Digital Photographer

Digital cameras are capable of producing images of such depth and realism today that it can be easy to make an unexpected oversight with our photography: ‘real’ isn’t always best. The latest high-resolution sensors can reveal astonishing levels of de

Photographic artist Brooke is an expert in all things photoediting and this issue she offers some invaluable advice and creative imagery in our feature on composite photography. Turn to p36 of the magazine to begin exploring how you can build your ow

DJI, one of the leading manufacturers in the drone and creative camera technology market, has unveiled three new products designed to help filmmakers and content creators bring their visions to life. There are two new gimbals, the DJI RS 3 and DJI RS

This month, hone your essential camera skills with our free e-book Stunning Wildlife. Accurate focus, good exposures and thoughtful compositions are requirements for shots of beautiful animals, even those held in captivity, but there are more specifi

Now in its seventh year, the Bird POTY is the highlight of the bird photography calendar, and the latest competition saw over 20,000 entries from 115 different countries competing for the £5,000 prize and prestigious title. The finalist preview of te

Photographer: Ekaterina Chernenko Instagram: @bella_natura_photo Image location: Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine Type of commission: Personal Shot details: Canon 1200D, 18-55mm lens, ƒ/5.6, 1/100s, ISO 400 About the shot: As creative people, many of th

NiSi has released an updated version of its circular polariser filter and holder kit, which forms part of its square filter system. As with the V6 incarnation, the V7 circular polariser has its own slot at the back of the filter h`older and is rotate

I gaze through the darkness of my hotel room at the clock on my phone. It reads 2:30am and I make a mental note to myself never to complain about dawn shoots in winter ever again. Compared to this, a 6am wake-up call is relatively pleasant. Nodding r

Natural light can give us wonderful opportunities to capture creative macro images. My preferred shooting mode is aperture priority because I can quickly adapt to the changes in light by making adjustments to the exposure via the compensation dial. M

Growing up in the valleys of south Wales, Geraint discovered a deep love for and appreciation of nature and wildlife. Now a pro macro photographer and Olympus ambassador, he describes himself as “a vegan fella, Bourbon biscuit lover and an insect’s b

Macro photography is fun, but no one said it was easy! Many of the mini-beasts we shoot are fast-moving and don’t often stay still in the sunlight, which presents a few distinct challenges. Cooler or overcast weather can be an advantage for focus sta

Insects, plants, and fungi are such fascinating subjects that there is a temptation to magnify as much as possible and fill the frame – however, this may actually be limiting our creativity. Quite often, the environment and weather conditions can add

I believe that image processing is an art form in itself. We don’t need lots of fancy skills or have to spend hours changing the way an image looks, but it is where our individual, unique vision is imprinted on the file. Some people wish to do minima

1 Have fun Photography is a fantastic pastime, but it should be enjoyable. We often place too much emphasis on “getting the shot”. Instead, enjoy your time with the camera and everything else will fall into place. 2 Keep it simple Don’t overcomplic

Compositing is actually not a new concept – it has been a part of the photo editing process since the days of film photography. In decades past, it was still possible to seamlessly blend image components together in the dark room, only this was done

Match the direction, colour and softness of your main light to the expected lighting of the background for credible final lighting structure Adjust shade by adding a light or switching this off. Generally even, two-light setups provide the most suc

One of the challenges of pro composite photography is knowing which elements should be captured first. Which works better – finding a subject to fit a background or a background to match your subject? In an ideal world, we would have a concept of wha

Photoshop is used in many ways, but the one thing that comes in handy for any photographer is selecting and extracting. Making selections can be challenging, but it has to be done right otherwise, the whole emotion of the scene might not be credible

Once you have your image elements selected and extracted from their source files, it’s time to start blending them all together. This is often the stage when photographers new to high-level compositing make mistakes. For a composite image to truly wo

It is well known that landscape photographers favour dawn and dusk for their image-making. The golden light found early and late in the day casts a warmer tone over the landscape, often creating shadows that are softer and more directional. One of th

For photographers, an out-of-focus or blurred shot is generally a bad thing. We combat this by using fast shutter speeds to stop camera shake when handholding and also aim to reduce the amount of subject blur. But for action shots where your subject

PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL James Abbott is a professional photographer and photography journalist, specialising in shooting and editing techniques. He recently released his first book, covering professional image editing skills in both Adobe Photoshop and Af

