Tabla de contenidos para Issue 8 2023 en Digital Camera User

We make no bones about it; DSLRs are the ideal option if you want the best optical quality in your lenses, and the best sensor technology in your camera body. There is a downside of course. The prices of new DSLRs are not exactly wallet-friendly and once you have invested in your amazing bit of kit, you are going to make sure no harm comes to it. That will put a limit on the kinds of shots you can capture. For those with a more adventurous streak, capturing action in precarious and more perilous locations, both above and below the water, will require a camera that is somewhat more rugged and suited for purpose. This is where a rugged action compact will stand you in good stead. Enter the Olympus…

The number of camera models available to the budding photographer is vast. All the main manufacturers have a large number of different models and types of camera to suit every taste and also every pocket. A wide variety of choice is fine but it can be somewhat overwhelming when it comes to choosing a camera for yourself. It isn’t helped by the fact that the distinctions between various types of camera system have become quite blurred as the quality and the capabilities of these devices keep expanding. With that in mind, we have put together a little guide to the main types of camera out there. Hopefully it will help point you in the right direction so you get the right camera for the job. n “A wide variety of…

Back in the old days of film photography, ISO, in its simplest sense, was a measure of how sensitive your camera’s film stock was to light. On modern digital cameras, altering the ISO value does not technically make your sensor more sensitive to light. What, in fact, happens is that the resulting image has its tonal values amplified, to simulate greater light sensitivity. Low ISO values mean the image is amplified less to simulate less light sensitivity and high values mean it is amplified to a much greater degree to simulate more sensitivity. Lower ISO means that you require more light, over a longer duration, for a good exposure and high ISO means that you require less light, over a shorter duration, for the same conditions. This assumes your camera’s…

Taking photos of landscapes is one thing, but when you decide it’s time to get involved in portrait photography, it can seem quite a daunting prospect. You might imagine it requires armfuls of expensive equipment and lots of lighting gear. Don’t worry; there are a few simple things that you can try to see if portrait work is for you. Indoor natural light is certainly a great and easy way to dip your toe into the portrait world. There are a few basics to be aware of, but it’s nothing that a photographer of any skill level can’t handle. “There are a few basics to be aware of, but it’s nothing that a photographer of any skill level can’t handle.” The camera For most applications, the camera can be anything…

Just to clarify, when we say high speed, we don’t mean that we are doing it very fast! In point of fact high speed, in this context, refers to being able to catch rapid movement in such a way that you effectively ‘freeze’ the action. There are two basic ways we can do this. First is to have enough light pouring on to your scene to give you the required shutter speeds (in excess of 1/2000th of a second) to have a hope of stopping an event dead in its tracks. The second method relies on the stopping power of flashguns and not the settings used on your camera. The camera, depending on how many flashes you are brining to bear on the scene, is normally set to ISO 100…

Nikon have created a camera system that ushers in a new era of photographic possibilities. Mirrorless cameras have been with us for some time, but now Nikon have changed the game with their two Z series cameras. Both the Z7 and the Z6 use the new Z Mount full-frame lens mount; this new design is actually the widest mount on any camera. At 55mm, it is 17% larger than a standard F Mount, which allows for more light capture and places the lens closer to the sensor, allowing smaller, lighter cameras and lens design. The build and ergonomics of the two cameras have been carefully crafted to be lighter than standard DSLR bodies and allow intuitive control. Combined with an articulating touchscreen, navigating and adjusting settings has never been easier.…

If you are one of those photographers who loves to print and frame their work, rather than keep the shots buried deep within one of your hard drives, never to see the light of day, then it’s worth considering the PIXMA PRO-100S for top quality prints. With a maximum of 4800 pixels, this thermal inkjet from Canon uses an 8-ink colour system including three monochrome inks for deep, saturated colours with a quoted 30 year permanence. This printer is fast too, it can a print an A3+ photo, with a border, in about 90 seconds. The PIXMA PRO-100S is wireless and printing can be done from either your desktop computer or mobile devices using the Canon PRINT app. If you are a Photoshop and Lightroom user, you can take a…

If you are a pro shooter or even just an enthusiast who is keen to maximise the speed of their image capture between camera and card, then you can’t go wrong with a SanDisk memory card. They have become one of the leading brand names when it comes to digital storage. Their product is reliable and backed up with a lifetime limited warranty. Their Extreme Pro range of SD cards are also fast. When we say fast, it means that the card can can have data written to its solid state memory very quickly. Fast, in this case means at around 95MB per second. You might wonder why the speed is so important and what scenario you would find yourself shooting in to be worrying whether your card is fast…

