on the subject of his photography, then reply ‘oh, just the landscape?’ Just the Landscape will be on show in the Circle Gallery at the Theatre by the Lake in Cumbria from 1 December 2014 until 29 January 2015 and entry to the exhibition is free. Featured locations include the Lake District but also Iceland, Tuscany and the USA. Just the landscape A showcase of JohnGravett’s stunning landscape images

π To find out more, go to www.lakelandphotohols.com.

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Issue 14 | Photography News

Latest photography news

Quick, get Trigger happy

NEWS INBRIEF SAMSUNG DUO Samsung is offering the chance to stock up on extra memory in time for Christmas. Its EVO SD and EVO Micro SD cards are now available in money-saving twin packs. EVO cards are claimed to be able to withstand 24 hours in seawater, as well as X-rays and magnets, and endure operating temperatures as low as -25°C and as high as 85°C. Virtually indestructible, then. The twin pack prices range from £28.95 for 16GB to £47.95 for 32GB. www.samsung.com

Get in the fast lanewith a TriggerSmart workshop in Bournemouth and practise your own high-speed shooting technique

as well as motion capture, the effects of shutter speed and flash duration and how to deal with camera shutter delay. The day gives an opportunity to create some outstanding water-drop photographs as well as taking in fast-moving or exploding objects, like balloons and glass. All you need to bring is your camera and flashgun. The workshop costs £69 and includes refreshments.

For a hands-on demonstration of the TriggerSmart system in action, showing exactly how it’s used to create great action, still-life and wildlife photos, Flaghead Photographic and DEPhotographic are organising a special workshop. Taking place on 4 December at The Picture House Studios in Bournemouth, Dorset, the workshop covers the basics of remote triggering

For shooting fast action subjects like water droplets, a balloon bursting or shattering glass, you need a gadget that can coordinate the camera and lighting to fire at precisely the right time. A gadget like the TriggerSmart system, a remote control trigger that’s easily connected to most DSLRs, and which fires your shutter automatically, cued either by the breaking of an infrared beam, or by sensing a light or sound.

π To find out more about the workshop, go to www.flaghead.co.uk.

Taking a view Landscape Photographer of the Year announced

Tetenal, one of the world’s oldest photo companies, has launched a film-only photo competition to find the European Black & White Analogue Photographer of the Year. There are five categories – reportage/lifestyle, portrait, architecture, landscape and wildlife – and entries must be submitted as analogue black & white prints. At the time of going to press, the final prize pool is still being worked on so check the website for the latest news. Filmlives

European Black & White Classics Award

One of the most prestigious and ethical photo competitions around, Landscape Photographer of the Year, which was profiled in issue 12 of PN , has announced the winners of the 2014 competition. The eighth annual contest presented 14 prizes, including the youth categories and four special prizes supported by the sponsors: the Countryside is GREAT Award, VisitBritain You’re Invited Award, Network Rail Lines in the Landscape Award and The Sunday Times Magazine Choice. This year’s overall winner is Mark Littlejohn from Derby. His winning image, A Beginning and an End, is of Scotland’s Glencoe, taken handheld during a gap in the weather. He explains: “I saw this wee stream from high up on Gearr Aonach. It tumbled steeply down the slopes before vanishing again near the base of the mountain. With more squalls coming through I decided to take this image as the light became more diffuse. It had be a quick handheld shot due to the sideways rain and I therefore raised the ISO and used a larger aperture to keep the speed up slightly.” As well as the title, Mark scoops a £10,000 prize pot. In the Youth categories, for under 17s, the Youth Landscape Photographer of the Year and the accompanying £1000 prize went

Each country will find a local winner for each category and the overall judging will happen in Germany in April 2015. Closing date for entries is 31 March 2015.

π To find out more, go to www.since1847.tetenal.com.

ABOVE The 2014 winning image by Mark Littlejohn.

to Sam Rielly for his mono image of Parys mountain in Anglesea, Wales. The Landscape Photographer of the Year: Collection 8 book is now on sale, containing full-colour prints of all this year’s winning and commended entries. Published by AA Publishing, it costs £25. But if you want to see the exhibition of the very same images, you’ll have to wait until next month. The Awards exhibition opens on 1 December at London’s Waterloo station. The free to enter display will be there until 31 January.

