DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY NEWS FROM ePHOTOzine

Use a tripod when shooting macro work to reduce the chances of shake creeping into the shot.

Camera shake, which can occur when you're not holding/supporting the camera correctly, can really spoil your shots but it's a problem that can be easily fixed. Most cameras now have features that help them prevent camera shake, however, there are still a few things the photographer can do to limit or even remove the shake that blurs your shots completely.

 

1. Use A Tripod

This may seem like an obvious response, but sometimes it may not be your first thought to use a tripod. A tripod will make a big difference to images if camera shake is a recurring issue. If you're travelling light, even a small tripod/stand that you can keep attached to the bottom of the camera will be handy for placing the camera down without worrying about scratching the bottom.

 

2. Shutter Speeds 

If you're working handheld, try and use the fastest shutter speed possible to minimise the risk of blur. If you're working in low light, try upping the ISO a little to enable you to shoot with faster shutter speeds, too. If your camera doesn't tend to produce good-quality shots when higher ISOs are used, take your tripod with you so you can use longer shutter speeds without having to worry about shake spoiling your shots. 

 

 

3. Remote Release

A remote release will enable you to trigger the shutter without physically pressing the shutter button and causing minute vibrations which can cause shake. Some cameras also allow you to trigger the camera using a connected smartphone or tablet device, which will work just the same as the remote release to stop vibrations. You can also use your camera's self-timer if you don't have one as even though you're still touching the camera, the timer should mean the camera's stopped moving by the time the exposure begins. 

 

4. Stance and Breathing

The way you hold your camera can have a big effect on the amount of blur caused by your own movement. Hold the camera with two hands close to your body and make sure your feet are shoulder-width apart. If composing with the screen, keep your elbows tucked in as you'll stand a better chance of capturing a steady image. Being conscious of your breathing can further minimise shake. Some suggest taking a deep breath, holding it, taking your shot and exhaling while others prefer to do it the other way around. It's not something that's recommended for very long exposures, though! 

 

5. Use Objects For Support

You may find leaning against a tree or a wall useful to steady your images. Do use the built-in level if you do this, however, to make sure that your horizon stays straight, as leaning can cause wonky images. You could also take a beanbag out with you or if you're really struggling to find a support, see if your camera bag will help. 

 

 

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© Leica

 

Viltrox is the 10th and newest company to join the L-Mount Alliance since the public announcement of the L-Mount standard at photokina in 2018. The alliance consists of founding members Leica Camera AG, SIGMA, and Panasonic, as well as Ernst Leitz Wetzlar GmbH, DJI, ASTRODESIGN, SAMYANG Optics, Blackmagic Design and SIRUI. This collaboration enables Viltrox to develop products with the L-Mount which will present great benefits for a wide range of photo and video applications.

The L-Mount was developed by Leica Camera AG with the aim of providing customers with a futureproof, flexible, robust and precise bayonet mount that would fulfil even the most demanding photographic needs. Since its initial appearance, development of the L-Mount was continued by Leica as well as by its strategic partners. This led to significant improvements and an effectively new and more sophisticated L-Mount technology, resulting in a constantly growing portfolio of cameras and lenses from all existing and new alliance partners, currently comprising over 20 cameras and more than 120 lenses. All lenses made for the different systems within the L-Mount Alliance can be used on all cameras without adapters and without any functional limitations, illustrating one of the numerous benefits of the common bayonet.

Valentino Di Leonardo, Managing Expert Technology & Licensing at Leica Camera AG: “The L-Mount Alliance has been a key pillar of Leica Camera AG’s strategy from the beginning, standing for openness, innovation, and the highest standards in photography. With its bayonet system, it offers outstanding flexibility across a wide range of photographic and videographic applications. By welcoming Viltrox as a new member, we are strengthening our network with a highly regarded partner that shares our vision of a forward-looking and versatile system. Viltrox contributes valuable expertise in high-quality lens development and brings fresh momentum to our ecosystem. Together, we aim to offer photographers and filmmakers an even more comprehensive and flexible system that meets the most demanding requirements.”

DAI JINHUI (Daniel Dai), CEO at Viltrox: “Viltrox has joined the L-Mount Alliance, further expanding the system’s reach with high-quality, versatile, and accessible lenses. This collaboration complements Leica’s portfolio by inspiring a new generation of creators—from passionate enthusiasts to seasoned professionals—while reinforcing a dynamic and inclusive ecosystem alongside Alliance partners DJI, Panasonic, Blackmagic Design, and Sigma.”

 

About the L-Mount Alliance

The members of the L-Mount Alliance all utilise the L-Mount Standard developed by Leica Camera AG for mirrorless camera systems. Currently, the members of the Alliance are Leica Camera AG, SIGMA, Panasonic, Ernst Leitz Wetzlar GmbH, DJI, ASTRODESIGN, SAMYANG Optics, Blackmagic Design, SIRUI and Viltrox. The partners in the alliance utilise the L-Mount Standard for cameras and lenses that are offered under their own brand names. They market their respective products as competitors, and each with their own product and marketing strategies. The alliance works together on advancing the technology of the L-Mount Standard.

 

About the L-Mount Standard

To ensure maximum product diversity, the diameter of 51.6 millimetres was chosen to make the LMount suitable for use not only with full-frame cameras, but also on cameras with APSC sensors. The short register of only 20 millimetres enables a short distance between the lens and the sensor, which in turn allows for a considerably more compact construction – which is particularly helpful for developments in the wide-angle lens segment. To ensure resistance to even the most extreme conditions and guarantee maximum reliability for many years of intensive use, the camera bayonets are manufactured from wear-resistant stainless steel, with four flange segments that prevent canting and ensure a secure and precisely positioned lens attachment. The standardised L-Mount contact strip facilitates trouble-free communication between the electronic components of the lens and the camera – including the possibility of installing future firmware updates for lenses to react to technological advances and exploit their full performance potentials of the lenses. Further information can be found here.

 

About Viltrox

Viltrox, established in 2009, is a globally recognised leader in camera lenses and adapters, specialising in high-performance equipment for photography and cine. Its portfolio includes cinema and autofocus lenses - such as the LAB, Pro, and Air series launched since 2018 - along with monitors, adapters, and lighting solutions. Driven by innovation, the company expanded further into cine in 2022 with the "EPIC" anamorphic and "LUNA" zoom lenses, offering cost-effective solutions for filmmakers worldwide. Renowned for their exceptional optical quality, reliability, and accessible pricing, Viltrox products reflect a commitment to engineering excellence and user-centred design, empowering content creators across still and motion photography domains.

 

© Leica

 

About Leica Camera

Leica stands for craftsmanship, design and experience. With over 100 years of history, the brand represents a beautiful combination of art and engineering with the future of form and functionality. Based in Wetzlar, the original birthplace of Leica, the German company is an internationally operating, premium-segment manufacturer of cameras and sport optics products. Leica’s legendary status is founded on its long tradition of excellence and supreme quality found in their cameras and lenses. Leica are committed to supporting the creation and preservation of iconic photography, past, present and future and the artists behind them.

