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ISSUE#06

The definitive guide to better photos

132 pages of photo ideas, reviews and image-editing tips inside!

2 2 AVOID PHOTO MISTAKES 2 6 WEB ALBUM PROGRAMS RATED GET INSPIRED BY SPRING! 50 TOP CAMERAS TESTED

Our springtime best buys revealed inside

Exposure, parallax, composition & focus problems banished!

Discover the best in our definitive review

It’s time to go outdoors! We reveal everything you need to take better people, nature and wildlife photos

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The UK’s No.1 IT and Technology online retailer

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Rob Mead Acting Editor Rob’s been writing about technology for the past eight years, his work having appeared in T3, Digital Home, The Mail On Sunday and FHM

8

Andrea Thompson Deputy Editor Andrea is the newest member of our team. She is a trained photographer and has worked on photography magazines for several years

8

Ed Davis Our award-winning digital darkroom expert has years of commercial photography experience and is a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals

8

Tim Daly Photographer and writer Tim is one of the UK’s leading digital photography experts. He’s written numerous books on the subject and his photographs have been exhibited across Europe

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Steve Bavister Photographer and editor Steve is one of the UK’s best-known photographic writers, having edited and published Practical Photography in the past. He now writes for a variety of photography mags Derek Lea Digital artist and contributor to the New Masters of Photoshop. Derek has one numerous awards for his work and has written this month’s Photo Surrealism project .Aidan O’Rourke Technical expert Aidan is a contributor to the Manchester Evening News. He lectures on digital photography around the UK Mark Harris Photographer and journalist Mark has been writing about photography for over ten years and has performed product testing duties at both Which and T3. This month he looks at web photo album software

;

ISSUE 7 ON SALE 10TH APRIL

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MEET YOUR TEAM

STARTHERE Welcome… T

he arrival of spring is always a welcome sight for photographers. After months cooped up at home, we can finally venture outdoors and explore the riot of colour and new life that surrounds us. This month’s cover feature gives you the inside track on making the most of the opportunities that spring brings, from shooting outdoor portraits to capturing extreme close-ups using your digital camera’s macro capabilities. Try out the techniques explored on page 16 and I’m confident that you won’t be disappointed with the results. Don’t forget we’d love to see any pictures you take – simply email them to [email protected] and we’ll print our favourites in the next issue. Elsewhere in the mag you’ll find plenty of tips and techniques for improving your photos, from basic composition, exposure and lighting problems (page 79) to enhancing your images post-shoot using Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro (page 57). And if you fancy posting your pics on the web for your friends and relations to see, we’ve tested eight web photo album packages that’ll help you simplify the whole process (page 41). Throughout the issue you’ll also notice that we’ve introduced key links to our website at www.dcmag.co.uk, where you can find out more information about a particular topic, post your own reviews or even join one of the many online discussions in our forum. And don’t forget that if you have a comment about either the magazine or the website, please email us at the address below. We’d love to hear from you. All the best.

Rob Mead, Acting Editor [email protected]

Our promise to our readers

We will show you how to capture and create better pictures, give clear, independent buying recommendations on the latest kit, and deliver two CDs or one DVD packed with the best PC software. We use boxes, tips, quick fixes, quality photography, walkthroughs and diagrams to show you how to improve your photographic and image-editing skills We have a cast-iron policy of editorial independence. All our kit is reviewed assold. We discourage our journalists from accepting gifts from advertisers. We welcome your opinions on the magazine, ideas for articles, photography, thoughts and questions. Send them in today – see the email addresses below.

c

Departments

We want your letters, ideas, photography, articles, tips and more! Write in today to the following areas: Issues with your discs [email protected] Your letters [email protected] Photos for our galleries [email protected] Events, ideas, places to visit [email protected] Camera/photo help and advice [email protected] Articles/ideas for publication [email protected] Visit our website today! www.digitalcameramagazine.co.uk Customer services/subscriptions [email protected]

2 HOW WE RETOUCHED THE COVER IMAGE

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The original picture of our cover model had way too much magenta, although there was no detail in the yellow channel at all. To fix the problem in Photoshop, we took image data out of the magenta channel and added yellow to alter the girl’s flesh tones to make her look more natural. We then flipped the image so the girl’s face was on the right side of the page, giving us room to add our coverlines and make space for this month’s outer bag. The gap on the left side was filled by cloning the grass and flowers to achieve the final result.

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

005

Contents DCM#06 What’s hot inside your magazine this April

GET INSPIRED BY SPRING! Everything you need to know about taking people, nature and wildlife photos ■ Capture the natural world ■ Bring the colours in those early blooms to life ■ Improve your outdoor portrait shots

STARTS PAGE

16 PAGE 58

Photo surrealism We show you how to create this amazing alien image using Photoshop layers, masks and tools – just follow our step-by-step guide

Getup&Go* More inspirational places for you to visit with your camera – from the gothic splendour of Whitby Abbey to Cape Cornwall

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

Give an illusion of depth with blurring effects and colour enhancement

PAGE

* UK editions only

006

Create 3D effects in PSP7

PULL OUT SECTION – FIND IT AFTER p66

72

22 HOT SHOTS PAGE 08

Kit reviews The UK’s definitive reviews package every month

HP PHOTOSMART 850 p26

Your coverdiscs

MINOLTA DIMAGE F300 p28

The most comprehensive mediamanagement software on the market FUJIFILM FINEPIX S602 PRO p32

Organise your photos, sounds and videos and share them across different networks and platforms ON DISC 1

SIGMA SD-9 p34

SIX FLASHGUNS p38

Your images 21 pages of image-editing tips

SOLVING FLASH PROBLEMS p68

PHOTO CLINIC REJUVENATION p64

MAKE PEOPLE LOOK CAMERA YOUNGER IN PSP p74 TECHNIQUES p80

FULL Extensis Portfolio 5.0 desktop edition, PC/Mac DEMO Extensis Portfolio 6.0 (PC) TOURS 5 x 3D tours TEST SHOTS main cameras VIDEO TUTORIALS Imageediting techniques

95

PAGE

ON DISC 2

FULL Breeze browser 1.4b (PC) FULL iView Media LE (Mac) DEMO iView Media Pro (Mac) DEMO Breeze Browser 2.4c (PC)

ON DVD

FULL ThumbsPlus 3.3 (PC) DEMO Photoshop 7 (Mac) DEMO Deneba Canvas 8 (Mac) PLUS all the software on the CD edition discs!