LIGHTROOM TUTORIAL ●Black & White Mix ●Zoom for precision ●Masking Tools ●Grain Black and white photography remains as popular as ever. And far from being a way to hide poor light and incorrect white balance, it’s a highly creative treatment that can

In their simplest form, Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, are digital assets, such as photos, illustrations or even clips of music. NFTs have a limited edition quality, whether it’s one-of-akind or a batch of a select few. They work in a similar way to l

W elive in a world where millions of images and video content are uploaded to social media sites daily across the globe. On Facebook alone, over 300 million images are shared every day – and on Instagram, an average of 95 million photographs are uplo

I’m a landscape photographer who works part-time selling prints and cards, however, I’d really like to push my business and go full-time. Do you have any advice on how I could do this? Anonymous Landscape photography is a competitive industry that ma

Tell us all about your photography tours and workshops. I focus on running adventure trips to complex locations around the world, but also a few local trips closer to home. Infrared photography is a speciality of mine and I enjoy astro landscapes too

Bahrain-based Premjith is an engineer by trade, but has been a keen photographer for 25 years, covering genres such as sports, landscapes and astro photography. He covers Formula 1 racing at the Bahrain International Circuit as well as skiing, golf a

Founded in 2007 by CEO Scott Gray, the World Photography Organisation is a respected image hosting platform dedicated to the development and advancement of photographic culture. The Sony World Photography Awards has grown to become one the must-enter

Every issue, one Digital Photographer reader wins a Samsung 256GB PRO Plus MicroSDXC memory card with SD adapter. Boasting up to 160MB/s and 120MB/s read/write speeds, the card is perfect for high-res stills and Ultra HD video. It is the go-to card

For our latest competition in association with Photocrowd, we challenged you to submit your best smartphone success shots. After working through all the entries, the winners have been selected. Both crowd-voted and expert winners will win a licence t

For shooting macro photography, you need a lens with a high level of precision, accurate focusing and preferably some kind of stabilisation. We test four of the finest macro lenses from Canon, Nikon, Sigma and Sony. DJI’s latest addition to its drone

A ‘full macro’ lens with 1.0x or 1:1 magnification at its shortest focus setting will reproduce small objects at full lifesize on the image sensor. That might not sound like a big deal but, when you’re filling the whole image frame with something the

Sigma makes some high-quality macro lenses, including the 105mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro, which is one of our favourite budget options for Canon and Nikon DSLRs. It’s also one of the few remaining Sigma lenses on the market that predate the ‘Global Vi

A world-first, Canon’s RF 100mm is a 1.4x macro lens with autofocus, and the autofocus is particularly fast as well, based on a Dual Nano USM system. As such, it’s not only super-speedy for stills but enables smooth and virtually silent autofocus tra

This top-end Nikon Z-mount lens, the 105mm ‘Micro’, is bristling with advanced features Nikon’s F-mount 105mm macro lens has long been a popular option for DSLRs but the lens has been completely reinvented for mirrorless cameras. A more high-tech aff

Sony was ahead of the curve with full-frame mirrorless cameras and has built up a comparatively comprehensive line-up over the years. The 90mm macro was launched back in 2015 but still comes with a wideranging set of high-end features. Compatible wit

The Mini 3 Pro is the latest arrival from DJI, the most widely-known drone manufacturer. It joins DJI’s Mini series of sub-250g drones, sitting above the Mini 2 in the line-up. That sub-250g weight is important because it means that the Mini 3 Pro av

xWEBSITE: cokinfilter.com Price: £219/$220 Cokin first started making photographic filters in 1978 and for many years, it was the go-to brand for enthusiast photographers, with filters to add everything from rainbows to keyhole effects as well as m

PRICE: £1,099/$899 FOCUS DISTANCE: 6.0m WEIGHT: 1260g It might not be up to the standards of Canon’s top-flight L-Series pro telephotos but the RF 800mm f/11 IS STM still feels well-constructed, especially considering that keeping weight and cost d

DOWNLOAD TEST SHOTS https://bit.ly/DP-255 PRICE: £699/$799 FOCUS DISTANCE: 0.30m WEIGHT: 360g Picking up the XF 33mm F1.4 R LM WR for the first time, you are struck by its overall sense of ruggedness. The barrel feels solid and capable of withsta

Afew years ago, I found myself lucky enough to be travelling through Norway’s Lofoten Islands, and while I can’t tell you exactly where this was, I can tell you it wasn’t planned or expected. We were driving around the islands enjoying the stops thro