Once you get beyond the basics of photography and you find yourself wanting to add a little creativity and take more control of how the light affects your shots, then that is when you need to take a look at additional lighting in the form of flashes. Your first experience of flash might be the tiny pop up flash you find on the top of a lot of compact cameras and a number of DSLR models. They are useful to light a subject when all else fails, but to be honest, if you want your shots to appear more than just selfies, then you need to look further afield. We are referring to the dedicated flashguns that can be mounted in your camera’s hot shoe, or for even greater flexibility,…

Nearly all digital cameras, from top-of-the-range DSLRs to the humblest budget point-and-shoot compacts, have multiple light metering options. Knowing how and when to use these different metering modes can make a dramatic difference to the quality of your photography; unfortunately most people don’t understand what the different modes are for, how they work, or how to use them. Know your modes Depending on your camera, you’ll find metering options either in the menu or with their own separate control. In cameras with a fully-automatic setting, this will usually disable the metering options; automatically selecting multi-zone metering as the best option for day-to-day scenes and snapshots. The most common light metering modes are found on nearly all digital cameras. They are spot metering, centre-weighted metering and matrix metering. The symbols used…

“Shooting modes are the main core of camera operation and can often be a source of confusion for new photographers.” Shooting modes should not be confused with Scene modes that alter your camera’s settings for specific lighting and scene conditions. Shooting modes are the main core of camera operation and can often be a source of confusion for new photographers, or those moving up from a simple compact camera or even camera phone. The main shooting modes on any DLSR are Auto, Programmed AE, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority and Manual Exposure. There is also the Auto (flash off) feature and Bulb mode for exposures longer than 30 seconds. Different models of DSLR have other modes available and they vary by manufacturers as well; butthemainmodes, oftenabbreviatedto PASM, are the key ones…

A long with unwanted camera shake, one easy way to ruin a shot is to incorrectly focus on your subject. This can be down to the camera’s auto-focus system being confused by other obscuring objects in the scene and attempting to lock on to that instead of your subject; or just good old human error in the way you might have set up your autofocus options. We can speak from embarrassing experience where a number of portrait shots at an event were taken when the lens’ autofocus button was knocked onto manual and we didn’t pay enough attention to the fact that the focus confirmation light wasn’t coming on. Luckily we noticed during a quick review of the shots taken, and could remedy the problem, but could you imaging getting…

With the pro photographer’s studio space packed with equipment worth many tens of thousands it must seem like us mere mortals could never enjoy a studio of our own. The thing is, even the greatest professionalhad to start somewhere. In this guide, we can show you that even your own dining table can become a studio, albeit in a much more modest way. However, all the principles involved in a large studio shoot are just as valid for a humble tabletop setup too. All you need for this setup is your camera and tripod, a prop to photograph, two cheap desktop lamps and some white paper, oh, and your table of course. “Simply put, an infinity curve is a surface that has no corners that show up when photographed.” Getting…

Exposure control Long exposure photography has been immensely popular for many years. If you have never dabbled with long exposure techniques, particularly during the daytime, it’s worth getting hold of some neutral density filters and exploring new areas of photography. 2 and 4 stop filters are the most popular, but there are also 10 stop filters you can use for very long exposures even on bright days. Why not try shooting long exposures in less conventional locations? A subway train rushing by with a longer exposure creates dramatic, abstract imagery. Black and white You might imagine that the starting point for any black and white photography would be to grab your camera, set its functions to black and white mode and start shooting. Be aware that many photographers always shoot…

If you are a self-confessed selfie addict and love to share photos with your friends and loved ones, then you need something that is stylish, portable, and can give you instant results with the minimum of fuss. For every special moment that needs to be captured, you can have a camera and printer small enough to fit in your pocket and with such a compact system, it has never been easier to shoot and print on the go. Canon offers several options that range from 2-in-1 models with cameras and printers built in, to the option to use a portable printer that connects to your mobile devices for on-the-spot image capture and printing, just when you need it. You might wonder how it is possible to build a printer into…

First things first. The CITI600 is something of a chameleon. The flash unit itself is a Godox AD600 and in the USA it is known by another name, the Flashpoint XPLOR 600. Once you have that straight in your mind, you can turn to the flash and its capabilities. This is a self-contained high powered flash unit. Units of this type are referred to as monoblocs. It even comes with a 10W modelling lamp to let you gauge where shadows will fall on your subject before you take the shot. Battery power is supplied by a hefty 8700mAh lithium power pack. This does make the unit fairly heavy overall but that’s the price you pay for true portable power that can last you for a day’s worth of shooting. With…