Regulars EYEWITNESS Hotshots gallery Frontline news

p08 p12

YOUR PHOTOS & LETTERS Trailblazers Day in the life Viewfinder

p48 p50 p53

OFFERS Subscribe! Upgrade your software

p76 p95

GETUP&GO Pullout section

THIS ISSUE WE SHOW YOU HOW TO…

Extensis Portfolio 5 OLYMPUS C-5050 ZOOM p30

TRAILBLAZERS PAGE 48

HELP AND ADVICE Photo Clinic Your questions answered

p64 p84

FOLD-OUT SECTION AFTER PAGE 66 North Yorkshire’s monastic trail The gothic glory of Whitby Abbey The magic of Cape Cornwall Steam engines Taking silhouette photos DEALER BANK Suppliers

p102-119

TAKE BETTER PICTURES Capturing the natural world this spring Using light and shadow Choosing the best angles Taking abstract shots Photographing flowers Making the most of spring colours Close focusing Photographing birds Springtime portraits Avoiding common photo mistakes Using Macro lenses for close up shots Exposure control Image diffusion Taking professional portrait photos

p16 p16 p16/17 p18 p19 p19 p20 p20 p21 p80 p82 p84 p85 p86

IMPROVE YOUR IMAGE-EDITING SKILLS Using Photoshop to create a surreal image Restore a ripped/stained photo Correcting flash errors in Elements Using Photoshop filters Simple 3D effects in Paint Shop Pro Making people look younger in Paint Shop Pro

p58 p64 p68 p70 p72 p74

USE YOUR PC BETTER Bitmap, JPEG and TIFF image files explained Converting image files Freeware image-editing tools online Using watercolour paper for prints

p90 p91 p92 p94

HOTSHOTSTURNOVER Every issue, we print the best digital photography we can find. Turn over now and see some of the shots that have inspired us this issue…

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DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

007

Hotshots Images with impact

SHOT OF THE MONTH BIRD OF PARADISE Frank Whittle “The picture is of some bird of paradise flowers, taken last summer on what is known as the Balcon de Europa, in Nerja, Spain.” FujiFilm FinePix 602 [e] [email protected]

02 03

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WIRED ICE Faye White “I took this shot when wire, which is used to keep leaves from falling into a garden fountain basin, became encased in ice.” FujiFilm S2 Pro [w] www.pbase.com/fayewhite

03

LIFEGUARD STATION Richard Hughes “Taken on New Brighton Beach, Merseyside.”

Nikon D100 [e] [email protected]

04

REFLECTIONS Colin Spencer “Taken in the Dordogne, France.”

Nikon CoolPix 5700 [e] [email protected]

05

TUMBLING (II) June Marie Sobrito Minolta Dimage 7

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

009

2ProfileMe and my camera JAMES WILSON www.wilsonpictures.co.uk

James started his career as a professional photographer after working as an assistant to a fashion photographer in Italy. On his return to the UK, he worked as a press photographer for a local newspaper. James’s career soon progressed and he started working for the national press through a local press agency. "It was at this point that I was introduced to digital cameras and started to use a Nikon D1. From that moment my approach to photography completely changed. I have not looked back – I love the spontaneity, the post-production using Photoshop and the way that photography has become accessible to everyone"

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James decided to undertake a post graduate course in photography. This enabled him to make the move from press to editorial/ studio photography. "I was fortunate enough to be offered a job in a studio for a major publisher. This studio championed the use of digital cameras and is now fully digital."

@

NOW SEND US YOURS!

Email us a 100K JPEG thumbnail of your best shots! Please remember to include your name, the title of the shot and the digital camera you used.

[email protected] 01

ICE HOCKEY

02

Nikon D1, 80-200 lens at f2.8/250 shutter speed

03

LIZARD

© INS News Group ltd

Nikon D1, 17-35 lens up against a reptile tank

010

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

SARAH Nikon D1, super wide-angle lens, fill-in flash

04

FLOODS Nikon D1, 80-200 lens on 2,000sec shutter speed

04

Frontline

NIKON COOLPIX SQ Nikon launches three new compact models ■ See below

BEHIND THE IMAGE: ANTI WAR PROTESTS

THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY?

We look around the world ■ See page 13

A camera in your sunglasses ■ see page 14

Send in your news! Email us today at [email protected]

Coolpix trio from Nikon

QUICK SHOTS DCM EXPERT’S AWARD WIN Our resident photo retouching expert, Ed Davis, has picked up two gongs at a recent awards ceremony in LA. Ed, who helps revive old and damaged photos for our readers, was presented with two Guru awards by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. You can witness the transformative effect of his powers on page 64.

Nikon crams high-end technology into a compact

THE SQ FEATURES A FAST BOOTUP TIME OF LESS THAN A SECOND, COLOUR BALANCED MATRIX METERING AND MULTIAREA AUTOFOCUS

N

ikon has launched three new Coolpix cameras aimed at the highly competitive compact market. Leading the charge is the rather quirkily styled SQ which features a remodelled swivel lens, making it easy to shoot your subjects from any angle. Nikon claims that the all-metal body SQ features technology previously only offered in its high-end digital SLRs, including a fast boot-up time of less than one second, colour balanced matrix metering and multi-area autofocus. Based around a 1/2.7-inch CCD offering a 3x optical zoom lens with a focusing range equivalent to 37-111mm in a 35mm camera. Nikon is making great claims for the SQ’s flash too which has a shooting range of 5m for wide angle shots and 3m for telephoto. The camera also comes with 15 preset or program modes which optimise the camera’s shutter and aperture settings for certain lighting conditions, and a USB docking station for speedy transfer of your pics from camera to

PHOTOSHOP IN THE RAW

computer. The SQ is available now for £350. Accompanying the SQ are cheaper models – the Coolpix 2100 and 3100, priced at £200 and £280 respectively. Although both cameras eschew the SQ’s aesthetic in favour of a more conventional design, they’re still stacked with spec, including 3x optical zoom lenses, 14 program modes and a 640 x 480 AVI movie mode – something each model shares with the more expensive SQ. As you’d expect, the Coolpix 2100 has the lower image resolution of the two, offering 2-megapixel images from its CCD, while the 3100 delivers 3.2megapixels, enabling you to print pictures up to B4 in side. All three cameras come with ‘small picture’ mode which enables you to create highly compressed images for sending via email or posting on the web. For more info, go to www.dcmag.co.uk.

Adobe has launched a new Photoshop 7 plug-in that enables you to import RAW files direct from your digital camera. The plug-in enables you to handle the image like a photo negative – free of the adjustments normally made in camera when saving an image as a JPEG or TIFF file. With RAW capability built into increasing numbers of cameras this looks like a timely release. For more information, go to www.adobe.co.uk

PENTAX SHOWS ITS METAL Pentax has launched a trio of stylish aluminium alloy cameras. The 5MP Optio 550 and 4MP Optio 450 both have 5x optical zooms, while the 3MP Optio 33L has a tilt and swivel LCD.