For more information about Leica, please visit their official website here.

  If you're looking for a project that you can shoot over several weeks or even months have a go at creating a collection of images that all share the same colour.

As this is something that can take quite some time to do, it's something you can shoot alongside your other types of photography or you could try working on several different 'colour themes' all at once.

Your subjects don't have to be the same but it's important that the colour is, that way once you have a few images in your collection, you can begin to group them together to create panels and triptychs to hang on walls or post in online galleries.  

 

As you don't know what you'll be photographing until you see it, it's best to take a zoom lens out with you. By doing so you'll have various focal lengths to play with plus if you plan on walking for a while, you won't have lots of kit weighing you down.

You can sit and create a list of items organised into colour groups you can photograph or try visiting a location and wandering around to see which colour would be best to shoot in that particular place.

Do remember that the lack of other colours does mean you'll have to work harder to ensure your composition is interesting. That means you need to pay particular attention to textures, lines, shapes and framing.

     

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Daily Forum Competition

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The latest winner of our popular daily photography theme which takes place in our forums have been chosen and congratulations go to AndyPedant (Day 25 - Swimming).

 

Daily Theme Runners-Up

If you didn't win this time, keep uploading your images to the daily competition forum for another chance to win! If you're new to the Daily Theme, you can find out more about it in the Daily Theme Q&A. 

Well done to our latest runners-up, too, whose images you can take a look at below.

  Day 24

Environmental Portrait

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Day 26

Butterflies

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Day 27

Canals

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Day 28

Storms

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Day 29

'Circle' Theme

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Day 30

City Close-Ups

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Day 31

Villages

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You’ll find the Daily Themes, along with other great photo competitions, over in our Forum. Take a look to see the latest daily photo contests. Open to all levels of photographer, you’re sure to find a photography competition to enter. Why not share details of competitions with our community? Join the camaraderie and upload an image to our Gallery.

We know it's not a feature all cameras have but as many of the cameras we review do now have a flip-out screen, it got us thinking about why they're useful and actually, we came up with 8 reasons why more cameras should have a flip-out screen. 

 

1. Bright light 

If you've found the perfect position to shoot, but can't see the image on your screen because of bright sunlight, for example, it can be difficult to compose your shot effectively. If you didn't have a tilting screen, this would mean having to tilt the camera to see what you're shooting, which can end in you losing the ideal shot. With a tilting screen, you can simply partially tilt it to get rid of the glare, without having to move your camera set up at all. 

 

2. Selfies 

The selfie is a word and trend that won't be going away anytime soon so why not embrace it? You can turn your camera's lens to face you and simply click the shutter button but chances are, the framing won't be right and due to the awkward angle you'll be holding the camera at, shake could spoil your shot. Some like to use mirrors, but these don't tend to produce pleasing results either, especially with the camera in-frame. However, if you have a camera with a flip-screen, you can just turn it around so you can see yourself perfectly when setting the shot up. For those without a flip-screen who have a little more time, use a tripod and a remote release to take your self-portrait. For more tips on taking self-portraits, have a read of this: 5 reasons to shoot a self-portrait

 

 

3. Shooting in confined spaces

Taking a photo but can't get behind the camera to take the shot? With a flip-screen, you can leave the camera in its position and still see how the scene looks through your camera's lens.

 

Photo by Joshua Waller

 

4. Shooting from higher angles

When taking photos in a crowd it can be difficult to capture shots of the stage, parade or whatever else you've gone to see when you have rows of people in front of you. If you can, get to the front which will involve a bit of planning and most likely arriving early but at least you'll have a prime spot for your photography. For those who have cameras with screens that tilt and flip, you can simply hold the camera up above your head and check your composition via the flip-screen.

 

5. Shooting at low angles using a tripod

If you are shooting low-level work using a tripod, it can be rather painful if you have to kneel with the camera for a long time to see what you're shooting. It can also lead to wet knees and ruined muddy clothes in bad weather. So, if you enjoy capturing images of fungi in Autumn or spend a lot of time in flowerbeds during the summer, you may want to consider purchasing a camera with a flip-screen so you can still compose your images without having to kneel or lay on the ground. 

 

 

6. Shoot around corners

A camera with a flip-screen allows you to shoot around corners at angles that usually wouldn't be possible with a non-tiltable screen camera. 

 

7. Street photography

By holding your camera at a lower angle and adjusting the screen so you can see what the camera sees without having to move it will mean candid shots in towns and cities will be easier to capture as it won't be so obvious that you're actually taking a photo. In fact, some may think you're just adjusting your camera settings. 

 

Photo by Joshua Waller

 

8. Use Live View

By having the ability to change the angle of your camera's screen you can tweak lights, move reflectors, direct models, adjust still life set-ups etc. and see the effect when using Live View without having to walk round the back of the camera. 

 

Photo by Joshua Waller

 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Daily Forum Competition   

 

Multi-award winning photographer and actor Bill Ward is absolutely delighted to announce the launch of Pre-Orders for “IMMERSIVE”, his very first book with Kozu Books!

“IMMERSIVE” is his pioneering Ocean ICM project, a groundbreaking 4 year investigation into water, energy and movement, and what happens when you physically get into the sea with a wetsuit, waterproof housing and a moving camera, and become literally immersed within, and surrounded by, the very thing you’re photographing.

 

 

A surfer for over 30 years, Bill has long been interested in the energy of the ocean, and what happens when that energy transfers itself to the land. He’s also been at the vanguard of Intentional Camera Movement in the UK since 2012. A few years ago he started to investigate what might happen if he put his two very favourite things together, and put a moving camera into the path of a breaking wave. This book is a celebration of, and a meditation on, the results… the visceral sensation of being not just an observer of Poseidon’s watery kingdom, on the outside looking in, but an active participant.

 

 

All the photographs in this collection were taken with long exposures and a moving camera out amongst the breaking waves in, on, or underneath the ocean with Pentax DSLRs, C-Skin wetsuits and EWA-Marine Waterproof Housing.

With an absolutely beautiful foreword by the photographer and abstract artist Doug Chinnery, this 88 page, 5 Chapter hardback book, in conjunction with the brilliant Greg Stewart at Kozu Books, “Immersive” is now open for pre-orders!

 

 

Full Spec below:

• 300mm x 240mm Landscape
• 88 pages
• Thread Sewn & Casebound Hardback
• All Papers from the Fedrigoni Mill in Italy
• Standard Edition: £40
• Special Edition: £95 (includes slipcase and choice of 2 A4 photographs printed on Hahnemuhle Photorag, ltd edition of 50)
• Collectors Edition: £195 (includes slipcase and choice of 2 A3 photographs printed on Hahnemuhle Photorag, ltd edition of 25)

Pre-order your copy today!