π To find out more about the competition, go to www.take-a-view.co.uk.

Photography News | Issue 14

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Issue 14 | Photography News

Camera clubs Tell us your club’s latest news, email: clubnews@photography-news.co.uk Camera club news If your club has any news that you want to share with the rest of Allow plenty of time. Photography News comes out around the third week of the month. For the next issue, which comes out 15 December, we need words and pictures by 4 December. HOWTO SUBMIT

Write your story on a Word document (400 words maximum) and attach it to an email to clubnews@photography-news.co.uk. In the story please include contact details of the club, exhibition or event – website, meeting time, opening times, whatever is relevant to the story. Images: Yes please, and attach these to the email too. Images should be JPEGs, 2000 pixels on the longest dimension and any colour space. If the story is an exhibition or event, please send a picture from the exhibition (not the publicity poster), the winning image or one of the event. If the picture includes people please identify them on the Word document. Deadline for the next issue: 4December

the world, this is the page for it. Your story might be about your club’s success in a contest, or a member’s personal achievement; it could be about a group outing you had recently or when the annual exhibition is on show. Any news is eligible for inclusion, so club publicity officers please take note of the submission guidelines and get your stories in

CharlieWaite says happy anniversary Crowds expected for renowned landscape photographer’s talk

Okehampton Camera Club has an exhibition of members’ photographs on display until 7 December at the Royal Horticultural Society Garden Rosemoor near Torrington, Devon. It is open from 10am to 5pm every day, including weekends. Last entry is 4pm. Graham Brown, secretary of Okehampton Camera Club says, “This is the second year our members have exhibited some of their favourite images at RHS Rosemoor. We hope our photographs, on a wide range of subjects, give pleasure to the Rosemoor visitors.” Okehampton Camera Club meets fortnightly on Mondays at the Church Hall in Market Street, Okehampton, Devon. Meetings start at 7.30pm and new members are always welcome. Showingoff in thegarden A two-for-one deal if you like: visit an RHS garden and enjoy a photographic display

The Field End Photographic Society in Ruislip, West London, is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a talk from renowned landscape photographer Charlie Waite. His visit on Wednesday 10 December is the highlight of the anniversary year and the club is expecting such a large turnout that they’ve moved their evening to a bigger venue at Fairfield, Northwood Hills. The event, An Evening with Charlie Waite: Behind The Photograph, is open to the public, starts at 8pm and tickets, which are available in advance only, are priced at £12.50. Book by emailing events@fieldendps.co.uk or call the ticket line which is 07579 001141.

CLOCKWISE FROMLEFT Okehampton Camera Club members Erica Griffiths, Mikhal Brandstatter, Graham Brown and club chairman Derek Stratton launch their exhibition at RHS Garden Rosemoor.

π To find out more, go to www.okehamptoncameraclub.co.uk.

π To find out more about Field End PS, go to www.fieldendps.co.uk.

Ware’s the annual show?

Dumfries Camera Club has again won the PAGB’s Inter-Club Print Championship 2014, sponsored by PermaJet, beating off fierce competition from 35 other clubs. Taking second place was the Beyond Group, followed by Smethwick PS and Chorley PS in joint third place. Dumfrieswins for the second time

SORRY We ran a story last issue on the success of Derby City PC member Barry Thompson in the London Salon and somehow printed the wrong image. Our apologies to Barry for any inconvenience caused. Nikonpicks awinner

π To find out more about the competition, go to www.thepagb.org.uk.

Ware & District Photographic Society is holding its annual exhibition at The Ware Arts Centre, Kibes Lane, Ware, Hertfordshire SG12 7ED, on 22 and 23 November, 10am until 5pm. Entry is free. At 11am on Saturday, the mayor of Ware Town Council will officially open the exhibition.

Congratulations to NWPG member John Riggott, who scooped the prize with his entry The Winding Road. The North Walsham Photography Group meet in the Atrium at North Walsham High School, on the second and fourth Tuesdays in the month.