Digital Camera Shopper launch Mag hits the shelves 24th April Whether you’re splashing out on new kit or just looking to upgrade what you’ve got, then don’t miss LAUNCH out on the very first issue of Digital Camera Shopper. Brought to you by the makers of Digital Camera Magazine, it’s a complete, one-stop buyers’ bible for all your digital photography equipment needs. Our independent experts provide in-depth reviews and group tests, plus news of the hottest new compacts, SLRs, software, printers, flashguns, lenses and more. There’s an exhaustive buyers’ guide to help you compare prices and specs. Whether you’re an absolute beginner or a seasoned pro, Digital Camera Shopper will help you find the right kit for your budget. In the shops from 24th April, priced at £4.99, you can find out more at www.dcmag.co.uk

2 3 Best sellers Information supplied by www.dabs.com

Best Seller Canon PowerShot A40 £210 Sub-£100 Logitech Pocket Digital £88 Sub-£300 Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P72 £260 Sub-£800 Canon PowerShot G3 £598

Hi-fi cameras from FujiFilm FujiFilm has finally launched a brace of new cameras that use its fourth generation Super CCD HARDWARE technology, revealed last month. The first of the cameras – the FinePix F700 – comes with the company’s doublehoneycomb Super CCD SR chip which uses two 3.1-megapixel photosites to deliver extra dynamic range with your shots. This ‘high-fidelity’ camera offers an interpolated image resolution of 6.03 million pixels and also features a Super EBC Fujinon 3x optical zoom lens, AVI movie mode and the

ability to store images on the supplied x-D Picture card as uncompressed RAW files for maximum picture quality. Somewhat confusingly, FujiFilm’s second camera, the FinePix F410 also offers an effective resolution of 6-megapixels, but uses only a single 3.1-megapixel Super CCD HR chip to create your images instead. The camera offers similar spec to the F700, including a 3x optical zoom, movie mode and the ability to save digital images in the uncompressed raw format. Both cameras will be available late spring, although pricing has still to be confirmed. For more, go to www.fujifilm.co.uk

Image-editing made easy Roxio launches updated version of its PhotoSuite Platinum software

Historic day of protest against war on Iraq saw thousands of people take to the streets in major cities on every continent

Roxio PhotoSuite Platinum 5 offers fully automated image correction for beginners with a suite of tools, SOFTWARE layers and palettes for more advanced users. Key features include a Red Eye Remover and the ability to create photo and video CDs directly from within the application. There’s an enhanced stitch mode for creating panoramics, a collage creator for making cards, image organisational tools and a variety of printing and sharing options. Available now for Windows XP and Mac OS X, it;s priced at £50. To find out more, go www.roxio.co.uk

The time: 15th Feb 2003 The Place: London, Glasgow, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Athens, Berlin, Brazil, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Damascus, Sydney, Tokyo, Moscow, Dublin, Delhi Over one million Britons took to the streets of London 15th February, to join hundreds of thousands more around the world, in a global day of protest against war on Iraq. With these numbers dwarfing the Countryside Alliance march last September and even the infamous poll tax riots of the 1980s, this demonstration was officially Britain’s biggest ever peace rally. Organised by the Stop the War Coalition, the London march featured nuns, schoolchildren and celebrities, drawing groups as diverse as Archaeologists Against War and the Bristol Samba Society. Popular banners included “Make tea not war” and old favourite “Make Love Not War,” One million marched through Rome and hung peace flags on the Colosseum, while protesters in West Palm Beach, Florida got naked and anarchists in Athens clashed with police. From Bulgaria to Brazil people took to the streets in their thousands, on a scale not seen since the era of the Vietnam war.

WIDEANGLE What’s happening around the world GREAT BRITAIN

DO YOU PICTURE MESSAGE? Taking photos is fast becoming one of the UK’s most popular pastimes, thanks to booming sales of mobile camera phones. Mobile networks O2 and Vodafone have already signed up over 200,000 users, and web photo sites are being swamped by demand from picture messagers who want to post pictures online for their non-camera phone owning friends. Even pro photographers are getting in on the act, with shoots from fashion shows and celebrity events all being taken

on camera phones. However, the two most popular subjects for image-taking are pets and the drunken antics of pub-dwellers. USA

CALLING ALL CARDS… Gateway has launched the world’s first laptop with 6-in-1 memory card reader. The reader adds $50 to the $1,099 asking price, but you have to sacrifice your floppy drive to accommodate it. The 400L joins other card reading laptops from Sony and Toshiba, which can usually only handle a couple of proprietary formats.

Behindtheimage

New CCD technology hits the market in a double honeycomb chip

© SIPA PRESS/WWW.REXFEATURES.COM 2003

TALKBACK

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Tell us what you think! Our website forums at dcmag.co.uk are just the place. Add your comments, ideas and more and join the Digital Camera Magazine club!

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DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

013

HP unveils always-on future In a few years’ time, you might have a digital camera in your sunglasses. HP Research in Bristol is calling it the Casual Capture concept

8

THE EASYSHARE 6000 ENABLES YOU TO OUTPUT PHOTOS FROM YOUR CAMERA AT THE PRESS OF A SINGLE BUTTON

8

If you’re happy to buy a cheap pair of sunglasses whenever you go for a holiday in the sun, HP is hoping to change your mind. The company’s Bristol-based TECHNOLOGY research laboratory is working on a set of shades that incorporate a tiny digital camera, able to take shots without conscious effort on your part. It’s only a prototype at the moment, but it’s part of the firm’s ambitious plans for a world where ‘casual capture’ is a part of everyone’s life. The concept of casual capture is based around the idea that in the future, we won’t be carrying a dedicated digital camera round with us to take snaps with. Instead, we’ll have one (or probably more) wearable camera, which constantly takes pictures of whatever we’re doing, without us telling it to. “It might be in your sunglasses,” says Andy. “Or in the lapel or buttons of your shirt, or in a badge that you’re wearing.” The reason the department has focused on sunglasses for its first prototype wearable camera is their inherent advantage – they generally point in whatever direction you’re looking, so can capture events, people or landscapes that have grabbed your attention. Of course, the result will be hundreds of pictures at the end of each day. Storage won’t be a problem – by the time this technology becomes available, the average person will have many terabytes of personal storage space to play with. But how will you sort through all these images to pick out ones you like? HP is working on that too. The answer will be software that can do the hard work for you, identifying the best shots according to their composition, or even by recognising familiar faces. “You then might have a dynamic screen that plays a constant slideshow of your images, or even a printer that basically prints you a glossy magazine full of images of your wedding day, or holiday or whatever,” he says.

STORAGE WON’T BE A PROBLEM SINCE THE AVERAGE PERSON WILL HAVE MANY TERABYTES OF STORAGE SPACE TO PLAY WITH

“The system might even be able to digitally zoom in on shots to give them better composition.” The other main element of casual capture is that you’ll be part of the action, rather than a photographer standing apart from it. Think of all those parents who spend more time pointing a camera at their toddler than actually playing with them, or the fact that if you’re taking loads of snaps on a big night out, you’re probably not enjoying it as much as if you’d left the camera at home. According to Andy, casual capture will also ensure you’re always able to get images of those one-off moments that you wouldn’t preserve otherwise. “It’s not about having one picture that you stick on your mantelpiece and that sums up a day,” he says. “Although we’ll still do that, and still go to studios and have a posed picture taken occasionally. But what you often want to capture is that glint in somebody’s eye at a very special moment, or a smile on a child’s face. It’s the spontaneous moments where you wouldn’t have time to get your camera out to take a picture of.” If you ask us, casual capture sounds like a great idea, and we can’t wait to get hold of a pair of those sunglasses. But aren’t there privacy issues if everyone’s walking around with tiny wearable cameras? HP is taking that into account too. “It certainly has to be considered,” says Andy. “You can imagine legislation being brought out that says that all cameras in public spaces must be able to respond to some sort of wireless interrogation that asks if the camera is on, and who its owner is.” However, Andy also thinks casual capture could have a positive side, with possible legislation requiring it for the police, surgeons and firemen. You might even have cameras operating in your car to provide evidence in the event of an accident. “There are positive, serious uses,” says Andy. “But it’s about the fun stuff too.”

