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Issue 39 : December 2014

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Here we are folks, the last issue of NZ Photographer for 2014 with some inspiration and ideas to see you through Christmas and New Year’s!

In this issue we have part two of Shooting Macro with Allan Cox. Such an interesting genre of photography and Allan’s tips are a must read. Paul Conroy shows us how to create custom shaped bokeh with Christmas lights. Definitely give that a go! And if you are a fan of beautiful landscape photography you will love the awesome photography by our feature artist this month Chris Gin.

Check out the beautiful entry finalists for last month’s competition ‘Colour’ and of course our winning image by Steve Webster − congratulations! Summer is well and truly here, and I can’t believe Christmas is just around the corner and then its farewell 2014! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season full of beautiful moments to capture!

Hollie WightmanResident JudgeNZ Photographer

Merry Christmas{

ABOUT Whether you’re an enthusiastic weekend snapper or a

beginner who wants to learn more, NZ Photographer is the fun e-magazine for all Kiwi camera owners – and it’s free!

EDITOR Hollie Wightman, hollie@nzphotographer.co.nz

GROUP EDITOR Richard Liew

ART DIRECTOR Jodi Olsson

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NZ Photographer is an Espire Media publication

Hollie Wightman

PCL’S NEW IPHONE AND IPAD APP FREE WEEKLY TUTORIALS!

New Zealand’s premium photo lab, PCL IMAGING, has made its latest evolution into the palm of your hand. They have launched this month the iphone and ipad app

which allows users to edit, enhance and order photographs directly from their phones.PCL has been a photographic industry leader for over 40 years and once again is enabling photographers with the latest technological development. The app itself is a direct result of another technology PCL has been using for several years called ROES or remote order entry software. This software was made available for MAC or PC and has been used to by thousands of happy customers.

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Next Month's Competition: Christmas

GET SHOOTING AND WIN!Photographers - This is a great opportunity to improve your photography skills and get some feedback from professional photography judges in a safe and friendly environment. Here's what's up for grabs:

• The winning image on the cover of the next issue

• A high quality print of your image and cover to immortalise your achievement for your grandchildren, courtesy of PCL Imaging

• $50 cash

• And of course, bragging rights and the envy of your fellow NZ Photographer fans!

Check out next month’s theme and enter at www.nzphotographer.co.nz!

WIN!

Christmas!’ in any way you choose – enter your Christmas themed photos in this month’s competition.Entries close January 31st.

Rules: Images submitted must be no older than 12 months from the date of publication of this issue. Entry to the competition is $5 and you can enter up to five images. Images must be no more than 100 dpi and no more than 1600px wide. Save them as jpgs in the prefered colour space of Adobe RGB (1998). If you don't know what this means, don't worry, but do Google it...●

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The first challenge with macro is to get a small subject to fill up the photo. Something that, when magnified, will appear to be large in the photo. A macro lens is often the first thing people think of when trying to achieve this close-up look, but as I said last month, it is not the only option. Of the options available, it often ends up being a play-off between convenience and price.

PART TWO: Macro PhotographyBy Allan Cox

When looking at all of the different options, I'm not going to go into much detail about those that don't produce high quality images. One of the

easiest ways to get a macro photo, is to take an ordinary photo of your small object and then crop in tightly. With this approach you may get an acceptable image for the web or projection, but you will have thrown away too many pixels for a good-sized print. Also in this category are macro filters. The term ‘cheap and nasty’ comes to mind as a way to describe most macro filters.

There are exceptions to the rule, and I’ve read OK reports for the Raynox 250, which is a high quality version of a macro filter. The macro lens is probably the most convenient way to get that close-up look, but at upward of $700, is also one of the most expensive options. By contrast, at $2.50, a reversing ring would have to be one of the cheapest ways to get that close-up look, yet can be a bit fiddly. Today I would like to look at the macro lens and the reversing ring. We’ll also start looking at a third option, which I believe is the best ‘happy medium’ for

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'A macro reversing ring goes between the camera and a lens that has been reversed, to turn that lens into a macro lens

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people to start out with: extension tubes. I'm not going to say much about macro lenses, apart from the fact that if you are looking at buying one, don't automatically assume that the one made by your camera manufacturer will be the best one.

Yes, Nikon and Canon make nice macro lenses, however I believe Sigma make better ones. When Kim, my wife, first got her Sigma 70 mm macro, I wanted to see if its sharpness lived up to its reputation, so I took a photo of a bee. The photo was so sharp, and I could see so much detail, that not only could I tell you what sex the bee was, but I could also tell you whether or not the bee had been circumcised. Okay maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but I think you get the point. (Pun intended.)