North Walsham Photography Group (NWPG) was recently invited to take part in a Nikon School camera club competition, with landscapes as the theme. The competition, promoting the Nikon School, offered a Nikon D7100 with 18-105mm lens and SB-700 Speedlight as the prize.

π To find out more about North Walsham Photography Group, go to www.nw-pg.co.uk.

π To find out more, go to www.wareps.org.uk.

Photography News | Issue 14

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Competition

INTERVIEW

35th Annual Nikon Photo Contest You’ve got until 15 December to enter one of the world’s top photo competitions with some amazing prizes to be won. This year’s lead judge, Stephen Mayes tells us more

MEET AWINNER Dina Bova: Dina won the Grand Prize 2012-13 with Elegy of Autumn (right). Howdid you feel when you heard you’dwon? Winning a Nikon Grand Prize for a photographer is the same as winning an Oscar. This is a tremendous recognition, a pleasure and an honour. And although I have already received several hundred awards in different countries, I did not expect such recognition. I found it hard to believe that out of 100,000 images from 153 countries, my work was chosen. It took me a while to calm down. What advicewould you give to this year’s entrants? First of all, I believe it is important to remember that photography is an art – and not a sport. In art, you can’t faster than others. In photography, you just need to be yourself. Do not try to please someone or to predict someone’s tastes. Enter work in which you have invested your heart and soul. What impact has winning had on your life? It gave me great exposure: my work got lots of press coverage and I was invited to give TV interviews and lectures. I also had a fantastic trip to Japan for the awards ceremony – a really unforgettable experience and I hope to go back one day. And of course, I was awarded with great new photography equipment. jump higher than everybody or run

Interviews by Megan Croft

How did you come to be lead judge this year? I was an observer at last year’s judging and I was excited by the variety and quality of the work submitted so I was thrilled when Nikon invited me to join the 35th Contest panel of judges. I have a long history of working with photography of different styles including journalism, fashion, art and commercial work so I bring a broad vision across many different types of photography, plus experience of judging including nine years as secretary of the World Press Photo competition. The keys to a successful competition are great images, strong judges and an excellent organisation. The Nikon Photo Contest has all these things so it was an easy decision to join the team! What’s expected from you as lead judge, what does your role entail? I have only one vote and it carries no more weight than any other judge’s. My job is more as a facilitator, to make sure that every judge is heard and that no judge dominates the process. There will be some difficult decisions and I have no doubt that the judging will be passionate, which is when it will be necessary to organise the discussion and to ensure fair consideration of different perspectives.

What’s your approach as a judge? It’s easy to be intimidated by the number of images but a strong jury makes the process easy. The judges have great experience and they will quickly identify the images they like, so the early rounds are relatively fast. The more difficult part comes later when they’re all good! At this point the process slows and the jury will spend more time looking more carefully at each image and discussing their qualities. There is only one theme this year (home), leaving theother competitioncategoriesopen. Does this make judging more challenging? Categories are only a mechanism to organise the process. Having fewer categories makes the organisation more difficult, but it makes the competition sharper because images will be evaluated only on quality, not on the category that a photographer chose to label the work. Is it becoming more of a challenge to shoot fresh and innovative images? In a strange way, having more images in the environment actually makes it easier to be innovative. If you look you will see that many photographers copy what they’ve seen before. Innovation comes by looking at what’s been done before and breaking the cycle and rethinking the

approach, making it new again. There’s still plenty of opportunity for innovation!

What does it take for an image to impress you? Passion! What really makes me stop is when I see that a photographer is passionate about their subject and they have the emotional courage to talk about it and the technical skill to express it. What do you think of the competition being opened to entries from all digital devices, including smartphones? It’s really exciting that Nikon has opened the competition to all digital devices. They are speaking the language of photography! For you, what are the ingredients of a winning image? I want to feel the photographer’s passion for the subject and for the image!

Innovation comes by looking at what’s beendone before and rethinking the approach

π To find out more, go to www.nikon-photocontest.com.