Kodak’s dock printer Hassle-free, computer-less printing from the digital imaging experts Kodak’s has taken its EasyShare digital camera dock concept one logical step further and incorporated HARDWARE it into its next-gen photo printers. Previously offered as an optional extra for the company’s digital cameras, the dock offered onetouch transfer of your photos from camera to PC and also provided a convenient means of recharging the camera’s battery. Now incorporated into the Kodak EasyShare 6000 printer (pictured) the dock enables you to output photos from the camera at the press of a

single button with borderless 4 x 6-inch prints taking less than 90 seconds to complete. The 6000 costs £199, with refill packs – containing enough ink and paper for 40 prints – available for £20. Accompanying the new printer are new 600 and 6000 series EasyShare cameras, which were launched at the PMA show in Las Vegas. Chief among these is the new LS633, the world’s first camera to use OLED display technology. OLED promises to make displays brighter and easy to see in direct sunlight and should use less battery power. For more details, go to www.kodak.com

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COVER FEATURE SPRING PHOTOGRAPHY YOUR GUIDE STEVE BAVISTER Steve is a photographic journalist and freelance photographer. He is editor of The Photographer, a leading magazine for pro photographers, and author of ten books on photography including Digital Photography and Take Better Family Photos

[email protected]

PORTFOLIO STEVE BAVISTER

Springtime! From bulbs to birds and buds, spring is certain to get your sap rising, says Steve Bavister, and your shutter finger snapping

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ike hedgehogs and tortoises, many photographers go into hibernation over the winter months. Short, cold days filled with drab, grey weather hardly inspire you to get out snapping – and somehow the programmes on TV seem a lot more enticing. spring is here at last, and if you’ve been champing at the bit to get outside and start reeling off lots of pictures, now’s your chance. Suddenly everything seems to be coming to life, with bulbs bursting through the ground, buds turning into blossom, and birds doing something beginning with ‘B’. There’s more potential for portraiture as well, as people get out and enjoy the rising temperature, while everywhere you look there’s the opportunity for capturing a fantasticlooking image. Most importantly, there’s a lot more light. Once the clocks have been changed it’s possible to get out and do a couple of hours photography after work, without the need for a flash or tripod. And it’s also one of the best times of the year in terms of the quality of light. While there’s not the

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Even the average garden can be a riot of colour and offer a host of possibilities… sheer intensity you can get at the height of summer, neither is there the harshness that often accompanies it. Instead, spring offers a crisp, sharp light that brings subjects to life.

Scenic pictures While winter landscapes can be charming, there’s a muchlimited palette to work with. With more leaves on the trees, green in the fields, and a blaze of flowers and blossom, it’s much easier to come up with successful landscapes in spring. The secret lies in finding the best viewpoint and shooting when the light is right. This time of year the sun doesn’t get too high, but it’s still a good idea to shoot early or late in the day. Not only do you get longer shadows, which help create a sense of depth and mood,

the light also tends to be warmer and create a more atmospheric image. To make the most of the shadows, find a vantage point that looks down on the landscape, and to enhance the three-dimension feel even further, compose the shot so there’s something close to the camera – such as the branches of a tree or an interesting, rocky formation. But you don’t have to travel to remote locations this time of year to come up with great pictures. Even the average garden can be a riot of colour and offer a host of possibilities. Bulbs in particular are associated with spring, and in a walk down any urban street or country lane you’ll be greeted by everything from daffodils and tulips to crocuses and snowdrops – in every colour under the sun.

4 WHY WE CHOSE THIS PICTURE Sun behind subject gives interesting lighting effects

Low shooting angle provides dynamic composition

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ABSTRACT THINKING Don’t just go for obvious springtime subjects – think creatively and look for ways of coming up with something new. Shooting abstracts, for instance, is a great way of pushing the boundaries. Instead of photographing all of a flower, crop in tight so only part of it is seen. Rather than do a study of a flowerbed showing all of it, isolate part of it that has an interesting or unusual design. If you could get close enough, you might even frame a shot of a duck so all you see is the texture of its feathers.

a Shrubs and trees, too, are worth investigating. Vividly composed against a blue sky, blossom looks absolutely fantastic Get down on the ground One of the best ways of capturing flowers is to get down to ground level – even going so far as to lie flat on the floor (make sure you’ve got something waterproof!). This will give you a more pleasing perspective than looking down on them. You’ll be spoilt for choice, so find a clump of flowers that look attractive and which, more importantly, have an attractive backdrop. This could be a traditional dry stone wall or the foliage of an evergreen bush. Avoid messy, complicated backgrounds, unless the flowers are unmissable – in which case you should try and throw them out of focus by choosing a large aperture, if you have exposure control. The most effective way to bring the colours of early blooms to life is by shooting when the sun’s behind them. This means that they become semi-transparent, and display their intricate detail and rich colour.

By and large, stems aren’t very interesting, so be prepared to crop in close and concentrate attention on the flowers themselves. While shots of single heads can be successful, generally a clump works better. Fill the frame with colour by shooting from slightly further away using the telephoto end of your zoom. Shrubs and trees, too, are worth investigating. Vividly composed against a blue sky, blossom looks absolutely fantastic, while lush new foliage positively glows when lit obliquely by sun diffused under fluffy clouds. One of the images that symbolises spring is of buds – and with the close-focusing capabilities available on most digital cameras, they’re easy to capture. Unlike traditional compact cameras, where having a separate viewfinder and lens system makes it difficult to frame the shot accurately at close quarters, the monitor enables you to frame the shot precisely. And most digital cameras these days have startlingly good close-

If you’re looking for more inspiration, check out the book Seeing Landscapes by Charlie Waite (Collins & Brown, ISBN 1855857480) and the RSPB Guide to Bird & Nature Photography by Laurie Campbell (David & Charles, ISBN 0715301276)

2 PARKS AND GARDENS One of the best hunting ground for pictures in spring, is your local park. Councils and local authorities spend thousands of pounds planting huge numbers of bulbs – and the displays when they all come up together can be quite breathtaking. Some beds are all one colour, while others are a riot of different shades and tones. Parks are also home to all manner of wildlife, and it's not unusual to see squirrels and many different kinds of birds. In fact, some even have lakes or wildfowl areas with ducks, geese and more exotic species. Spend a couple of hours in a park on a sunny day and come back with loads of great pictures.

2 Geese are readily accessible in a wide range of locations throughout the spring. Because they are bigger than most garden birds you should have no problem filling the frame with them using the top end of a zoom. To help them stand out find an uncluttered background such as the foliage here, and try to shoot when they are active rather than resting.