It’s no surprise that if you purchase a new camera with an interchangeable lens system, one of the first questions you might ask yourself is ‘which lens should I buy for my camera?’. That is not quite as easy a question to answer as you would hope. Manufacturers offer increasingly varied lenses to suit different photographers’ requirements. To add to the confusion, there is also quite a varied range in price and quality to take into consideration. On top of that there is also the cropped sensor and full-frame issue to consider. Certain lenses will only work with certain camera bodies because of the mounting system used, and so on and on it goes. Everyone shoots differently, with a different style and preference and the type of shot you are…

Aperture is one of the three main aspects of photography that help control the brightness of your photographs, and also how sharp your photos are throughout the scene. Aperture is responsible for how much of your scene is blurred or sharp; it is also known as an f-stop. This is a reference to the early days of photography when the aperture was actually adjusted by using cards with different sized holes in them. They were slotted into the camera behind the lens and were known as ‘stops’. That terminology has stuck and it has been with us ever since. The f number These days, cards have been replaced with mechanical diaphragms which use a series of curved blades that can expand or contract to alter the size of the aperture…

Much like learning when to use fast shutter speeds or slow ones, how you use aperture to control depth of field in your shots is just as important a creative choice as any in photography. Whilst it does come down to personal preference, there are a couple of golden rules we’ve mentioned that are worth bearing in mind. A good portrait photo with a cluttered background for instance, is not going to work if the background is in sharp focus along with your subject. The shot will be confusing and that background will just be an eyesore. That’s when setting your lens to its maximum aperture to create shallow depth of field will help massively. A good prime lens around the 50-135mm focal length range with a wide aperture of…

Whether it’s the lure of bright city lights, barren moorland bathed in moonlight, or a tumbledown barn in the country under a starry sky, nighttime photography is a big draw for many photographers. It can be challenging, very frustrating and time-consuming, but it’s a hard habit to break when you get such great results. You are normally dealing with much longer exposures than usual, while having to carefully compose and focus your shots and, as such, it forces you to slow it all down and take a much more considered approach. We have some helpful insights to lure you over to the dark side. Tripod This may sound a bit obvious, but if you want to take photographs where exposure times can sometimes be in the tens of minutes,…

If you’ve ever been on certain auction websites where people are selling items, chances are you’ve encountered a lot of product photography. Chances are equally good that you’ve encountered a lot of bad product photography too. If you want something to look good in a photograph, then you need to take care about how it is lit. Placing it on a table and snapping away with direct flash is not going to render you results that people will be attracted to. You’d be amazed at how a little extra care when photographing the item, will yield results that stand head and shoulders above the rest. We’ve already covered how to get some great captures of glass objects like wineglasses, and now we’re going to have a look at some more…

Thomas and John Knoll created Photoshop in 1988 with the release of Photoshop 1.0 following in February 1990. It is a raster graphics editor and has become the predominant industry standard for digital image editing. At its heart, it has a suite of tools that allow the user to edit, assemble and compose images using multiple layers and masks. It is this use of layers and masks that are the core features of Photoshop’s power. Such layer-based editing means you can build very complex images and create incredible works of art using this method. Photoshop’s Strengths Photoshop is a pixel-level editor. Where Lightroom allows you to adjust pixels in an image, Photoshop lets you move them and manipulate them in a way that’s nothing short of magical. Photoshop allows multiple…

Black and white Ansel Adams was an American landscape photographer known for his black and white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating “pure” photography which favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph. When it comes to shooting in black and white he is famously quoted as saying: “I can get a far greater sense of ‘colour’ through a well-planned and executed black and white image than I have ever achieved with color photography.” Long exposure sunrise With the aid of a 10-stop neutral density filter, you can slow down your shutter speeds to soften moving elements in your shots such as water and clouds. On a crisp morning, down at the seafront, screwing a…

The new Z Mount NIKKOR Z lenses are no less impressive than the Z series mirrorless cameras for which they are designed. Their optical performance takes photography to the next level and they boast amazing specifications of their own. They are comprehensively sealed to prevent the ingress of dust and moisture, but are still lightweight and well balanced. At the moment, there are 4 lenses available with more to be rolled out over the next two years. They cover useful focal ranges such as the 14-30mm f/4 wide-angle and 24-70mm f/4. If you need fast primes, then 35mm and 50mm f/1.8 lenses give you the ability to shoot in darker scenarios and gather more light. Soon to be added to the list is the 58mm S Noct; this is the…