 

 

1. Focal Lengths

Choosing the right focal length is critical to balancing the key elements in the frame of a landscape. Before hitting the shutter button, take the time to think about where you're placing the camera and the focal length you're using. For example, try a longer focal length and step back. This will pull distant objects into the image and create harmony with what's in the foreground. 
 

2. Foreground Interest 

Another way to balance your landscape shots is with foreground interest. An object placed in the foreground can help guide the eye in the right direction as well as filling in what could be a vast empty space when your attention is on mountains and other background detail. Foreground detail helps give landscapes a sense of depth too. For more information, take a look at this article: Why You Should Look For Interesting Foregrounds For Your Landscapes.

 

3. Add A Frame

An alternative way to add foreground interest is with a frame. We don't mean for you to go out with a large photo frame in-hand but do be on the lookout for items and objects out in the landscape that can be used to create a frame for your shot. Overhanging branches, doorways and arches are just a few examples of frames you can find when out-and-about. 
 

4. Basic Rules 

Don't overlook the basic rules of photography which includes the rule of thirds, lines, shapes and various other elements as these can help you balance your shot. You'll need to use your lens to complement the rule which could mean changing its position or adjusting the zoom. Take a look at these beginner's tips for more information: Beginner's Guide To Composition
 

5. Shoot Panoramics

As wide-angle lenses sometimes create distortion, an alternative way to shoot photos that have more of the landscape in them is with a panorama. You can shoot panoramas with a short telephoto focal lens and using a tripod helps but it's not essential. The important thing is the choice of scene. Scenes with close to the camera elements will not stitch properly with this method. However, you can buy dedicated panorama heads for scenes that have foreground as well as background interest. More panorama photography tips can be found here: How To Shoot Panoramas and Panoramas Without A Panoramic Head.

More information on lens choices for landscapes can be found in this article: Make The Most Of Your Lenses For Scenics 

 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Daily Forum Competition

 

A well-seen moment in monochrome earns our latest ‘Photo of the Week’ (POTW) recognition. Titled Rock, Paper, Scissors by Jasper87, the image shows a person on a staircase, mid-gesture, framed by concrete walls and shadow.

The composition makes good use of space and contrast. The woman stands out clearly against the background, with the lighting highlighting her stance and expression. The setting is ordinary, but the framing gives it focus.

The black and white treatment suits the subject and location, with editing that balances tones and preserves detail in dark areas. The scene feels natural and unposed, though the timing shows clear thought. The image captures the strength of monochrome photography.

Every Photo of the Week (POTW) winner will be rewarded with a Samsung 128GB PRO Plus microSDXC memory card with SD adapter, providing top-tier storage for all your creative needs across multiple devices. But that's not all! In January 2026, we’ll crown our 2025 Photo of the Year winner, who will take home the ultimate prize of a Samsung Portable 1TB SSD T7 Shield, courtesy of Samsung. It’s time to shoot, submit, and showcase your best work for a chance to win these incredible rewards!

 

As patterns, lines and symmetry surround us, it makes sense to use these features to help us create interesting compositions which in turn, produce a great photograph. So, to help you on your journey to creating better compositions here are 11 tutorials that use lines, symmetry and patterns as ways to enhance images. 

 

1. How To Capture Patterns On Your Travels

Patterns may not be the first thing that spring to mind when you're on holiday and capturing images of your trip but they can be an interesting subject to focus on.

Learn More

 

2. How To Use Patterns & Repetition In Your Photography

When you're out on a day trip or on your two-week annual holiday and are looking for some photographic inspiration, have a walk around and start shooting patterns, we'll guarantee you'll soon become addicted.

Learn More

 

3. Shooting Rocks As Patterns & Textures To Enhance Your Photos

Our landscape is abundant with rocky views from the gneiss rocks of Scotland, through the limestone pavements of the Yorkshire Dales, to the rocky Jurassic coastline of Dorset. Move-in closer and their patterns and textures provide fabulous abstract opportunities for photographers.

Learn More

 

4. How To Shoot Patterns In Architecture: 4 Quick Tips To Get You Started

Here are a few quick tips on looking for, and photographing, patterns in architecture found in towns and cities.

Learn More

 

 

 

5. How To Use The Power Of Lines To Improve Your Landscape Photography

Did you know that you can use diagonal lines to guide the eye, add interest and more to your landscape shots? If you didn't, here are 4 top tips on the subject for you to peruse.

Learn More

 

6. Why & How To Use Vertical Lines In Your Photos

Here are 6 reasons why you should try to use vertical lines in your images as well as a few tips on how to use them to make the most impact in your shots.

Learn More

 

7. How To Use Horizontal Lines Successfully In Your Images

Enhance patterns and add interest to your photos with horizontal lines which you can find almost anywhere when you really look.

Learn More

 

8. Three Reasons Why Converging Verticals In Photos Can Be A Good Thing

Converging lines and verticals don't always have to be avoided. In fact, they can be a clever tool for guiding the eye when used right.

Learn More

 

You've read the technique now share your related photos for the chance to win prizes: Daily Forum Competition  

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The latest winner of our popular daily photography theme which takes place in our forums have been chosen and congratulations go to Dke (Day 9 - Crop Fields).

 

Daily Theme Runners-Up

If you didn't win this time, keep uploading your images to the daily competition forum for another chance to win! If you're new to the Daily Theme, you can find out more about it in the Daily Theme Q&A. 

Well done to our latest runners-up, too, whose images you can take a look at below.

  Day 10

Tourists

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Day 11

Negative Space

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Day 12

Letters

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Day 13

People Outdoors

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Day 14

Long Exposures

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Day 15

Patterns

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Day 16

Vignettes

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You’ll find the Daily Themes, along with other great photo competitions, over in our Forum. Take a look to see the latest daily photo contests. Open to all levels of photographer, you’re sure to find a photography competition to enter. Why not share details of competitions with our community? Join the camaraderie and upload an image to our Gallery.

 

This is Sigma's latest AF f/1.4 small prime lens, and at 12mm is the widest such optic anywhere for mirrorless cameras. This is primarily intended for APS-C crop sensor cameras, giving it a "35mm format equivalent" of 18mm. The lens can be used on full frame cameras, but ideally in the crop mode. This results in the test camera, the Full Frame 42MP Sony A7R III, delivering 18MP as used for the purposes of this review. The ultra-wide view should be interesting, opening up quite a few possibilities for architecture, landscape, and reportage. Let's see how it all works out, both in the studio for the technical tests and out in the field for the sample images.

 

Sigma 12mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary Handling and Features

 

The lens is compact and light, the actual values depending on the camera mount chosen:

 

Sony E 68mm x 69.4mm 225g Fujifilm X 68mm x 69.7mm 235g Canon RF 69mm x 67.4mm 250g

 

The lens is solidly made, using high quality plastics, and all the controls are slick in operation. This adds to the feeling of high quality. There is a provided petal lens hood that bayonets smoothly into place and happily stays put without any need for a locking catch. Within the bayonet is a standard 62mm filter thread. The front element is water and dust repellant. The whole lens is also dust and splash resistant.