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COVER FEATURE SPRING PHOTOGRAPHY

1 FOOD FOR BIRDS Most birds eat a wide variety of foods, depending on how scarce food is in general, and what's available. So if you just put out a mix of seeds, nuts, grain, fruit and fats, you won't go far wrong. But if there are specific species you would like to lure before your lens, try tempting them with their favourite nibbles, as follows: ■ Blackbirds – fruit in general; oatmeal ■ Robins -– grated cheese; cake crumbs; meal worms ■ Wrens – crumbled biscuits ■ Starlings – bread; pasta ■ Green finches – sunflower seeds ■ Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Marsh Tits – peanuts ■ Nuthatches – fat ■ Redwings – chopped apples; pears It's important, of course, always to put out quality food, free from disease or infection. Whenever possible, chop it up finely – maybe by running it briefly through a food processor – so that both birds and their young can feed more easily. In dry weather it can help to wet it first, and birds will always welcome water.

Most digital cameras these days have startlingly good closefocusing capabilities… focusing capabilities – enabling you to get right into your subject for eye-popping compositions.

Careful focusing But care needs to be taken to get the best results. This is especially true when it comes to focusing. The closer you get to your subject the more limited your depth-of-field becomes. In fact, you may only have a few millimetres leeway in front and behind – so make sure you focus on what’s most important. This can be tricky if there’s even the slightest breeze. If you have control over exposure, setting small aperture such as f/11 or f/16 will increase the depth-offield. However, you have to be careful. As soon as you go for apertures like that you’ll see your shutter speeds

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start to tumble. On a sunny day, with an ISO100 setting, the best shutter speed you could hope for at f/16 is 1/125sec – with a fair likelihood of camera-shake if there’s a breeze.

So what do you do? Well you could use flash, which freezes all motion, but can give a harsh effect. Or you could use a higher ISO setting, to give faster shutter speeds and smaller apertures, but with some loss of quality in terms of sharpness and colour saturation. Another option is to get an ‘assistant’ to hold a piece of card alongside the subject as a windshield. If you use white card, this can also double as a reflector, bouncing backlight into shaded areas for a better-balanced effect. For maximum control, though, nothing beats working in a makeshift studio. Spring also heralds the arrival of many kinds of insect into the garden. But while they are marvellous subjects, especially colourful types such as butterflies, bees and dragonflies, they offer all the close-up challenges discussed so far and more besides. The key difference is that the little blighters can move as well, flitting hither

and thither and generally making your life hell. Because insects are sensitive to movement, you need to avoid any jerky actions, and don’t allow your shadow to fall over them. The best technique is to set the camera up on a tripod, focused on a particular bloom that seems to be attracting lots of insects, and then wait patiently. Once a likely candidate lands on your target you can fire away – and then review the shots. You might also want to try your hand at a bit of bird photography. From early spring, when they announce their presence with a dawn chorus, our feathered friends are constant visitors to our gardens – and that’s a good place to start taking pictures of them. Of course, how many birds you get coming depends on a number of factors. The simple way to attract them is to leave them food. Almost any kind will do – to start with put a variety of things out and see what turns up (see the ‘Food for birds’ box above for more information). You can’t just feed them once and expect them to keep turning up, though. The key is regularity and reliability. Birds are lazy at heart, and if they know you’ll have food out they’ll come to you first. You don’t

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Spring is reasonably well represented among titles and sites relating to landscape and wildlife photography. Check out the book, Wild Spring – In Praise of Nature, by Richard Fuller (Swan Hill Press, ISBN1853105732), which captures many of the different faces of spring

2 SPRINGTIME PORTRAITS Spring is a great time for taking pictures of people outdoors. Not only is the weather more pleasant, so people aren’t having to wrap up warm and worry about getting back indoors, the light is bright without being harsh. Because it lacks the intensity of summer, and sits lower in the sky, you get some great results by shooting into-the-light – so your subject’s hair has a halo around it. If the monitor shows the face dark, either use fill-in flash or increase the exposure so it appears well lit. To focus attention on your subject, make sure they’re well away from the background and then use your zoom at its longest setting – adjusting your stance from the person to give the framing you want. That way they’ll stand out almost three-dimensionally from the background.

really want to have the food visible – it will spoil the picture. So you need to hide it, in such a way that it attracts the birds but doesn’t appear in the picture. Hide seeds and grain in nooks and crannies, spread fat along branches, put peanuts and scraps out of sight behind rocks and branches. Remember to think when you’re doing this about where you’ll be shooting from, and what the best background would be. Consider also the direction of light at the time of day you expect to be out snapping.

Where to shoot from The house is the most obvious spot, through glass, if it’s of sufficient quality and clean, or from an open window. Pulling curtains across will help keep you unseen. With some of the tamer species, such as robins, you may be able to sit out in the garden and shoot. Make sure you switch off the flash, because that will send them flying, and you might need to go for a higher ISO setting to arrest any movement. Unless you get golden eagles or herons paying you a visit you’ll obviously need a telephoto lens setting – and you may need to blow up part of the image later in order to fill the frame with the average subject. Depending on whereabouts you live, you may encounter other kinds of wildlife, as animals of all kinds come out of hibernation and become more active. Squirrels, hedgehogs and even foxes can be found in urban as well as rural settings. These are much are harder to photograph, because they tend to be more unpredictable. The key at this time of the year is to keep your camera readily to hand, so you’re prepared for what comes along. There’s one classic spring subject you should have no trouble finding: lambs. Drive into the country over the next couple of month and you’ll see lots of them gambolling in the fields. Often there’s somewhere you can pull over, allowing you to capture a few shots. Sometimes they’re inquisitive and come over; at other times they move away. But if you wait for a

2 EXPERT TIPS ■ Experiment with your apertures to find out what suits a subject best. Sometimes a small aperture, such as f/11 or f/16, with everything sharp, works best; in other situations it's large apertures, such as f/4 or f/5.6, with a limited zone of focus, that give the optimum result. ■ Try shooting a sequence – such as the same spot once a week, to show the effect of spring coming. Or, indoors, a vase of flowers every morning for a period of time to see them. ■ In springtime, riverbanks can be a haven for wildlife such as frogs and toads. See this month’s Getupandgo section and get some tips on the best way to capture our amphibious friends.

while they’ll soon get used to you and come into range. Pictures of them on their own, in pairs, or with their mothers all work well. Any light can be effective, but to capture lambs at their most photogenic find a vantage point that allows you to shoot towards the sun, when the woolly coat will gain a wonderful ‘Ready Brek’ halo. The great thing about spring is that it really gets your creative juices flowing, and encourages you to start snapping again – whatever subject you like to photograph…

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COVER FEATURE SPRING-CLEANING – POST-SHOOT

Gradient filters and the channel mixer Tim Daly shows you two ways to make great prints in Photoshop when tricky lighting leaves you with washed-out colour

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EXPERT TIPS TIM DALY PHOTOSHOP EXPERT

WORKING IN 16-BIT MODE For superior gradients, consider working temporarily in Photoshop’s 16-bit colour mode. With a huge number of extra colours at your disposal, subtle and gradual colour transitions are less likely to band into visibly separate tones. Once complete, it’s essential to convert your image back to 8-bits for printing out.