Countless landscape photographers use filters to coax as much image detail and tonal range out of their shots as possible. The simple use of a graduated filter that darkens a bright sky but leaves the darker foreground unaltered is a popular example of a filter in use. That’s fine for most lenses you can buy but there are issues if you want to shoot with a lens that has a shorter focal length than usual. A good 16-35mm focal length zoom lens is perfect for most applications but if you want to use focal length lenses around the 14mm, 12mm and 11mm range, there are going to be some physical drawbacks to those lens designs. The problem is that ultra wide lenses may have a domed front element with a…

When you use flash lighting, especially if using it to directly light your subject, you will be aware of how harsh the shadows it casts can be. You can’t always be near a large picture window on an overcast day, where the softness of the light coming through that window makes it difficult to take a bad photo. You have to work with what you have, so that means you need to go back to your flash. However, there are some techniques that allow you to modify and shape light to suit your needs. This is where light modifiers come in. A lighting modifier is just what the name suggests. It is an object, surface, or material that alters the way the light travels from its source to the subject.…

Nearly all modern compact cameras have zoom lenses, and most users of digital SLRs or CSCs will also have at least a couple of zooms in their kit. Focal length is one of your primary tools for adjusting composition. Selecting the right focal length for the scene allows the photographer to control perspective, angle view and magnification, and can radically alter the mood and style of the photo. Some focal lengths are more suited to particular types of photo, and the properties of wide-angle and telephoto lenses can be used to produce particular effects. Understanding how focal length works and how it affects your photos is a vital photographic skill. Lenses and Focal Length There are basically two types of lens: those with fixed focal lengths, also known as prime…

Today’s smartphones are equipped with some pretty nifty camera technology and the shots you can take are amazing to say the least. If you really are looking to step up from selfies to more creative and higher quality images, then the Fujifilm XF10 may be just what you are looking for. The XF10 pulls off a neat trick by being able to appeal to a number of photographer types. It was designed partly as an upgrade path away from smartphones. It has a noticeable improvement in the quality of the images you get versus your smartphone and lets you get hands-on with some proper camera controls. The image quality it offers, thanks to a large APS-C sized sensor, is also suitable for enthusiast photographers who already own a DSLR, but…

Over time, as your camera gear list grows, you might be faced with the possibility of how to transport your precious equipment. Eventually, you are going to be looking at getting a camera bag. For a typical day out where you might only need one camera body and a couple of lenses, you are well catered for if you want a simple and small backpack to keep your gear in. Once you step up to the next level and you need to transport more gear, then you need something that can accommodate your equipment in as versatile a manner as possible and still be portable enough to be useful. With that in mind, here is another product with an incomprehensible model name. The Lowepro LP36876 Pro Runner RL X450 AW…

“Cameras come in many shapes, sizes and prices. At their heart though, they all do the same thing: capture light on a sensor and turn it into a digital image.” Cameras come in many shapes, sizes and prices. At their heart though, they all do the same thing: capture light on a sensor and turn it into a digital image. That’s a gross oversimplification but you get the general idea. Modern cameras also come with many features and functions. Although it would be difficult to list them all, here are the main dials and buttons that you can expect to find on many cameras. Different brands and models vary in their button and dial layouts as well as certain naming conventions but we’ve put together a little guide to the…

Shutter speed is another of the three main pillars of photography. It is used in conjunction with the aperture and camera sensitivity settings on your camera to get a correct exposure of your subject. A camera’s shutter is just a mechanical curtain that stays closed, covering your camera’s sensor, until you press your shutter button. When the shutter button is pressed, the shutter opens and allows light to fall onto the camera’s sensor. Based on the settings used, the shutter stays open for a certain amount of time until enough light has been collected for a correct exposure, and then closes again preventing any more light hitting the sensor. The amount of time the shutter allows light to hit the sensor is referred to as shutter speed. The slower the…

Knowing when to use your camera’s shutter speeds to their greatest creative effect is something that is easily learned but can often take time and practice to master. You have an immense range of shutter speeds to play with, from the fastest shutter speeds of 1/8000s down to durations measured in minutes or even hours. That is a lot to take in, but once you start exploring the effect of shutter speed on your images, you can start to understand its impact on your shots and its great potential. Camera shake notwithstanding, in scenes where there are no moving objects at all, the shutter speed is less important than in scenes where there is a lot of movement going on. You can choose to freeze movement from 1/250s upwards to…