There are few controls. The wide manual focus ring is electronic and ultra smooth as expected. AF is fast, accurate and virtually silent, driven by a stepping motor. Closest focus is 17.2cm, for a maximum magnification of 1:8.4.

 

 

The aperture ring has gentle but positive click stops and feels well engineered. A slight drawback is that there is no lock system to select either the A setting or the aperture values. When set to A, so the aperture can be controlled via the camera, there is a tendency for the setting to be nudged off. This might only be noticed when the aperture value fails to change when required.

Optical construction is 14 elements in 12 groups, including 2 SLD (Super Low Dispersion) and 3 Aspherical. The diaphragm consists of 9 blades, clearly with an eye to improving bokeh.

 

 

Out and about, the lens could not really handle any better than it does. It has few controls to get in the way of pure photography. Focusing is close enough to be useful, not a macro lens maybe but still making it easy to include close up foreground in our pictures. Empty foregrounds can be a pitfall with ultra-wide lenses, and we need to be able to get in close to make the most of their dramatic potential.

Turning now to the technical results, let's see how the lens performs.

 

Sigma 12mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary Performance

Central sharpness is very good at f/1.4, outstanding at f/2 and f/2.8 and then excellent all the way through to f/16. The edges are fair at f/1.4, excellent from f/2 to f/4 and very good from f/5.6 to f/16.

 

Sigma 12mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary MTF Charts Previous Next

How to read our MTF charts

The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges.

For this review, the lens was tested on a Sony A7R III using Imatest. Want to know more about how we review lenses?

 

CA is highly corrected at the centre, but less so at the edges. With some high contrast edges against bright sky, for example, some fringing may be noted. However, for most subjects, this is not obtrusive.

Distortion measures +0.01% pincushion, so we really might as well say totally rectilinear. This is great for architectural subjects in particular.

 

Sigma 12mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary Chromatic Aberration Charts Previous Next

How to read our CA charts

Chromatic aberration (CA) is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software.

Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more.

For this review, the lens was tested on a Sony A7R III using Imatest.

 

Bokeh is the smoothness of the out of focus areas in an image and the general gradation of such areas. It is not the main raison d'etre of the ultra-wide lens, but still, the results are pleasing enough. 

Flare is handled extremely well, and even shooting right into severe lighting does not faze the lens at all. It is all but impossible to generate artefacts. Contrast also holds up well.

Vignetting is present, but considering the wide angle, very well controlled. In any event some modest corner darkening can actually enhance many subjects and will deal with blue skies better than a polarising filter will. Polarisers tend to show banding effects on wide expanses of sky, but a bit of vignetting does not.

 

Aperture Vignetting f/1.4 -1.7 f/2 -1.5 f/2.8 -1.3 f/4 -1.3 f/5.6 -1.3 f/8 -1.3 f/11 -1.2 f/16 -1.2

 

Sigma 12mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary Sample Photos Previous Next

 

Sigma 12mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary Aperture range Previous Next

You can view additional images in the Equipment Database, where you can add your own reviews, photos and product ratings.

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Value For Money

The [AMUK]Sigma 12mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary|Sigma+12mm+f/1.4+DC+Contemporary[/AMUK] lens is priced at £519, in any of its mount options.

There are alternative AF 12mm lenses, but not at f/1.4.

• [AMUK]Zeiss Touit 12mm f/2.8|Zeiss+Touit+12mm+f/2.8[/AMUK], £644
• [AMUK]Samyang AF 12mm f/2|Samyang+AF+12mm+f/2[/AMUK], £295

This puts the new Sigma lens at a very fair pricing point, so excellent VFM.

 

 

Sigma 12mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary Verdict

This is a lens that I could very happily use, and it is just another example of how Sigma are producing some beautiful lenses at very competitive prices. There is little to fault about the 12mm f/1.4, just the lack of a lock on the aperture ring, but that just needs watching and with care will be largely an avoidable hazard. 

12mm on APS-C is a very exciting focal length, ideal for architecture, landscape and reportage. Handling of an ultra-wide does need some careful composition to get the best out of the lens - just shooting from a normal distance will result in huge blank areas. We need to get in close, and then closer still, to give proper emphasis to dramatic foregrounds and sweeping vistas. This is an issue of photographic style, and if this suits the photographer, then this lens should be high on the list of possible choices.

Highly recommended.

 

Sigma 12mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary Pros

• Impressive and even sharpness
• Well controlled central CA
• Excellent flare resistance
• Modest vignetting
• Very well made
• Virtually rectilinear
• Moisture and Dust resistant
• Smooth bokeh
• Slick handling

Sigma 12mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary Cons

• No lock on aperture ring
• Some edge CA

 

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When you head off on your holidays you'll probably spend some time at the beach and when the sun begins to set and the sky fills with those warm, summer shades, you and every other person on the beach will be pulling their camera out of its bag. The low sun may make great landscape shots but put anything in between you and the sun and it'll turn into a dark silhouette lacking shape and texture.

However, this isn't always a bad thing. For summer silhouettes to work you need a strong, recognisable shape so if you're headed to the beach with your family, why not use one or all of them in your shot? You could also spend time shooting other people as they walk along the shore or stand to watch the sunset.

 

1. Set-Up

Make sure you know what time the sun will be setting and in what direction as you don't want to turn up at a beach to find you can't actually see the sun setting from it. Once you have your chosen location make sure you arrive in plenty of time, which shouldn't be a problem if you've had a day out at the beach, but if you haven't been on the sand, at least an hour or two before the sun is due to set. Do check out tide times too as you don't want your kit and your family swept out to sea!

 

2. How To Shoot

Once you have a willing subject position them so your light source is behind them and it can help if you set yourself up so you’re shooting from a slightly lower angle, although this isn't a must. Take a test shot and have a look at the image on the back of the screen. Chances are unless you're working manually, you'll have shot a silhouette. If you don't get the desired look, try using exposure compensation and dial in a -1 or -2 setting. Using spot or centre-weighted metering will also help you capture a silhouette, although can still use multi-zone metering, you just need to aim the camera up at the sky and use exposure lock to take a reading from the brighter sky. Then all you have to do is recompose and take your image. 

 

3. What To Photograph

As mentioned strong shapes work well so get your subject to try and make different shapes while stood on the sand. This should be quite easy with kids but you may have to be more persuasive with adults!

If you have a group of people, get them to jump in the air so you can capture the shapes they create at the top of their jump. Try capturing a couple holding hands as they watch the sun go down or introduce props to keep your kids busy and more relaxed. Giving them a ball to throw or a bucket and spade to carry will create more interesting shapes and as a result, you'll have a more dynamic shot.

Experiment with angle and how far you crop in too to see how it can make a more interesting picture. If you're photographing someone's head, for example, shoot them as a profile rather than face on as you'll be able to see more features. Don't have too many objects too close together either as they'll all merge into one indistinct shape and the effect won't work as well.
 