ABOVE Elegy of Autumn won Dina Bova the Grand Prize in Nikon’s Annual Photo Contest 2012/13 and led to her work gaining worldwide exposure. RIGHT This year’s lead judge, Stephen Mayes is looking for passion in entries to the 35th Nikon Contest.

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Issue 14 | Photography News

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

CameraClubof theYear 2014-15

Do you think your club has the sharpest shooters in all the land?Well, it’s time you put that to the test by entering PhotographyNews’s brilliant new contest. There’s plenty of fame and fortune up for grabs…

any time from 25 November 2014 right up to the final closing date of 5 May 2015 but there will be closing dates for each individual round; entry for round 1 closes on 5 January 2015. To get started, see the panel below. Good luck!

Photography News is proud to launch our inaugural Camera Club of the Year competition, in association with Canon. Camera Club of the Year is a great way to stimulate creativity in your club and win some top prizes. The contest starts this month with the first of the five rounds. Round 1’s theme is Water and the four other themes will be announced over the coming months. For each theme we want five images from five different club members (one image per member). Each image will be marked out of 20 points so the maximum any club can score in a month is 100 points. After the five rounds the club with most points will be declared the winner and scoop the prize of a Canon XEED WUX450 projector, a day with David Noton and 25 Irista Value packages. We’ll also publish a detailed profile of the winning club in PN . We’ll also feature our favourite photo entered each month, as our Image of the Month. All camera clubs, groups and societies, whether online or works, affiliated or not, may enter. Clubs can enter at

First, your club’s competition secretary (or whoever is going to enter eachmonth) must sign up at www.absolutephoto.com . Next, click on Members’ Area in the menu bar, then choose Camera Club of the Year 2014-15 How to enter

from the drop-down list. Simply register your camera club and follow the upload instructions.

Thewinning club gets… ... a brilliant CanonXEEDWUX450multimedia projector worth over £3,000 to showoff their winning shots and 25 subscriptions to Irista, plus an exclusive experience day with international landscape and travel pro, DavidNoton!

SPECS

STREET PRICE £1799 body only SENSOR

20 megapixels, 1in, 13.2x8.8mm CMOS IMAGE DIMENSIONS 5472x3648 pixels ISORANGE 125-12,800, auto AUTOFOCUS MODES Contrast detect (sensor), multi-area, centre, selective single point, single, continuous, touch, face detect, live view SHUTTER 40secs-1/2000sec EXPOSURE COMPENSATION ± 3EV in 0.3EV SHOOTING SPEEDS 4.4fps with AF in continuous FOCUS POINTS 31 MOVIE RESOLUTION 1920x1080 (60p, 30p) LCD SCREEN 3in tilting, 1040k dots DIMENSIONS (WXHXD)

CANON XEEDWUX450 PROJECTOR

David Noton EXPERIENCE DAY!

TESTDRIVE!

CANONXEEDWUX450PROJECTOR+AEXCLUSIVEDAYWITHDAVIDNOTON The Canon XEEDWUX450multimedia projector, worth over £3000, is Canon’s most compact WUXGA projector. WUXGA stands for Widescreen Ultra Extended Graphics Array, so you get a 16:10 screen aspect ratio and a huge display resolution of up to 1920x1200 pixels. www.canon.co.uk David Noton is one of the world’s top photographers specialising in landscape and travel work. The winning club gets an exclusive day with David where he’ll be hosting a workshop and then providing an illustrated talk on his amazing images. www.davidnoton.com 25SUBSCRIPTIONSTOIRISTA Irista is the newway tomanage, organise and share your image files online. It supports JPEGs and Raws frommost manufacturers and 10GB of storage space is available free on sign-up. The winning club, though, will get 25 free Value subscriptions that have 50GB storage capacity – which is normally £45 for a year’s subscription. www.irista.com

103x60x40mm WEIGHT 304g

Photography News | Issue 14

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Round 1: Water Whether it’s flowing, frozen or falling from the sky, you’re not going to have any problem finding images featuring our first theme – but remember we want your club’s best images