To find out how sharp a lens is before you buy, I would suggest the website www.slrgear.com − you get a three diminutions graph that shows sharpness across the sensor which varies with different apertures that you choose from a sliding scale. In contrast to a macro lens is a reversing ring. At $2.50 (on eBay) it is hard to beat on price. It works on the principle that an ordinary lens reversed (i.e. the back of the lens that normally goes on to the camera, now points forward), works like a macro. You can try this now at home if you like.

Take your lens off your camera, and carefully hold it so the front of the lens (the bit that takes the filter), is against the camera. If you now look through your camera, you will see that the lens will be focused on objects very close to the camera (a few centimetres away). You will

probably want to try this in bright light, as the first thing you may notice is that the image is very dark. This is because lenses, when taken off the camera, automatically close the aperture down to the smallest hole.

If you have an old lens with a manual aperture ring, you can set the aperture wide open so that you can see to focus and then close it down to take the photo. Because of this it’s actually better to use an old lens and it doesn’t have to be the same brand as your present camera. If you have an old 50mm lens from film days still kicking around, then go and hunt it out, as it will be perfect for using reversed.

The reversing ring makes this whole process slightly less fiddly by having a thread on one side that screws into the front of your lens like a filter and a lens mount on the other side, which you then used to attach the whole set up to the camera. To find one on eBay just type in ‘macro reversing ring’, the brand of your camera e.g. Nikon/Canon, and the filter size of the lens you are going to use – e.g.: 52mm. Correct exposure is obtained through trial and error. (I did say it can be fiddly). I believe a happy medium between the two is the third option, extension tubes, and therefore the best option for giving macro a go.

You normally buy them as a set of three and then you put one, or a combination of more than one, between your camera and lens. Mid-range lenses, around 50 mm or so, work best. Avoid using your wide angle and telephoto lenses. The lens will now focus close. You will want to buy the more expensive extension tubes ($50 to $100 on eBay) that give you auto focus and auto exposure. I’ll go into extension tubes more next time, but would like to leave you with one final thought. To start with, your macro photos may not be particularly sharp.

This is most likely going to be caused by camera shake, a big bogey of macro photography. With normal photography, to eliminate camera shake, we just put out camera onto a tripod. Unfortunately with macro it’s a little more complicated. We’ll spend quite a bit of time learning to get pin sharp photos. It’s worth hanging in there, as a beautifully sharp macro photo showing amazing detail is quite the sight. We will get there. ●

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Custom Bokeh ShapesBy Paul Conroy www.paulconroyphotography.com

Christmas is upon us and there is no better time in the year to play with custom bokeh shapes. For those that don’t already know, ‘bokeh’ comes from the Japanese word ‘boke’ meaning blur or haze. When applied to photography it relates to the aesthetic quality of the out of focus areas of an image. By placing a cut out over your lens you can force the bokeh to assume any shape you want.

To create your own bokeh cut out you will need:

• A piece of card 2” wider than the diameter of your lens.

• Craft knife

• Elastic band or tape

• Pair of scissors

First of all, place your lens onto the card and draw around it. Then draw another circle around the outside of the first circle. This doesn’t have to be accurate as it only acts as a guide for cutting it out. As we need the shape to be as near to the centre of the lens as possible, draw two perpendicular lines across the inner circle to find the centre.

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Then draw your desired shape around that centre point. Using a craft knife, cut out the shape in the centre circle. With a pair of scissors, cut out the outer circle then make eight cuts around the edge, making sure you don’t cut into the inner circle. Place the card over your lens and fold down the edges, securing it in place with a rubber band, or tape.

Ensure the shape is sitting over the centre of the lens. With your Christmas tree in the background, place a small table at least six feet in front of it. This is where you will place your foreground object (a glass of wine, mince pie etc). The further the foreground is from the background, the better the effect will be.

Mount your camera on a tripod, and position your camera as close to the foreground subject as it will focus. Set ISO 100 and widest aperture your lens will go to ideally 2.8 or wider. Focus on the foreground object, then turn your lens to manual focus.

Turn off all other lights in the room with the exception of the Christmas tree lights and ensuring your flash is disabled, start shooting. You’ll have to have a play with the shutter speed to get the correct exposure, but don’t be too reliant on the internal metering system. ●

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FEATURE ARTIST

Q&A’S with Photographer CHRIS GIN

www.chrisgin.com

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NZP: How did you first get into photography?