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  1. Community

Villages provide plenty of photo opportunities and most of us have one just a short drive away. The village community is one area to focus on, there's usually a few local speciality shops - maybe a hardware store or cobbler.

 

2. Portraits

Pluck up the courage to ask to photograph the employees at work. The worse that can happen is they say no, but if they accept you will have a brilliant opportunity to shoot environmental portraits. Try shooting with a wide-angle lens to include as much background while catching the owner at work. If it's fruit and veg you could have them weighing up a purchase, carrying a sack into the store, arranging the fare or even handwriting a display price ticket. While a cobbler could be banging at a heel or shaping a key. A butcher could be hacking away at a joint or arranging slices of meat.

Take this idea outdoors and follow the locals around catching them at the bus stop, crossing the road, chatting to neighbours over a fence. Whatever you do respect their privacy. It's best if you get chatting to them first and ask for permission, then you won't feel awkward and no one gets into trouble.

 

3. Flower Photography

Villages tend to have interesting flower displays, especially those who aim to win best-kept village awards. So if you're looking for colourful chocolate box style shots check out the local regions of the Campaign To Protect Rural England (CPRE) website. Use a wide-angle lens from a viewpoint close to the flower display and include the houses/street scene in the background. Or shoot with a telephoto to compress perspective and focus totally on the flowers.

Many Derbyshire villages have a summertime activity called Well Dressing, where they dress a well in pictures made of flowers and petals. This is a great opportunity for colourful shots.

 

 

4. Activities And Events

Look out for village activities, many have charity events at the local church. It may be a bring and buy sale, a flower or cake stall, jumble sale, book or record fair. All offer great photojournalism style options. Shoot with a telephoto lens to catch people unaware in a candid fashion. Shoot with a wide-angle to get the hall with all the stalls in. Use ambient light for more atmospheric photos.

  5. Chocolate Box Views

To get some ideas about which villages have good photographic potential look at calendars in stationery shops or jigsaws in toy shops. The popular calendars and jigsaws will have pretty village scenes – thatched cottages, quaint river scenes, floral street scenes. They usually have the location printed on them. You can plan a trip and take in two or three villages in one region.

Look out for vintage life in a village. It's the place you're likely to find a Victorian post box, there may be old street signs, and architectural details found in old buildings or monuments. Villages often have war memorials that make good focal points.
 

5. Pubs

The village's local pub might have an interesting pub sign to photograph. Shoot from further away with a longer lens to avoid a distorted shape. Nip inside and you could find a warm fire and local characters. Rest the camera on a table to take ambient light shots.

Once you've done your excursion, consider making prints of your best shots into postcards and selling them in the local cafe/gift shop/post office.

 

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Optical distortion is something that affects all lenses to some extent. However, the effect is more pronounced in certain lenses and can be used to give a different spin on an otherwise 'normal' view of an object. 

Although it distorts images, it is not always a negative effect and it can be used in different situations to create abstract or more creative shots of subjects.

Below, we've listed what types of optical distortion there are and how they can affect your images, either in a negative or positive way. 

• What is Curvilinear distortion?
• What is Pincushion distortion?
• What is Mustache distortion?
• What is Chromatic aberration / purple fringing?
• What is Vignetting?

 

What is Curvilinear distortion?

This is where lines that should be straight in your image appear curved or bowed in some way. There a quite a few different types of this distortion, but the most common you will come across is barrel distortion, where vertical lines appear to curve outwards like a barrel. This type of distortion is most common in wide angle or fisheye lenses. The effect will be really pronounced in the fisheye as the effect is more deliberate here.

This can be used in portrait images to create unique looking images where the facial features are stretched and warped, this works equally well with humans and animals. 

 

 

 

What is Pincushion distortion?

Pincushion distortion is the opposite of barrel distortion, as the lines bow inwards. The effect is usually quite subtle and can only really be seen in square or rectangular objects when they are shot straight on, such as architecture with windows and doors, and other straight lines. This effect tends to be more of an issue in long telephoto lenses. Pincushion distortion is a lot less pronounced than barrel distortion and so it is often not noticeable in images unless you look really closely. However, it can also be corrected quite quickly and easily in photo editing software. The majority of modern cameras will provide built-in options to correct for this as well.

 

Extreme example of pincushion distortion, from an uncorrrected image, from the Sony E 18-105mm lens - you can see corrected versions in the review.

 

 

What is Mustache distortion?

Mustache distortion is basically a combination of barrel and pincushion distortion. Some lenses display both at the same time. It is most commonly seen in wide angle zooms and makes straight lines in images appear wavy. It can be noticed on the horizon, for example when photographing seascapes, particularly if the horizon is near the top or bottom of the frame.  

 

 

What is Chromatic Aberration?

Chromatic Aberration creates colour fringing on an image, usually around the lines and edges on the image, but it can also be present in other areas of the shot, where there are areas of high contrast, for example a black tree branch, against a bright sky. It usually appears as a purple, glowing halo giving "purple fringing", or can appear as red/magenta lines, often with green/cyan lines as well.

 

An example of chromatic aberration can be seen above, note the megenta and cyan / green lines on the edges of the window frame. You can see an example of purple fringing below, where the gravestone is up against a bright (blown out) sky. 

This can often be corrected either in camera automatically in modern cameras, or in photo editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Lightroom.

 

Purple fringing can be seen around the top of the gravestone.

 

 

What is Vignetting?

All lenses have a little vignetting - it's the term used when the image is darker at the edges than in the centre, due the curvature of the lens. Vignetting can sometimes be used to your advantage as a stylistic tool, to highlight the main aspect of your image in the centre. Most modern cameras will automatically correct for vignetting, depending on the lens used, and this can be corrected in photo editing software quickly and easily, or alternatively added to give a creative effect and style to your photo. See our guide on how to add a vignette to a photo in Photoshop.

 

Severe vignetting can be seen in this image.

 

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As Times Square is a popular location for tourists, it can be hard to shoot photos, particularly panoramas as people will often get in front of your lens, movement becomes blurred and when trying to stitch shots together, people often end up looking like they've got sliced in half. There are times when the square isn't so full of tourists but as photographer David Clapp explains, the photos aren't as interesting: "Even though shooting at busy times proved to be very complex and very stressful both in the field and in post-processing, I didn't want to go out 5am when there was no one about as it ruins the buzz intensity."

There are a set of steps which you can stand at the top of and shoot down onto the square, however if it rains no one sits on the steps, blocking the view and you're not allowed to use a tripod at the top of the steps as you will be told it's a 'safety hazard'.

A way to shoot Times Square without having to fight the crowds is to shoot up at the tower blocks and billboards that decorate the square.

Here's one David took looking vertically up at the tower blocks:

 

 

Moving your lens away from crowd level removes one problem but it's replaced with another and that's adverts changing constantly. If you want to blend images together, as David did for the above shot which is made up of three images, getting your timing right is crucial.