Water is the theme and the number of ways it can be tackled photographically is matched only by its abundance, but we’re looking for images where water is absolutely pivotal to the composition’s success, ie. the picture falls flat without the inclusion of water in some form or other. You’ll probably recall from your science lessons at school that water exists in three forms: as a solid (ice, snow), as a liquid (rain, the stuff we drink) and as a gas (mist, fog, steam) so the subject itself offers numerous approaches. Factor in all the location possibilities and you can see there’s so much potential with this theme. With each entry comprising five images you may think that the best way to approach this round is to submit a variety of water-based images covering as many subjects as possible. Conversely, you may think concentrating on one technique is the way to go. To be honest, there is nothing wrong in either approach. But remember every picture will be assessed on its own merits and judged as an individual image and not as part of a wider portfolio or series. So, for Round 1, we want to see five great images where water in one of its three forms plays a major part in the picture’s success. Good luck.

DROPLETS Why not explore the world of water droplets? This shot, using a TriggerSmart trigger, was lit with two flashguns set to minimum power to give the shortest possible flash duration and freeze the splash.

WATERYWEATHER The weather produces all sorts of water-related opportunities: falling rain, puddle reflections, mist, frost, snow and dew, just to name a few. With mist a little bit of overexposure helps to retain the light airy feel when it’s backlit.

WATERY LANDSCAPES Water in the landscape is an obvious subject, but aim to get some mood into your shots if you want a good score. Long exposures will blur the sky as well as the water, but fast shutter speeds can work well, too.

For Round 1 of the competition we’re looking for shotswhere water is pivotal to the image’s success

THE BIG FREEZE Grab some leaves or other colourful objects, submerge them in a tray of water (or coloured fizzy pop) and put it all in the freezer for a few hours. Remove when frozen and get shooting as the ice block melts.

GET CLOSE UP Not everyone can get to the wider landscape, but there’s plenty of potential right under your nose if you look for it. Here a macro lens was used to explore dewdrops in a spider’s web.

Photography News | Issue 14

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

MASTERCLASS: WATERSCAPES David Noton For the next five months we’ll be tapping into landscape photographer and Canon ambassador David Noton’s fount of expertise to help you and your club bag the top prize. To kick off, we’re quizzing him on water

David’s top tips FAST OR SLOW? “I’ll put up the ISO to really freeze motion to show waves breaking or I’ll use filters to slow down shutter speeds if I want to slow things down and express a bit of motion.” “If I’m concentrating in on tight waves breaking on a rocky headland, I might go for a really long lens perspective using either the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 or the EF 200-400mm f/4 lens.” VIEWFROMAFAR

Ever in pursuit of the perfect picture, there is hardly a place on earth that hasn’t been seen through the lens of David Noton’s camera. He developed both a passion for photography and an insatiable appetite for travel during his career in the Merchant Navy and he’s now been in the business of travel and landscape photography for almost 30 years. “Landscape is the subject that has always captivated me and always will do,” explains David. “I think photography is a prompt that takes us into environments to experience situations and sights that we would probably never get to in normal life. As such, it’s a life enriching experience that I feel really passionate about.” This year alone, David’s travelled to Argentina, Brazil, Iceland and California always following his nose and going where inspiration takes him. One of his most recent trips took him to the Jura Mountains in France after a French photographer told himabout the striking autumn colours: “Down in the limestone gorges of that region I had such a fantastic few days of self-indulgence, just concentrating on the photographic potential offered by the combination of the rivers there and the autumnal colours,” recalls David. He spent days within just a small area, not moving more than a few hundred metres to really get to know the place and bring out the best of the landscape. This epitomises David’s shooting style; he makes a plan and he perseveres with it. “You need a plan or an idea,” he begins. “You can’t just hope to head out of the door and stumble across brilliant photographic opportunities. If you’ve got a good idea it’s worth sticking to it even if it means going back to a location time and time again until you get the very best picture that you possibly can, because quality over quantity always works.” Being in the business of landscape photography, David is no stranger to photographing water, the theme for this round of the competition. It’s a theme

SEE THEWHOLE

SCENE “A Canon EF 14mm f/2.8 wide-angle lens is a handy tool

particularly if I’m wanting to incorporate a lot of sky into the image when there’s

ABOVE The coast at Budir with the mountains of Holsfjall and the Snaefellsnes Peninsula in western Iceland. CanonEOS5D Mark III, Canon24-70mmf2.8L IIUSM, 1.6secsat f/11, ISO100.

a dramatic sky that would benefit the composition.”

