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The Diffraction Limit
I think most photographers will have come across various online resources, books, magazines and blog posts telling them that certain apertures are 'out of bounds' and that in order to get the sharpest pictures they need to use a narrow band of apertures (usually f/5.6 or f/8 for 35mm cameras). As mentioned in last issue though, a test of some lenses seen recently where smaller aperture results on the D800 resolved more than the best aperture results on a more
Going with the Flow
From a photographer’s viewpoint, at times it’s been hard even to plan local trips when you can’t see the fields, let alone the hills, for low cloud and rain more
Sea Change – Michael Marten
Michael Marten's "Sea Change" recalls Ariel's song in Shakespeare's Tempest Full fathom five thy father lies: Of his bones are coral made: Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. And the book is all about a transformation and of that rich and strange - the movement of the tides and the opening and closing of the tidal zone. The idea more
Welsh Light – Glyn Davies
Glyn Davies has been living and working photography since an early age with a family connection with the arts that runs very deep. Educated in Photography, TV and Film he has taught photography and run a professional photography business for over twenty five years. His primary passion now is the landscape and after recent successes with his first three shorter books (including getting David Cameron to put his hand more
Nigel Morton
Landscape Photographer of the Year's loss is our gain this week where we're featuring Nigel Morton's images including a few classics that failed to get through the first round of Take a View. In most photographers lives there are 'epiphanic’ moments where things become clear, or new directions are formed. What were your two main moments and how did they change your photography? Well as with most people there have been more
Adventures of a Landscape Photographer – Part 2
As you will know from Part 1 in the last but one issue, I spent over a week on Skye and Harris in the Outer Hebrides building up some stock landscape images in May of this year. Having travelled from Skye to Harris, I was enjoying the wonderful beaches with mountain backdrops around Seilebost and the Luskentyre Bay area. During my time on Harris, I experienced all four seasons, often within a very short period of time, including more
Diffraction Limited?
I was browsing through a few lens reviews in a couple of print magazines I receive and I noticed something a bit strange. Now most of us have the received wisdom that diffraction affects every lens and you can't do anything about it, f/22 must be avoided at all costs. Well, the results I was looking at showed a camera getting better resolution figures for f/22 than another camera at f/8 when both of the lenses were the manufacturer's more
Velvia – The End of a Legend?
It's no secret that we're an equal opportunity magazine as far as film and digital are concerned, so when a few days ago Fujifilm UK issued a press release that declared Velvia 100F would be discontinued completely and Velvia 50 would also be discontinued in sheet film form we couldn't help but be <understatement>a little sad</understatement>. The press release stated that more
Photography and the World of Books – a Talk by Joe Cornish
Joe Cornish spoke of his early influences including Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and John Blakemore, important for their photography and their way of thinking. more
Mark Banks
Mark Banks works with Joe Cornish helping to deliver workshops and post processing tuition out of the North Allerton gallery. In most photographers lives there are 'epiphanic’ moments where things become clear, or new directions are formed. What were your two main moments and how did they change your photography? My first epiphany was when I purchased my first DSLR - A Nikon D70. I was determined to use it properly and to understand what all the different controls did on more
Lens Cast Calibration
Last issue we visited Chris Ireland's "Universal Lens Calibration" tool that allows one to take a 'white wall' shot and then use this to remove dust, fix vignetting and also remove any colour shifts caused by wide angle lenses and digital sensors (oh and also to remove the effect of a graduated filter or just it's colour cast). In practise we didn't see too much colour cast apart from the the 12mm end of my 12-24mm lens which more
iPhone as a Viewfinder?
Whether you’re a fan of large format photography or not (I am, many think I’m nuts for it) one of the things that most large format photographers do that could arguably be beneficial to any photographer is the use of a ‘unwanted scenery exclusion device’ - normally a piece of card with a oblong hole in it. There is a better way though.. (at least for wide angles) more
Universal Lens Calibration
Medium format backs have become very popular at the higher end of landscape photography but there is one issue that hasn’t been resolved yet and is unlikely to be completely resolved for some time. The issue is related to the way that sensors are built and although it is slightly different for each sensor ‘family’, there are few exceptions. The problem arises because each pixel isn’t flush with the surface of the sensor; typically the pixel is below the sensor more
Essential and Advanced Filters – Darwin Wigget & Samantha Chrysanthou
Books on filters have historically covered everything but the kitchen sink. Whole chapters on how to add various coloured graduated filters (remember the tobacco grad? The ruination of many an amateur photographers holiday snaps). There have been a few attempts at writing books on filters for digital but mostly they have just skipped the 'tints'. Darwin Wigget & Samantha Chrysanthou have finally fixed this by writing a definitive guide to filters for more
Tim Parkin
In most photographers lives there are 'epiphanic’ moments where things become clear, or new directions are formed. What were your two main moments and how did they change your photography? It's difficult to say about epiphanies - they never quite seem it at the time but I suppose the first was probably when I went out with my wife on a very early dawn patrol to Brimham Rocks. It was more