"The only way to do this is to shoot with the camera in Live View mode and wait until some kind of 'rest' occurs before capture. You can see I caught the 'eye' in the bottom left half way through transition. Still, it works. However, I am not altogether happy with the lighting of this image. The weather was so unstable that it made dusk shooting a lottery."

A way to really exaggerate the size of the structures in a city is with a fisheye lens. In the shot below, David moved down a few streets away from Times Square to shoot these buildings at a crossroads.

 

 

"I opted for the same technique I tried a few days before, using a faster shutter speed to capture two images for a blend, so the adverts wouldn't change between images. It works really well, but in the end the ambient light was good enough that I could process the image from just one RAW file."

For the next shot, David had to position half of his tripod on the pavement and the other on the road (watching for traffic in the process).

 

 

"This fabulous subway sign helps to set the scene even further, giving a title to the cluster of buildings rising upwards into the sky," he explained.

David increased the brightness in the centre of the photo with a circular gradient fill on a curves adjustment layer. He did this to give the impression that the lighting was consistent all the way up to the top of the tower blocks, which it wasn't.

This was shot following exactly the same concept but this time David twisted the camera and lens downwards, to show the full tower block above the road.

 

 

"These buildings are a riot of colours and lines. I love the cross-shaped gap in the middle, in particular," said David. "The image potential in Times Square is huge, all these shots were taken from the same place, give or take a few feet, but it does take serious refining."

To see more of David's work, visit his website: www.davidclapp.co.uk

 

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- Partner Content - 

 

The EOS RF mount’s inner diameter is 54mm, which is the same as the EOS EF mount. But with no reflex mirror, the back focus distance of the mirrorless mount is much shorter, which makes new lens designs possible.

 

The full frame or 36x24mm format became popular for stills photography around 100 years ago, with Leica leading the way in the 3:2 format’s growth. Later in 1934, Kodak gave the format a huge lift by introducing the pre-loaded 135 film cassette.

In the early days of digital system cameras, full-frame took a backseat as consumer models adopted the APS-C format, but it wasn’t long before it caught up. The full-frame Canon EOS 5D arrived in 2005, just two years after the APS-C format EOS 300D, the first consumer-level digital DSLR.

 

The relatively low lit interior of IWM Duxford was not an issue for the EOS R with its good high ISO skills. The exposure was 1/160 sec at f/8 using ISO 25,600 and the noticeable noise vanished after treatment with Adobe Lightroom’s denoise tool. Image by Will Cheung.

 

Canon’s full-frame mirrorless journey started with the EOS R, which was released in 2018. Despite its vintage in digital camera terms, it remains a capable model with much to commend it, and that’s why we have based our £2000 full-frame kit on it.

MPB has excellent condition samples of the EOS R in the £744-809 price range. That compares with current Canon full-frame models; the 26.2 megapixel EOS RP is £1049 and the 24.2 megapixel EOS R8 is £1629 (all body only prices). Of course, those two cameras are more recent and thus offer superior performance in some areas, but nevertheless the EOS R has plenty going for it.

At the EOS R’s heart is a 30.3 megapixel Dual Pixel CMOS AF sensor, which uses advanced phase detection with 5655 AF positions (in single point AF mode) for quick and accurate autofocus for stills and video, even in challenging lighting conditions.  

The EOS RF lens mount plays a significant part in the impressive AF performance of all EOS R cameras. With 12-pin connections compared with the 8-pins of the EOS EF mount, that allows faster communication and data transfer. 

Another notable benefit of the new EOS RF mount and its shorter back focus is that EOS EF mount lenses can be used on EOS R mirrorless cameras without losing functionality via an adaptor. With the vast number of EOS EF lenses around, new and used, it means those photographers new to the EOS R system are not limited when it comes to lens choice.

 

In terms of controls and layout the EOS R has a similar design and feel to Canon’s long established and massively popular DSLR cameras.

 

The EOS R saw the debut of the Touch Bar, a customisable touch control. It wasn’t generally well received by reviewers but it has potential once you get used to it.

 

As you’d expect, image quality out of the EOS R is first-rate, typically Canon with a rich but lifelike colour rendition and low levels of noise at all speeds until you get to ISO 3200 and beyond. Images shot at ISO 1600 and 3200 are very smooth and raws look great even without denoising. In fact, even shots taken at ISO 25,600 can recover very nicely with software denoising and fine detail isn’t too badly impacted, which is a remarkable performance given the extreme ISO.

Let’s move on to lens choice. Since the RF system’s arrival, Canon has progressed quickly on its lens system and there’s an extensive range to choose from. There are a few gaps and many of Canon’s RF lenses are beyond our theoretical budget, which limits our options. Also, right now there are no third party autofocus options for Canon’s full-frame mirrorless cameras, which is a negative point to bear in mind, although, hopefully, this might change in time.

For our £2000 full-frame outfit, we have spent £744 on a decent condition EOS R body, which leaves £1256 for lenses. Naturally, it is a matter of personal taste but with Canon’s RF lenses, there is the possibility of going for primes or zooms or a combination of the two types.

 

Raw files from the EOS R have plenty of scope when it comes to recovering highlights and shadows in editing software. Shot with the RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM on the EOS R using an exposure of 1/200sec at f/4 and ISO 3200. Image by Will Cheung.

 

In terms of primes in our price range, there is a good choice in the wide-angle and standard focal lengths but at telephoto, there is just the RF 85mm f/2 Macro, which from MPB costs in the range of £434-469. Add the RF 24mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM at £524 and RF 50mm f/1.8 STM £159-189, and you have a good three prime lens kit that is photographically reasonably versatile with the benefit of fast apertures and comes within our budget.

If having a more powerful telephoto lens is important, a mix of primes and zooms would work. For example, our £1256 budget would allow the RF 28mm f/2.8 STM, RF 50mm f/1.8 STM and RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM. At current MPB prices, that trio would cost around £1024, which leaves enough for protection filters and a spare camera battery. Such an outfit would be portable and suit a wide range of subject genres.

For maximum flexibility, there’s the option of a three lens zoom outfit. Taking the RF 15-30mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM, RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS STM and RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM at MPB’s used prices – going for good condition samples – that powerful three lens outfit would cost in the order of £1227. While the maximum apertures of these three zooms are nothing special, that is offset by having focal length coverage from 15mm ultra-wide to 400mm telephoto, which means a very broad range of subjects can be covered.

 

The RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM is a great photographic all-rounder. The interior of Peterborough Cathedral was taken with a handheld EOS R using an exposure of 1/15sec at f/4 and ISO 200. Image by Will Cheung.

 

A final option to consider is to keep it simple and just go for one lens to partner the EOS R. A used RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM from MPB would cost £729, leaving enough for a few accessories. The other single zoom option is the RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM. Of all the zooms discussed here, this is probably the most capable performer and it’s priced accordingly, £764-1079 from MPB, but it’s still comfortably within our budget with funds left over for a protection filter and a nice bag. 

