Amateur Photographer

Welcome to the first Premium Edition of what I hope will be a better year. We’re getting off to the best start we can with an issue dedicated to low-light photography. We’ve got lots of great tips for high-ISO and long-exposure shooting, and for gett

Each week we choose our favourite picture on Facebook, Instagram, Flickr or Twitter using #appicoftheweek. PermaJet proudly supports the online picture of the week winner, who will receive a top-quality print of their image on the finest PermaJet pap

WORKING with Fujifilm, Park Cameras has introduced an updated online service that replicates the photo kiosks found in its Burgess Hill and Central London stores. ‘The new online service is much more user-friendly than before, making it easier than e

ACDSYSTEMS has released ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac 7, a photo-organisation tool for MacOS. As well as being able to sort, rate, label and keyword your images, it enables you to compare images, find duplicates, copy and paste metadata and edit non-de

RICHARD Caplan Photographic, a well-established independent Leica and Hasselblad specialist in central London, is sadly closing for good after 25 years. Richard Caplan (right) himself has been in the camera retail business since 1961, starting out as

Is long-exposure portraiture a distinctive and valuable technique for drawing out character, or merely a technical necessity when using certain sorts of camera, and one that actually adversely influences the look of your subject? I’m talking about sh

Featuring 54 portraits from 37 different artists, an online exhibition of the annual Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize gives you the opportunity to ‘virtually’ explore the show. Grab a cup of your favourite drink, sit down and explore the images at your

IN 1967 Amateur Photographer was confident enough as a brand to change the masthead to just a simple ‘AP’, though not quite confident enough not to write the full name underneath, just in case. There were no coverlines either – buyers could only gues

To tackle subjects such as garden birds and other winter wildlife, a long focal length is a must. At least 400mm will be required for most subjects in the UK. If you have a shorter lens, a teleconverter can be used to increase focal length, but you w

Flat light and winter weather can offer the perfect opportunity to experiment with a high-key effect. The key is to keep things simple. During periods of snow and frost, seek out a pale subject and expose to the right to keep the whites clean and pre

I captured these whooper swans just as the sun was sinking. The light levels were low, but the vivid winter sky and the visible sun meant that shutter speeds were fast enough to freeze the birds. The intensity of the sun was muted by a layer of hazy

1 Use shutter priority to select a speed of at least 1/1000sec in order to freeze the motion of a bird in flight. 2 Adjust your ISO setting according to the amount of available light. Don’t be afraid of increasing the ISO if light levels are low, as

worked for AFP for 19 years.›He began his career as a freelancer in London in 2001, becoming staff photographer in 2004. In 2005 he was named as chief photographer in Portugal then Thailand in 2008. Nicolas has covered a wide range of news events and

Based in Dorset, Guy has been a professional landscape and nature photographer for over 25 years. His work has been widely published and he runs photographic workshops worldwide. See guyedwardes.com and @guyedwardes. FOR THE past three years I’ve b

Astrophotography relies upon dark, clear skies, so check as many weather forecasts as you can and use an app to ensure the moon won’t be up, as it’s guaranteed to spoil the show. Don’t be deterred if there’s a little cloud, as great night sky images

When you’re shooting in the dark, your eyes naturally become accustomed to the gloom, and therefore an exposure on screen can look a lot brighter than it really is. Try using the exposure histogram to make sure you’re not underexposing. It depends on

1 Make sure everyone wears high-factor sun protection on set. You need to blackout the entire studio, meaning that UV is the only source of light. Even in the makeup area where they’re prepping the models, because they need to see exactly what the UV

Aishwarya’s camera of choice is the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, which she uses alongside her Canon EOS 5D Mark III. As far as lenses go, her kit includes an EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, and E

Aishwarya Sridhar is a 23-year-old photographer, conservationist and filmmaker from Mumbai, India. Her work has appeared in BBC Wildlife, The Guardian, Mongabay, Sanctuary Asia, Saevus and Times of India, among other titles. She has also presented th

1 Try to find a strong light source. If you can’t find one, introduce one. I find that if you’re practising low light then the easiest place to start is to find a window that’s lit up at night because you’re going to find a way to expose that. 2 Put

In common, I suspect, with many people who have built up a collection of lenses, and often camera bodies, for their chosen system, I have increasingly found myself spoilt for choice. Going out with a camera and two or three lenses invariably resulted

A Samsung 64GB EVO Plus microSDXC with SD adapter Class 10 UHS-1 Grade U3 memory card supports 4K UHD. Offering R/W speeds of up to 100MB/s /20MB/s and a 10-year limited warranty. www.samsung.com/uk/memory-cards. LETTER OF THE WEEK WINS A SAMSUNG EVO

Group Editor Nigel Atherton Deputy Editor Geoff Harris Technical Editor Andy Westlake Features Editor Amy Davies Technique Editor Hollie Latham Hucker Production Editor Jacqueline Porter Art Editor Sarah Foster Photo-Science Consultant Profess

Email the Editor at ap.ed@kelsey.co.uk and include your full postal address. Please don’t send letters in the post as there is no one in the office to receive them. Thanks for your understanding. I suspect that the picture of two young girls and a ha

Meets Mondays at 8pm throughout the year. During the pandemic, we’re meeting online via Zoom. Usually we get together in Forest Hill Membership £67 – full member. £45 – new member offer for the first year, unemployed and full-time student. Free – un

SIGMA has a knack of identifying gaps in the market and releasing lenses where there’s a shortage. Before the release of this zoom there weren’t many full-frame lenses to choose covering the 100-400mm focal length in E mount or L mount so it’s always

Price £899 Lens mount Sony E, Leica L Filter diameter 67mm Lens elements 22 Lens groups 16 Aperture blades 9 Maximum aperture f/5-6.3 Minimum aperture f/22-29 Minimum focus distance 112cm (Wide), 160cm (Tele) Diameter 86mm Length 199.2mm W

£419 £549 Fly More Combo ● Drone with integrated camera ● Weighs just 242g ● 12MP 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor ● Max video resolution of 4K (3840x2160) at 24/25/30p ● 24mm (equivalent) f/2.8 lens ● 3-axis stabilisation ■

If you’re an experienced pilot it’s easy to dismiss the Mini 2’s QuickShots modes – Dronie, Helix, Rocket, Circle and Boomerang – but they’re very good. These set up the drone to fly and film automatically to create smooth video without the need to m

The DJI Mini 2 is more stable and less easily buffeted by the wind than the Mavic Mini so the footage looks very smooth with plenty of detail visible. In addition, the enhanced transmission technology seems to make the connection between the controll

The Yashica Mimy is a half frame 35mm camera that was introduced in 1963. Half-frame cameras were popular for two reasons, for one thing you got twice as many photos from each film, and of course the cameras tended to be smaller. Whereas conventional

● £370 ● www.olympus.co.uk Olympus’s Tough compacts have habitually won our underwater camera group tests, and this latest model is still the best of its type. It’s waterproof to 15m, shockproof against a 2.4m drop, crushproof and freezeproof. The 25

If you prefer shoulder bags you may wish to consider Lowepro’s ProTactic MG 160 AW II. It features an easy-to-adjust shoulder strap with a stabiliser strap and has a tripod attachment underneath. It’s compatible with ProTactic series modular accessor

On 17 April 2015, British photographer Quintin Lake left St Paul’s Cathedral, London, and headed south along the River Thames. Five years later, he arrived back at the same spot where he was met by his wife, family and a stream of followers, journali