EOS 5D Mark III. Usually fixed to the front of it is a 24-70mm lens which David calls “a workhorse lens that’s just so useful in so many afferent situations”. As well as entering and winning a string of competitions in the past (he’s won awards in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year three times), David has also been on the other side of the table too, making him well placed to dish out a bit of advice on what makes a winning image. “I know from when I’m judging competitions that what really stands out is when someone has been imaginative and come up with something that’s a bit different,” he says. “You’ve got to remember that the lens points both ways and that a successful picture should say something about the person who shot it as well.”

that’s visited time and again by photographers, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t scope for creativity. “It all comes down to looking at the surface of the water and thinking about how you want to express it. Do you want to show the anger of huge waves breaking on the coast? In that case you’ll want to go for a faster shutter speed to really freeze the motion and show every drop of water or spray, which is a very powerful thing to do. Or we can experiment with slower shutter speeds, ranging from fractions of a second to show just a hint of motion through to exposures of 30 seconds or minutes which will transform surfaces of water into seas of milk.” To capture those stunning landscapes that he’s become synonymous with, David uses the Canon

STRIPPED BACK “We are surrounded with images with really high colour, colours that have been boosted too much in post-production. I really encourage people to be subtle and restrained in their use of colour, I think sometimes a real use of minimal colour can be so powerful.” CREATIVE FLEXIBILITY “The Canon EOS 5D Mark III is an incredibly flexible tool capable of amazing quality, not just that camera

π To find out more, go to www.davidnoton.com.

TheVision

but most modern Canon DSLRs are

Handily for us photographers, David Noton has put onto paper what makes a successful image in his new book The Vision . Get inside the mind of one of the country’s best-loved landscape and travel

capable of delivering incredible quality if we photographers do our bit right.”

Youneed a plan or an idea. You can’t just hope to head out of the door and stumble across brilliant photographic opportunities

photographers to learn how David creates those winning images from conception through to clicking the shutter. It’s all illustrated with examples from David’s impressive back catalogue of work and can be bought from his website. π To find out more about David’s book, go to www.davidnoton.com/product/539/ The_Vision.

ABOVE The Mawddach estuary at dawn, Snowdonia, Wales. CanonEOS5DMark III, Canon 24-70mmf/2.8L IIUSM, 1/25secat f/18, ISO100.

Issue 14 | Photography News

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Issue 14 | Photography News

Opinion

BEFORE THE JUDGE Ken Holland ARPSDPAGB Each issue, a respected judge or exhibition selector shares their thoughts and experiences. Having written a book on the topic, Ken Holland is well placed to voice his opinions on judging this month

MEET THE JUDGE KenHolland: Ken has been a club judge for more than 25 years and now shares his expertise by running workshops for new judges. He’s even written a book on the topic, Looking at Photographs . member of Dawlish & Teignmouth Camera Club Favourite camera: Pentax K-7 Favourite lens: Sigma 12-24mm DG f/4.5 Favourite photographers: Sebastião Salgado, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Martin Parr, Elliott Erwitt, Walker Evans Favourite photographic subjects: Shadows, people, abandoned buildings, movement Awardswon: Various WCPF Members’ Exhibition awards; PAGB Gold Medal: best mono print; Commended Finalist: RPS Photobook Competition 2014 Home club: Honorary life