MPB’s vast stock of used imaging gear is checked over by experts, comes with a free 12 month warranty and each item is individually photographed, so what you see on its website is what you get. With MPB’s help, buying a versatile full-frame outfit with our £2000 budget is no problem, and there are many options when it comes to deciding which optics to go for.

 

With the EOS R’s 30.3 megapixel resolution there’s ample potential for large prints and cropping without software interpolation. The exposure was 1/400sec at f/6.3 and ISO 100. Image by Will Cheung.

 

At a glance: Canon EOS R

 

Announced 2018 Sensor 30.3 megapixels, Dual Pixel CMOS Format 36x24mm, 6720x4480pixels ISO range 100-40,000 (expansion to ISO 50, 51,200, 102,400) Continous shooting 8fps, 5fps with AE/AF tracking Video 4K UHD, Full HD Weather sealing Yes MPB price range EOS R body, excellent condition £744-809

 

The EOS R’s compact body feels great in the hands and the contoured handgrip allows a secure hold and key controls are readily accessible.

 

 

 

News from MPB: Shoot creative wide aperture landscapes and hone your nature photography skills

MPB is the world’s largest retail platform for imaging gear but it offers so much more with buying guides, interviews with experts, videos and podcasts and technique advice. 

Two recently published features on MPB’s website cover two hugely popular genres, landscape and nature. 

In Learn: Top 5 Tips for Nature Photography Beginners, MPB chats with five leading exponents of the genre. Aimed at newcomers to the subject, there’s plenty to get you on the road to successful photos with essential camera and technique advice. Click here to enjoy this feature. 

Traditionally, landscape photography is all about small f/stops and extensive depth-of-field but this MPB feature breaks convention and looks at the creative potential of shooting with fast aperture lenses. Outdoor shooter James Popsys shows what can be achieved with two f/1.4 prime lenses so check out his technique-packed feature here.

 

MPB Explained

You need kit to take photographs and produce videos, and taking the used route is a cost-effective way of making the most of your budget and keeping up with the latest developments in imaging technology.

MPB is one of the biggest used retailers with bases in the UK, Germany and the USA.

Trading with MPB the process is fair, safe, painless and incredibly easy.

Whether you have kit to sell, want to make a purchase or part exchange, start by going to the MPB website which is intuitive and straightforward to use.

If you have kit to trade, just start typing the name in and a list of suggestions from MPB’s huge database will appear. If a name on that list matches your product click on it and add its condition; if not, continue typing in the whole name and condition.

It’s worth bearing in mind that MPB’s database covers much more than cameras and lenses so if you have, for example, a photo backpack, tripod or filters to sell these can be shown as you type in their name too.

With all your kit listed, add contact details and a quote will appear in your inbox soon afterwards, although manually entered items will take one working day.

If you are happy with the quote, accept it and follow the instructions to get the kit ready for courier collection on a day to suit you. For higher-value deals, an MPB account manager will also be in touch, so you have a personal point of contact if you have any queries.

Once received by MPB, you will get a notification and after checking by its product specialists you will receive a final quote. This can vary from the original quote if there is a missing item —like a battery not being supplied—or your assessed condition differs from the actual condition.

A quote can go down, but it can also increase if the kit’s condition is better than your assessment.

The whole process doesn’t take long and MPB are in touch by e-mail at every step so you’re never in the dark, and only when you are totally happy with the deal, pass on your payment details or pay the balance in the case of part-exchange. Either way, the money or your new kit will be with you soon after.

Get A Quote From MPB Today

 

About MPB

• MPB is the largest global platform to buy, sell and trade used photo and video kit.
• MPB is the simple, safe and circular way to trade, upgrade and get paid.
• MPB is not a marketplace, instead buying directly from visual storytellers and evaluating all items before reselling MPB-approved kit.
• MPB's dynamic pricing engine provides the right price upfront for all items.
• Circularity is at the centre of MPB, promoting sustainability, diversity and inclusion in everything they do.
• MPB prioritises inclusive recruitment and supports employees with extensive training and development. They promote inclusive visual storytelling and an inclusive circular economy.
• MPB's business model is 100% circular. All packaging is 100% plastic-free. Their cloud-based platform uses 100% renewable electricity.
• MPB recirculates more than 570,000 products annually
• MPB provides first-class customer service. Customers can receive support through their Help Centre or by speaking directly with a kit expert.
• MPB's product specialists are trusted by thousands of visual storytellers in the UK.
• MPB is rated ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot with over 37,000 reviews.

Visit The MPB Website

 

To help you give your urban photography an abstract feel, here are 8 top tips on what, how and where to take your photos when out exploring a town or city. 

 

1. Focus On What's Interesting

When you find something that catches your eye, think about how you can compose the shot to take the subject away from its surroundings so it becomes abstract rather than a great city shot with several interesting elements. The key to capturing an image that works is to create an image out of something ordinary that you wouldn't normally see while still creating an appealing shot.

 

2. More Than One Point Of Interest

When you have a subject that has multiple points of interest you have the opportunity to capture various elements, some which may not have seemed so obvious as working in an abstract way at the start.

 

3. Create Scale

Just because you're capturing abstracts doesn't mean you always have to work up-close. Think of it as cropping out unwanted elements rather than using your lens to zoom in. Use surrounding elements to emphasise size but still frame the image so the building's surroundings are removed, giving emphasis to its shapes and patterns rather than it having context. 

 

4. Use Colour

By using a single bright colour in a shot that's mostly of the same shades can give the viewer of the image a point of focus that can also be used to guide and lead the eye to other points in the shot. This is even more so when the area is limited and contrasts so greatly with the rest of the image. Strong blocks of colour can also work well but you don't want one to overpower the other so the viewer doesn't pay attention to the rest of the frame. 

 

 

5. Look For Shadows 

This isn't something our eyes tend to see but when arranged in the frame properly, they can be a great subject matter on their own or enhance the shapes/patterns of an object you're making your point of focus. 

 

6. Lines Work Well

 If you want to use lines in your image, try to find a location that gives you a shot that has lines that vary in size and colour. Bolder lines can have more impact than small, faint ones and do remember they will still guide the eye through the shot and tell the viewer where they should be looking. Don't think lines have to be straight either as a curved line will still guide the viewer's eye. 

 

7. Shoot Through Other Objects

If you find a rain-covered window or even a water feature that can be used to capture a distorted reflection thanks to the ripples in the water, use them to your advantage. Keep an eye out for coloured glass, reflective buildings and any other items you think will give your city shots that abstract feel you're searching for. 

 

8. People Like Patterns & Symmetry 

As humans, we like to see repeating patterns and symmetrical objects so take advantage of this. Patterns can guide the eye across an image as well as make your abstract shot more interesting thanks to the shapes they create. 