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pring time is the season for extremes when flat, colourless light can be replaced with burning sunshine before you can change your camera settings. Digital cameras make a good job of coping with these extremes and can do this task much better than film-based cameras. Yet, on return from an inspiring shoot, there’s always the inevitable number of files that are just missing the all-important wow factor. Pale white or washed out sky tones never do your

01

ENHANCE COLOURS TO BE MIXED

04

ADJUST SOURCE CHANNELS

The Channel Mixer can be used to make a dramatic conversion from colour to black and white. Decide which colours you want to make darker and enhance their intensity using the Saturation slider in the Hue/Saturation dialog. Only make a slight increase.

original subjects justice, but they can easily be renovated with two fantastic Photoshop routines designed to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. The Channel Mixer is the most exciting way to remix original image colour, be it from a slide, print or raw file taken straight from a digital camera. Just like re-shooting your original scene on a PC, with the ability to make certain tones more dominant than they were in the first place, the Channel Mixer provides a spectacular way to

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USE AN ADJUSTMENT LAYER

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FINAL TONE CORRECTION

Next, make a Channel Mixer adjustment layer so you can isolate your forthcoming edit from your original background layer. With any adjustment layer, you’ve also got the option of changing your command at a later stage without the risk of posterizing your file.

convert drab colour photographs into exotic black and white. Just like conventional photographic filters, the second technique looks at replacing clear white skies with subtle graduated colour. Introducing ‘foreign’ colour to blank, white image areas can be painfully difficult unless you are a renaissance artist, but with a crafty use of blending modes, a much less fake result can be achieved without spending hours over a complex selection task.

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CONVERT TO MONOCHROME

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WARM UP WITH A TINT

Decide which colour channel you want to edit, then click Monochrome in the dialog box. Here, the Red channel was selected to make blue skies darker. Once clicked, the image will immediately convert to black and white but with a pale and washed out tone.

3 IN DETAIL MAKING A MASTER GRADIENT FILTER FILE A great idea is to make a master filter file by assembling gradients of different colours into separate layers in one image file. Create a new A4-sized document and fill separate layers with different colour gradients such as blue, tobacco, orange and violet. Once completed, the file can remain open on your desktop where you can simply drag the desired colour layer into your pale sky image.

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Next, change the Red Channel to +200, Blue to –50 and Green to –50. The golden rule is to make all three values add up to 100. With each tweak, the tones will shift dramatically between light and dark, but will not balance until the third and final command.

If your results are brighter or darker than anticipated, avoid using the Constant slider in your Channel Mixer dialog, but press OK, then use your Levels sliders on your background layer to redress any problem. Only a slight alteration will be needed.

The final part of the edit is to flatten the image and apply a subtle tint by using the colour balance dialog box. Open it and apply +10 red and +10 yellow in both Midtone and Shadow areas to get the effect you see here.

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If you’re stuck for inspiration, admire the fabulous work of the UK’s best landscape photographer. www.joecornish.com

If you’re planning an Easter break, check out these useful tips from the Kodak website. www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/magazine/ tips/2001_05/

MAKING GRADIENT FILTERS

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NEXT MONTH

MAKE A CAREFUL SELECTION

Open your image and make all tonal corrections before applying the filter. Next, make a selection of your sky area using the magic wand tool until you’ve included all of the white areas. Feather this with a 50 pixel radius.

02

TRAVELLING LIGHT Check out National Geographic photographer Chris Anderson’s travels in China. www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/ anderson/index.html

Use gradient filters and blend modes to saturate the pale areas of your photos with realistic colour

CHOOSE COLOURS

Now pick the Dropper tool from the toolbox. Sample the darkest colour in your sky area to provide a realistic colour for the edit. Open the Colour Picker and press Arrow Down on your keyboard to make your sampled colour slightly more saturated.

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SET UP GRADIENT TOOL PROPERTIES

Next, pick the Gradient tool and make sure that you have the Linear option as shown. Click on the gradient picker and choose the Foreground to Transparency option. If you can’t see it, click on the pop-out menu and do a Reset gradients command.

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EXPERT TIPS TIM DALY PHOTOSHOP EXPERT

SAVING YOUR CHANNEL MIXER FILES

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SET BLENDING MODE AND OPACITY

Click on the tool’s blending modes and select one of two options. To convert clear white skies to blue choose the Multiply blending mode and a 40% opacity. To make light blue skies more saturated, choose the Colour blending mode at 100%.

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DEFINE THE GRADIENT POSITION

Position your gradient tool at the top of the image, click and then drag the tool downwards until you have reached the bottom of your selection. This will produce a clean band of colour which will sit inside your selection area.

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FURTHER APPLICATION

It’s a much better idea to apply successive gentle gradients to the selection area rather than do it in one fell swoop. To prevent your new colour looking false, vary the direction of your gradient slightly by working between opposite corners.

Like many other Photoshop dialog edits, you can opt to save and store your carefully designed Channel Mixer recipes by pressing the Load button in the dialog box. This process creates a tiny data file which can be stored on your hard disk and replayed on any future image projects. Best of all, there’s a worldwide community of Photoshop users who readily share their own individual recipe files over the internet.

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JAN 2003

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SECTION #01

REVIEWS

Section highlights…

DIGITAL CAMERA E MAGAZIN

KIT REVIEW OLYMPUS C-5050 SEE PAGE 30

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The latest digital photo gear, reviewed and rated

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Reviews you can trust!

Our aim is to inform you fully about a product’s best and worst features. To this end, we guarantee each review is Independent: We have a castiron policy of editorial independence. Suppliers never see a review until the magazine hits the newsagent Authoritative: Every review includes the manufacturer’s range, other options, test shots, 3D tours, plus links to buy online Clear: We use diagrams and boxes to ensure each review delivers a definitive verdict

Contact our reviews team

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If you have a comment about our reviews, or a product you would like us to test, please email us at [email protected]. Visit our website at dcmag.co.uk for reader verdicts

PAGE

OLYMPUS C-5050 THE 5-MEGAPIXEL PRO MODEL The latest in a long line of classic Olympus models to combine compact dimensions with pro features

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SIGMA SD-9 THE 3.4-MEGAPIXEL FOVEON CHIP MODEL Sigma is spearheading revolutionary new imaging technology here but is it still early days?

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LAB TEST WEB ALBUM SOFTWARE These packages offer image manipulation, organisation and web page creation in one

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Kit reviews

HP PHOTOSMART 850 THE 4-MEGAPIXEL ‘BARGAIN’ This seems like outstanding value for money but what about the build quality and handling?

41 CAMERA TOURS ON OUR CD/DVD View every main camera reviewed each month in 3D, on our CD/DVD! Rotate it, swoop around it – it’s the next best thing to holding the camera in your hands

CAMERA RANGE GUIDE We show you where each camera sits in the maker’s range, and whether it’s worth your while spending extra money for more features

COMPARISON STRIPS See how each camera performs against the others in our reviews – pull back the page and compare the right-hand strips

26 30 34 41

REVIEWS

4-MEGAPIXEL CAMERA HP PHOTOSMART 850 Price Resolution Lens Memory Battery Life Contact

£400 4 megapixels f2.8-3.1 7x zoom 16MB SD Not quoted HP 08705 474747 www.hp.com/uk

SAMPLE IMAGES ALL THESE IMAGES CAN BE FOUND ON OUR CD

HP PhotoSmart 850 Wow. These are serious specifications for a £400 camera, so should the PhotoSmart 850 leap to the top of everyone’s shopping list?