CHRIS: Back in 2007 I bought a second-hand DSLR to play with, without really knowing anything about photography. After experimenting for a while I found myself drawn to landscapes, and have been hooked ever since.

NZP: Have you had any formal training?

CHRIS: No, everything I've learned has been from information freely available on the internet.

NZP:How do you describe your photography style?

CHRIS: I love shots with dramatic light resulting in bold colours. I use my wide-angle lens to exaggerate the perspective and create strong foreground interest.

NZP: What is your top tip to creating a great landscape Photo?

CHRIS: Take photos during the golden hours (the time around sunrise and sunset) when the light is good, but also learn how to capture that light with your camera. Often the intensity of the light (i.e. dynamic range) is too much for the camera to capture, but there are various techniques to overcome this.

NZP: What would be in your camera bag on a typical day shooting landscapes? CHRIS: Camera body with Sigma 10-20 lens attached, Tamron 17-50 lens, various filters (GND, ND, CPL), remote shutter, spare memory cards, and batteries.

NZP: If you were going to buy more equipment, what would the next item be and why? CHRIS: A fisheye lens. It could be fun to experiment with the extreme distortion that you get with fisheyes.

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NZP: Do you have a favourite image you've taken or location to shoot? CHRIS: I find it too hard to pick a favourite image - I always change my mind each time I think about it! My two favourite locations would be Muriwai (fantastic for seascapes, and its local) and Lake Tekapo (very picturesque and looks different in each season).

NZP: And where would the dream location to shoot be?

CHRIS: I would love to go to Norway and Iceland, I've seen some amazing landscapes from there. Having said that, there are some places in New Zealand I'd love helicopter access to − Fiordland for example.

NZP: Aside from landscapes, what are your other favourite photography styles?

CHRIS: Although I don't shoot them myself, I love good wildlife and macro photos. I went to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award at Auckland museum earlier this year and there were some jaw-dropping photos there.

NZP: What advice would you have for aspiring photographers?

CHRIS: Don't get too caught up in all the technical details when you're first starting out, at least until you've learnt the basics of good composition, light etc. I think being able to take a good photo requires 80% artistic ability and 20% technical skill. Try not to copy other photographers, but do analyse their shots to see what makes them good (or not). And lastly, getting constructive critique from photographers you respect can also help. •

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Sydney Harbour Bridge dusk NYE by Steve Webster

The picture was taken at dusk on New Year's Eve looking from the North Sydney pool under the Harbour Bridge towards the Opera House.. I like the light of the setting sun filtering through the clouds, yet illuminating everything of interest, and the crowds gathering for the firework display later in the night. The camera used was a Sony A35 DSLR using ISO 100, f3.5 at 18mm for 0.6 second

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The Mayfly by Kevin Marshal

The Mayfly lives for about a day in glorious colour, simply to mate and die. Image comprises of Focus Staking 14 individual images and composing them via Photoshop CC. Canon 7D, Focal 100mm, F/8, 1/8sec.

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Sydney Opera House Butterfly by Steve Webster

SOH Butterfly: at Sydney’s VIVID light show the Opera House was illuminated by various designs for a short period. The problem was to get adequate exposure before the scene changed. Camera used was a Sony A35 set at ISO 400, f11 for 6 seconds at 50mm.

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Chinese Lantern Festival by Gail Orgias

Taken in Auckland. Loved the traditional, festive colours of this life-like figure. Canon 40D, lens 70-200 F/4, f/4.5.

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Flax Flower by Steve Harper

Taken in Heron Park, I captured the colours of these natural candles with Nikon D610, 60mmMicro, .5 sec@f32

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Taupo Sculpture by Dennis Galyer

This photo is of a sculpture on the lake Taupo waterfront, I understand the art piece is still there at time of writing. I took a couple of photos straight on to the sculpture but they just didn't look right so I got down on my knees and pointed the lens skyward. There's no articulated screen on a D90 so there was a bit of guesswork involved as I lined up the shot, I was really pleased with the result! The photo was taken with a Nikon D90 using a Tamron 18 -270 mm lens with the settings of 18mm, 1/200 second, F/14 and ISO 200

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Speed by Andrew Tierney

Catching sharpness and speed is important to me and here at 1/160 I just managed to pull it off.

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Parade by Nick Kabzamalov

Colourful parade in Auckland. The eye contact grabbed me.

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“For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity”

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