 

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Summer feels like it was made for photography, doesn’t it? The days stretch long, the light is warm, and everywhere you look, colour and energy are waiting to be captured. Whether it’s golden sunsets, sparkling water, lively festivals, or family adventures, summer moments deserve to be photographed. Get ready with your phone or camera—every day holds a frame-worthy memory waiting to be preserved and enjoyed.

However, as magical as summer light can be, it also presents challenges. Bright sunshine can cast harsh shadows, create faded skies, or produce unnatural skin tones. Look to Zoner Studio with its sensational editing tools, and you’ll find that tricky lighting conditions become easy to handle. 

With just a few clicks in the Zoner Studio interface, you can recover detail in bright highlights, lift shadows, and balance colours. Use the lights and shadows sliders and gradient filters to adjust white balance and sharpness. Built-in presets and retouching tools assist with everything from exposure correction to removing backgrounds, letting you transform your images without spending hours at the computer. 

 

 

Let’s look at the Color Reconstruction slider, for example. Take that recent beach shot of the family that lost its detail due to overexposure. Darken light areas, highlight contours, adjust brightness and contrast, and more, all with this easy-to-use tool. Then, that shot will soon be a treasured capture of a fun-filled holiday. This fantastic photo enhancement tool can be used on photos shot in RAW and only for those with blowouts.

Want to recover shadows, tone down bright areas, or fine-tune lights and shadows even more? If you’re working with RAW files, you’ll get the best results. Use the Black Point and White Point sliders to fine-tune contrast, the Lights and Shadows sliders in the Dynamic Range panel (these let you recover details in bright skies or dark areas without affecting the whole photo). Or simply adjust the Contrast slider for a broader effect. These tools help you balance your photo while bringing out highlights, colours, and details in the shadows. The Dynamic Range panel will allow even finer control.

 

 

Taking lots of photos is part of summer fun with its holidays and sightseeing ventures. This can also mean ending up with hundreds—sometimes thousands—of images. Sorting through them can feel overwhelming; allow Zoner Studio to make the culling process painless. Perhaps you're a professional photographer, looking for a fast workflow to process those magnificent wedding photos. Zoner Studio is the ideal solution.

Do you want to quickly spot your best work while filtering out duplicates or weaker shots? A terrific side-by-side comparison feature allows you to review images such as versions of the same beach wedding ceremony sunset and instantly choose the one you prefer. Customisable workflows and keyboard shortcuts will have you organising your photos in minutes. Use Zoner Studio’s autostacking function to group similar images, including continuous mode and your favourite panoramas. Click the Autostacking icon in the Navigation toolbar, where you’ll open the Autostack options, such as Exposure Bracketing and Panorama.

Once your photos are ready, storing them safely is just as essential a task as editing. Zoner Studio makes the entire process straightforward and enjoyable. With Zoner Cloud, you can upload images straight from Zoner Studio. Your favourite photos will be kept secure and neatly organised while making them accessible on any device. Whether it’s your summer vacation album, a handful of beach day shots, or an entire series of wedding day images, your photos are always backed up and within quick reach. 

 

 

How can Zoner Studio help you save your images easily and permanently? Zonerama—Zoner Studio’s innovative free online gallery—allows you to display your work without using up valuable storage space, as there’s no space limit with this gallery. View your stored albums privately, with family, or share them with your clients; share or show only what you want, the choice is entirely up to you. 

At the end of the day, summer is about capturing life’s brightest, most colourful moments, and having the right tools makes all the difference. Named EISA Photo Software 2025–2026 Best Photo Software of the Year, Zoner Studio is your ultimate companion for editing, organising, storing, and sharing. This summer, use Zoner Studio to help your creativity shine. Turn your experiences into fabulous memories you can view over and over. You can try it for a week, no strings attached here.

 

Always an interesting subject for photographers, standing stones and stone circles have fascinated people for centuries; but what is the best way to photograph them?

 

1. Lighting

Although standing stones change little through the day, the prime factors for photographing standing stones are lighting, atmosphere and, preferably an absence of people. Lighting can be good at either end of the day, but the absence of people usually restricts the keen photographer to an early start.

 

2. Wide Circles

The problem with many stone circles – including my local circle, Castlerigg, just outside Keswick, is that they are relatively low in height, and very extensive in width – so if you are to include the whole circle, you need a really interesting sky to balance the long, thin foreground. A graduated filter can be of enormous use here, as the stones early in the day may be in fairly low light, but the sky might be three or four stops lighter; without a grad, exposure for the sky will give a very underexposed foreground, conversely, exposure for the foreground will severely overexposed sky. An alternative would be to bracket exposures and join them using HDR software.

Compositionally, it's often best when trying to get the whole circle in either to take a series of overlapping pictures and join them as a panorama or by using a fairly wide lens, to give the foreground stones more dominance in the picture. 

 

3. Focus On A Part Of The Circle

An alternative way of portraying standing stones is by capturing part, rather than the whole. I spend a great deal of time looking at the relationship of the stones with each other, and their background, in order to create a picture that is well balanced. This technique also works well if there are other people present as it is much easier to select a few stones free of people than to wait for the whole circle to clear. This is particularly important if a group of stones – or their background – might benefit from afternoon light when there are more people present.

 

4. Try Black & White

Consider also the best way to portray the stones – whether colour or black & white, unless there is great sky colour present, such as sunrise or sunset, I like the timeless quality of black & white on standing stones, to simplify the image and render them as a set of neutral tones.

So next time you find yourself near a stone circle, set your alarm and capture the timeless quality of these ancient sites.
 

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Image Credit: Nikon

 

Nikon is pleased to announce the release of firmware version 2.00 for its full-frame mirrorless camera, the Nikon Z6III. This marks the first major update since the launch of the Z6III and introduces several features equivalent to those found in the flagship Nikon Z9 and Nikon Z8.

This first major update since the release of the Z6III, with its already incredible high-speed performance, adds the long-awaited [Birds] mode to subject detection, offering an enhanced shooting experience for stills and videos. When [Birds] mode is selected, the camera automatically tracks birds in flight with great precision, keeping them in focus even against complex, high-contrast backgrounds such as forests and rocky mountains.

Firmware version 2.00 also adds the Auto Capture function, enabling automatic shooting under pre-configured conditions, supporting flexible shooting styles tailored to various situations. This allows users to specify the subject type, direction of movement, and shooting distance range to capture previously difficult scenes, such as those that require shooting in places or positions where photographers would disturb their subject.

What's more, for the first time as a Nikon product, the Z6III supports the "Nikon Authenticity Service", a solution primarily aimed at media organisations and creators who require a high level of trustworthiness in their work. The service is compatible with the C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity) standard, clearly recording provenance information from shooting through to editing to ensure greater transparency and reliability of content.

The list of functions made accessible thanks to firmware version 2.00 doesn't end there. The full list, along with access to download, can be found on the Nikon download centre.

Nikon will continue to enhance its products through firmware updates that address user needs, while also fostering an environment in which all photographers and creators can engage in creative and professional activities with confidence and peace of mind.

For more information, please visit the Nikon website.