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ON OUR COVERDISC

VIRTUAL TOUR Try before you buy! Rotate and view this camera on-screen with our unique virtual reality tour

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ON OUR WEBSITE

OPINIONS & SHOPPING Post your views, see what other readers think then buy this camera! dcmag.co.uk/photosmart850

DIGITAL RANGE

HP

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PS 850 Price: £400 Megapixels: 4 PS 720 Price: £200 Megapixels: 3 PS 620 Price: £150 Megapixels: 2 PS 320 Price: £130 Megapixels: 2

£

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PS 120 Price: £100 Megapixels: 1

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P’s PhotoSmart digital cameras have always been big on value, whatever they might lack in charm. The new 850 certainly seems to offer plenty on the value front, with 4-megapixel resolution allied to a massive 7x optical zoom and some decent-sounding photographic features like aperturepriority and shutter-priority shooting modes, EV compensation up to three stops either way and an electronic SLR-style viewfinder. You’d have to spend a lot more money to match these specs anywhere else, let alone beat them. Value for money is only one part of the equation, though. Build quality and handling are important, too, as is the final image quality. This is where the well-known camera makers tend to slip into the lead, so how does the HP stack up with the rest when you actually take it out of the box and use it?

Style and handling Now, you can measure features and specifications quite scientifically, but camera design and handling is altogether much more subjective. A camera that some photographers don’t like will go down a storm with other users. So it’s rare, surely, to find a camera that really is genuinely unlovable. Rare it may be, but we think we’ve done it. The moment you pick it up, all the PhotoSmart 850’s specifications and its modest price tag are forgotten. Indeed, the price tag will suddenly make sense. HP has produced some charmless, plasticky digital cameras in the past, but it’s really pushed the boat out with this one. On the good side, the moulded handgrip on the right does mean that you can get a really good grip on the camera. That is, sadly, the extent of the good side. It’s not just that the overall finish is plasticky, but that the metal-look surface is too slippery. Pick up the FinePix S602 Pro (reviewed on page 32) and then this camera and the difference is obvious: the FinePix practically sticks to your hand; the PhotoSmart 850’s like a bar of soap. Okay, we exaggerate, but the HP’s finish looks a

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

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7 HANDGRIP You can get a good purchase on the rubberised handgrip, but the rest of the camera feels slippery

lot better in photographs than it feels when you hold it in your hand. We won’t moan about that any more. Instead, we’ll moan about the controls. They’re stodgy and sluggish, and they place way too much reliance on the menu system. This itself responds slowly to button presses, and whatever advanced photographic features might be buried deep within the 850’s shell are likely to stay buried unless you’re a very patient, unhurried sort of photographer. With the 850, you find yourself repeatedly pressing buttons because you’re not sure they have worked the first time, and getting into on-off loops where the camera is always one step behind what you’re trying to

7 LENS That 7x optical zoom is quite something in a £400 camera

do. Everything works as it’s supposed to, but that bit slower than you expect.

Getting what you pay for The fact is, the PhotoSmart 850 handles and feels like a budget digital camera – not one you’ve just spent £400 on. Yes, you are getting a lot of photographic power for the outlay, but this is the price you’re paying for it. Although the 2-inch LCD on the back is good (apart from the fact that our LCD had an intermittent fault), the Electronic Viewfinder isn’t up to much. Electronic Viewfinders (EVFs) become necessary with longer-range zooms, where it’s simply impractical to design an optical finder that can cover the same zooming range.

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HP PHOTOSMART 850 PERFORMANCE

2 SKIN TONES

3 POWER SWITCH/ SHUTTER RELEASE The 850’s top plate is neat and uncluttered, but many important options are left buried in the menu system

3

5 6

1

7

The fact is, the PhotoSmart 850 handles and feels like a budget digital camera – not one you’ve just spent £400 on

Picture quality It’s bad news on the handling front, then, but what are the HP’s pictures like? Well this is where it redeems itself pretty well. In common with other HP digital cameras we’ve tried, the 850 produces images far better than its cheap construction would seem to imply. The exposure accuracy is high, colours are reproduced well and the sharpness and level of detail is particularly impressive. Images can start to look a little soft when you get

to 1:1 pixel magnifications on-screen, mind, and the extended telephoto range can catch you out because camera shake becomes a big bugbear in all but the best lighting conditions. All the same, it’s a creditable set of results, and if you’re disappointed by the HP’s build and handling, the images it produces will provide a welcome boost to your morale. So should you buy a PhotoSmart 850, after all these criticisms? It all depends on how much you want that 7x zoom range, because this camera has little in its favour apart from that. And remember that the extra range is available only at the telephoto end. Indeed, the 850’s widest wideangle setting is a pretty modest 37mm equivalent – nearly all its rivals go a tiny bit wider to 35mm. The 850 will be tempting to sports and wildlife

HP PHOTOSMART 850 FULL SPECIFICATIONS

WORTH A LOOK

2

3.9-megapixel, 1/1.8-inch 4.1MP CCD f2.8-3.1 8x lens Auto, 10cm in macro mode Program AE, aperture-priority, shutter-priority TTL 2-inch +3EV to -3EV in 0.5EV increments Auto, on, off, red-eye PAL 288 x 216 at 15fps with sound Instant Share, optional camera dock FUJIFILM FINEPIX S304 £350/3MP

KODAK LS443 £350/4MP

Image storage Batteries Battery life AC adaptor Weight Dimensions Transfer Software OS

HP PHOTOSMART 720 £200/3MP

1

SD card 4 x AA Not quoted Not supplied 388g (without battery or card) 120mm(w) x 120mm(h) x 85mm(d) USB HP Photo & Imaging software, HP Memories Disc Creator Windows 98/Me, 2000 or XP. Mac OS 9.1, OSX 10.1.2 or later

NIKON COOLPIX 4300 £400/4MP

LCD The 2-inch LCD does a good job, but the menu response is slow

fans, maybe, but for general-purpose photography its extra zooming capabilities are unlikely to be used that often. You may think we’ve been unkind in our comments about the PhotoSmart 850’s build, design and operation, given that it appears to offer as much for £400 as cameras costing twice as much. But £400 is a lot of money by any standards and, frankly, if it was our cash we’d spend it on a less powerful camera that we actually enjoyed using. Cameras such as the 4-megapixel Nikon CoolPix 4300 (with wonderfully sharp images) and the £350 4-megapixel Kodak LS443 (with metal finish, very sharp images and docking station included) offer half the zooming range, to be sure, but they nevertheless cover 99 per cent of the average user’s needs. The PhotoSmart 850 is tackling a competitive market. Its specifications put it out in front of the rest, but the experience of using it is rather different. It’s the sort of camera you’ll buy because it’s a good deal, not because you’ve fallen in love with it. For that reason, it’s still worth keeping an eye on a market where price-slashing has become the norm…

Verdict

Electronic Viewfinders aren’t great in the best of cameras, but the one fitted to the HP is really rather horrid. It’s small, the resolution is low and it’s fit for little more than rough framing. If you want to check the composition, details or focus, you’ll need to use the LCD on the back.