The power of the black and white portrait cannot be denied. A wise soul once said: ‘If you want fashion, shoot in colour. If you want emotion, shoot in black and white.’ As we’ve mentioned before, there is a power and depth to a black and white shot that is often swamped by colour. The story behind a shot is easier to comprehend when it is in black and white and the distraction of colour has gone. Even if there is no real story being presented in the shot, you can suddenly find yourself paying more attention to a black and white portrait. Texture, form and tone become important to the shot. It draws you in more than a colour shot ever could. “If you want fashion, shoot in colour.…

The more you grow in experience as a photographer, the more demanding lighting conditions you may possibly encounter in your search for more interesting and varied images. You may also demand more in-camera control of how light is falling on your sensor, to give you more balanced exposures at the point of capture and minimise the amount of shots lost to incorrect exposure thus reducing the amount of post-processing you have to do with your images once you are back at your computer. This is where filters come into play. They vary in size and type but all have one function, to modify the light levels falling on your sensor. This can be as simple as affecting exposure of the entire image, or a part of it. It could also…

After you’ve spent several minutes just pronouncing the Gitzo’s model number, you can settle down and marvel at this flagship tripods specifications, and its price. This is not a tripod for the hobbyist photographer, unless you have a large disposable income that you would like disposed of very rapidly. At this price point, you are paying for a lot of engineering that makes the Gitzo one of the highest quality and stable tripods out there. Add to that the brand-name kudos and you have a Rolls Royce among tripods (at Rolls Royce prices of course). At this price you would expect some great features. First the Gitzo weights just 1.4kg thanks to its carbon fibre construction. Fully extended, it reaches a height of 148.5cm and can support a maximum payload…

“Let’s take a look at some of the different types of filter and how they can help to improve your photos.” Filters have been an essential part of photography since its very beginnings. Used creatively they can improve a hard-to-capture scene, add an extra artistic element to an image or just provide a bit of fun. Modern digital photo editing has provided an, almost too easy, method to add filter effects to an image after it has been captured; some effects are better when applied by actual physical filters fitted to the camera when the photo is taken and this is particularly true with black and white photography. Let’s take a look at some of the different types of filter and how they can help to improve your photos.…

There are a couple of autofocus systems in use today that intelligently adjust the camera lens in order to obtain and hold focus on your subject. Compact system cameras use something called contrast-detection AF, which samples the image from the sensor and detects sharp high contrast edges in the details of the scene. Phase detection is a more complex system but is usually much faster, more accurate and works better in low light. However both systems require some detail in the scene to ’lock on’ to. Try and point your camera at a plain wall or a sheet of white paper and see if it will focus on it. Even if you own a top-of-the-range DSLR it won’t be able to focus on a featureless surface. Modern DSLRs have several…

Most modern cameras have a selection of scene modes, usually chosen by a dial on the top or back of the camera via a menu. Easy-to-use, mainly automatic cameras in the range will only have a few scene modes, whilst the more sophisticated cameras such as the DSLR may have as many as a dozen, including manual exposure options and user-programmable special settings. What are scene modes? Scene modes are provided on the majority of cameras to aid new photographers. They are a number of presets that set the camera up automatically to shoot in a variety of lighting conditions. You simply need to match the settings to the scene you are about to shoot and then you can take the photo safe in the knowledge that it should come…

When buying new lenses, it is important to know what different ones are used for and which are right for you. The focal length of a lens is actually measured from the point of converging inside the lens to the sensor, not from the front of the lens. Ultra wide-angle Usually in the 14-24mm range, these lenses are considered specialty devices and do command some very high prices. Ultra wide lenses are often used in landscape, architectural and event photography to get the maximum amount of scene into a single photo, or when space is restricted. Wide-angle With focal lengths starting at 24-35mm, these lenses are widely included as kit lenses starting at 24mm with a zoom range up to about 105mm. They are often used by photojournalists or people…

Light painting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source. The term light painting also encompasses images lit from outside the frame with handheld light sources. The latter is what we are looking at in this example. You don’t necessarily need huge, complicated, flash setups to produce some amazingly lit images. With a subject to photograph, your camera on a tripod, one torch with a couple of coloured gels [1], you can light paint to your hearts content. This is an example of one type of light painting technique that uses, ‘a big brush’, shall we say, to colour a scene in large swathes of light. In our example we have a car parked with a nice evening sky behind it. The camera…