Words by Ken Holland

Judging: a controversial topic of conversation in any camera club. I’m often surprised, because all photographers are judges. We all analyse and study other people’s work and form our own opinions, and know what we like and dislike. After more than 25 years of club judging, I still enjoy the privilege of studying the work of fellow photographers and being invited to comment. Competition night is generally popular and well attended. I see it as a monthly exhibition of members’ work and they’ve invited someone to comment on what they’ve been doing. Hopefully that person will be interesting, knowledgeable, entertaining, helpful, friendly and enthusiastic and fair. I usually begin by outlining my fundamental thoughts on judging: that the photographer’s choice of subject is almost irrelevant to me. What the photographer chooses to photograph and show the viewer is their own choice. My role is to assess how well they have done it. When judging I try to be confident, brief and concise. I hope I’m honest, modest, open-minded and unbiased. I try to present any advice in the manner of a ‘critical friend’. If I can be fair, friendly, humorous, light-hearted (but respectful), then I feel I’ve done a good job. I always try to manage my time to benefit the audience. I check beforehand when they take a break and at what time they finish. I also try to keep the flow of the evening fairly brisk; there’s nothing worse than spending ten minutes on one image and 30 seconds on another. It helps if the club limits entries to 80 or so in an evening. I believe it is the responsibility of all judges to be informed in terms of technique, current trends and equipment. They should certainly be regularly making their own photographs and hopefully supporting their own club competitions and perhaps larger exhibitions. It helps too if they have some knowledge of the history of photography and some of the great photographers of the past. I begin by asking why a photo was made, not how. I then appraise, assess and evaluate the whole image. I like to mention the emotional aspects as well as technical. I try to make three positive comments about each image if I can. If I make any constructive suggestions for improvement I try to sandwich

them between positive comments. Suggestions are always just that, not instructions: ‘Have you thought of...’, ‘Have you tried...’ or ‘Maybe you could…’ Perhaps most important of all I ask myself not what the photograph is of but what it is about. I try to get into the mind of the photographer and ask why he or she has chosen to show me this particular image. Then I can decide how successful it’s been. We’ve all suffered evenings with judges who just are not up to the job. To try and help I’ve been involved with training seminars and workshops for potential judges and existing judges, with the intention of raising the quality of judging in my own area, the Western Counties Photographic Federation, as well as in Wales. Until a few years ago there was very little written on judging. To address this problem I wrote a book, Looking at Photographs , suggesting an approach to judging and strategies for being a ‘successful’ judge. More details are on my website. Each workshop tries to focus on the positive aspect of judging, but we do ask potential judges to bear in mind that judges do have some bad habits! We encourage them to avoid passing harsh judgement; repetition; lecturing on their favourite hobby horse; explaining how a picture was taken or which Photoshop feature was used; displaying personal prejudices; insisting on ‘the rules’ being obeyed; trying to crop every image; touching the image with their fingers; dissecting an image;

displaying irritating mannerisms; and praising mediocre work too highly. That’s quite a long list, but I’m sure many of us have encountered judges who do quite a few of these, probably without realising. At the end there is no pressure but everyone is offered the chance to do a short practice judging session, using just three images. Afterwards they are offered feedback, and, if they wish to go on the list, they are paired with an experienced judging mentor who will go out to clubs with them until they are confident on their own. I can’t claim that the WCPF has the best judges in the country, but the numbers have increased due to the workshops and there has been a very welcome improvement in the quality of our club judges.

π To find out more, go to www.lowenna.co.uk.

Have you seen a photographic judge at work who you’d like to see profiled in Photography News ? If so please drop us a line to opinion@photography-news.co.uk with the judge’s name and, if possible, their contact details. What do you think?

When judging I try to be confident, brief and concise. I hope I’mhonest, modest, open-minded andunbiased

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Issue 14 | Photography News

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π To find out more, go to www.manfrotto.co.uk.

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Profile

INTERVIEW

Halfway through his tenure as RPS president, we catch up with Derek Birch ASIS Hon FRPS to find out how he got on in his first year and what the future of the RPS looks like Derek Birch ASISHonFRPS

You have achieved an RPS Distinction yourself, how did you find the experience? When I joined, those interested in the science of photography could get a distinction by submitting their scientific papers. At the time however, companies like Kodak were not really allowing us to talk about what we were doing because it was confidential. There was a concern within the society for how to recognise people in the future because of the inability to share information. In the early nineties, the RPS introduced ISQs (imaging science qualifications) so that you could achieve one of three qualifications depending on your experience in the field. That’s how I achieved ASIS (Accredited Senior Imaging Scientist), matched with a Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society. Because I’ve been elected, my FRPS has been changed to Hon FRPS. Admittedly we don’t have too many people getting those qualifications but we like to promote them and we’re setting out new creative image qualifications too. Being an educational charity, we want to really get involved with academia. We are working closely with the Open University and we’re going to be running some joint courses next year. Can you tell us more about those specialist interest groups? At the moment, our biggest group is called the Digital Imaging Group. As you can imagine, that was introduced as digital was starting to come in but is now equally as active with people who are learning

and exploring digital photography. The groups are all about supporting the interests of our members.

Years in the photo industry: 33 Current location: Hertfordshire BIOGRAPHY

Who else works behind the scenes at the RPS? We’ve got about 15 permanent members of staff in Bath but the majority of the activities around the country, and the world, are all run with the help of volunteers. We have about 400 active volunteers who are all very helpful. We rely on volunteers and we try to encourage them as much as we can. As president, you must have met some really interesting and talented people. Who’s been particularly memorable? I was at an RPS event just recently where Brian May was giving a lecture on stereoscopy and Victorian painting, he’s a very interesting man. I met Marc Aspland, the sports photographer for The Times , and it was fascinating to talk to him about his expertise in sports photography. I was able to give Steve Sasson the Progress Medal because he is the Kodak inventor of digital photography. Amusingly, I spent some time in Rochester, New York, when he was there with Kodak as well. Of course we never met then because I was on the emulsion side and he was on the technology side. It was entertaining to discover something that was kept so secret that I didn’t even know about it at the time. The RPS’s aim is to promote the art and science of photography. This obviously meant something different when it was founded in 1853, how does it translate today? In those days it was a more limited community that was involved, although they were together for the same purpose. Today, we are really interested in the whole spectrum of photography and bringing different areas together. Recently there was a history conference about Niépce, the inventor of photography, and it was great to be able to bring together both scientists and historians. We are interested in promoting everyone, from amateurs to professionals, and all aspects of photography. What do you want your legacy to be? I want to continue to promote the interest of our members. I want to focus on the continuation and the growth of the science exhibitions too. I’ve also put the idea forward within the council to move venues from our current administrative centre in Bath, which is too small. The process has just been started so there’s no guarantee but I thought it’d be a good plan for the future.

You’ve been RPS president for a year now, how has it been? To me it’s been incredible. My background is on the science side of photography; I left Imperial College as a physical chemist in 1973 and joined Kodak as a research scientist specialising in photographic emulsions. In the mid eighties, I was asked to join the Royal Photographic Society because there was an Imaging Science Group, which I worked in for many years. Seven or eight years ago, Professor Ralph Jacobson, who was president of the RPS, co-opted me onto the council of the society. I’d never even dreamt of it, I had no ambition of it. I was starting to learn about not just the science side but also about photography more broadly within the society. After a few years, I was asked to become vice president then a year ago I was nominated and elected as president. I’ve been so delighted and honoured to get the role and it’s certainly been an enjoyable and busy year. I went to Hong Kong just a few weeks after being elected for a two-week event hosted by an RPS chapter established there. It was fascinating to see photography in China and how they approach it. I also supported the establishment in 2011 of the very first RPS science exhibition. It was originally very small but was so strongly supported that two years later in 2013 we had our second one and the response has been incredible. It’s been travelling around a number of places and people think it’s a superb exhibition. What have been some of the highlights from your first year as president? Last picture taken: With my role with other much more skilled photographers, I don’t have time to take many pictures myself at the moment. Hobbies: Genealogy, railways and the history of the science of photography When youwere younger, what did you want to bewhen you grewup? I was keen to become a scientist, especially in chemistry. Dogs or cats? Cats – I was bitten by my grandmother’s dog when I was three. Toast or cereal? Both enjoyed for breakfast Email or phone call? Email

Today, we are really interested

in thewhole spectrumof photography and bringing different areas together

π To find out more, go to www.rps.org.

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