Sensor Lens Focus Exposure modes Metering Monitor AE compensation Flash Video output Movie recording Other features

7

ELECTRONIC VIEWFINDER EVFs are a necessary evil in cameras with big zooming capability

FLASH The pop-up flash does a good job, but where’s the slow-sync mode?

CON Sluggish controls and response mean that it’s not the ideal camera to grab fleeting moments

2 OUTDOOR SHOTS

4

7

PRO The 850 is good at reproducing skin tones, helped by accurate exposure measurement

Too cheap and cheerful by half, no matter what it can do The PhotoSmart 850 is a reminder of the fact that cameras have to feel like they’re worth the money and be nice to use. If they’re not, the features and image quality won’t be enough

5 6

PRO No problem at all with the HP’s performance outdoors. Exposure and saturation are good CON You can’t see much with that tiny viewfinder, and the ISO choice is limited to 100 or 200

2 INDOOR SHOTS

5 6

PRO Flash exposures seem accurate, and the HP’s colour rendition is as good indoors as elsewhere CON We couldn’t find a slow flash mode, and at 37mm equivalent, the zoom lens isn’t very wide

2 IMAGE QUALITY

5 6

PRO Fine detail is sharp, colour is good and the contrast and saturation aren’t bad, either CON The slippery shape and stodgy responses will increase the risk of camera shake in low light

72

FEATURES

78

IMAGES BUILD VALUE

59 80

1 1 1 1

72% FINAL SCORE

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

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REVIEWS

5-MEGAPIXEL CAMERA MINOLTA DIMAGE F300 Price Resolution Lens Memory Battery Life Contact

£500 5 megapixels f2.8-4.7 3x zoom 64MB SD card 260/560 frames with monitor on/off, using CR-3V battery Minolta 01908 200 400 www.minolta.co.uk

SAMPLE IMAGES ALL THESE IMAGES CAN BE FOUND ON OUR CD

Minolta DiMAGE F300 The 5-megapixel successor to Minolta’s compact F100 caters for both beginners and serious photographers, but does it live up to its promise?

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M

inolta’s 4-megapixel DiMAGE F100 is a very good camera. Offering both simplicity and more advanced shutter-priority, aperturepriority and manual modes, it’s both sophisticated and versatile. What’s more, the F100’s compact body is well made, well designed and, at current prices, good value for money. And the DiMAGE F300 offers more of the same. Now with 5-megapixel resolution, Minolta’s newest model produces bigger, crisper and sharper pictures, and the price is still highly competitive. It puts it right up against the Konica Revio KD500, Kyocera FineCam S5 and Olympus’s excellent little C-50. Visually, the F300 is similar to the F100, sharing the same elongated rectangular shape, 38-114mm (equivalent) 3x zoom and effective control layout. A couple of things are new, including a noise-reduction system for exposures of a second or longer, and a new UHS (Ultra High Speed) sequence mode capable of recording up to eleven 1,280 x 960 shots at 7fps. There’s an additional centre-weighted metering mode, too, joining the existing multi-pattern and spot modes.

DIGITAL RANGE

MINOLTA DIMAGE 7I Price: £700 Megapixels: 5

5

DIMAGE F300 Price: £500 Megapixels: 5 DIMAGE F100 Price: £400 Megapixels: 4 DIMAGE S414 Price: £TBA Megapixels: 4

£

5 028

DIMAGE XI Price: £350 Megapixels: 3.2

Automatic programs The F300 shares the F100’s Automatic Digital Subject Program Selection which, thankfully, is quicker to use than it is to say! The idea that it saves you the trouble of choosing a ‘scene’ mode to match your subject. The camera analyses the lighting, distance and focusing information and works it out for you, automatically selecting Portrait or Landscape mode, for example, depending on what’s in front of the camera. It shows you which scene mode it’s selected on the LCD, but you can override this to choose your own mode if you wish. To be honest, it’s one of those instances where increasing idiot-proofing actually leads to increased complexity. If you put your faith in scene modes then the F300’s system might prove useful but, for the most part, digital cameras do a great job in standard Program AE mode, and the F300’s no exception.

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7 ALUMINIUM EXTERIOR The F300’s aluminium exterior is tough and feels good in your hands

Like the Olympus C-50, reviewed in issue 4, the F300 bridges the gap between point-and-shoot compact cameras and more advanced models like the Canon PowerShot G3 and Nikon CoolPix 5700. In addition to the advanced exposure options and manual control, the F300 also offers exposure bracketing (where a sequence of three shots is taken at different exposures so that you can choose the most successful one later) and flash compensation (which lets you regulate the power of the flash).

Miniature compromises Being pocket size brings its limitations. For a start, the F300 doesn’t have the fast maximum aperture of the

7 LENS The Minolta GT lens has a focal range equivalent to 38-114mm

PowerShot G3, for example, or the extended zooming range of the CoolPix 5700. And there’s less space on the camera body for the control wheels and dials that would make these advanced options more accessible. As it is, you need to use the menu system if you want to experiment much beyond simple snapshot photography, and this can be a bit time-consuming and fiddly. It’s a problem shared by many digital compacts that look good on paper but prove a little more awkward in the field. The F300 does at least sport an easily-operated exposure-compensation button. Using this and the program AE/auto scene selection mode should take care of the vast majority of subjects. The ISO ratings of

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DIMAGE F300 PERFORMANCE

2 SKIN TONES

7 1

MODE DIAL The mode dial is big and chunky, offering quick access to the main controls

3

7

5 6

4

MONO LCD PANEL The F300 retains a mono status LCD, so you don’t need the LCD on to check the picture

PRO Pretty neutral colour rendition, with no tendency towards unhealthy yellows and greens CON Red results in our test image shot in overcast conditions. The focusing struggled in low light, too

2 OUTDOOR SHOTS 3

7

7

LCD The 1.5-inch LCD is small but crisp, bright and responsive. It copes well in low light conditions, too

To be honest, it’s one of those instances where increased idiot-proofing actually leads to increased complexity Fine mode, and 46 shots at Standard quality. Many manufacturers who ought to know better ship out their 5-megapixel models with measly 32MB or even 16MB cards. The F300’s specifications are good, then, and it’s great value at around £500. Of its direct rivals, only the Olympus C-50 can match it for features and size. But while the Minolta’s aluminium exterior does lend it an air of real class, we’d still have to give the C-50 a slightly higher rating for build quality and finish, especially with the added practicality of its sliding lens cover. The F300 starts up quickly and, apart from a couple of instances where the autofocus struggled (there was a heavy winter overcast throughout the test period), it’s crisp, quick and positive to use. The fact that it runs on a pair of AA cells is an

Value and performance We particularly like the inclusion of a generous-sized 64MB SD card. This can store up to 24 shots at the camera’s maximum resolution of 2,560 x 1,920 in

MINOLTA DIMAGE F300 FULL SPECIFICATIONS Sensor Lens Focus Exposure modes Metering Monitor AE compensation Flash Video output Movie recording

WORTH A LOOK

2

5-megapixel, 1/1.8-inch 5.3MP CCD Minolta GT f2.8-4.7 3x lens Auto, manual, 20cm in macro mode Program AE, aperture-priority, shutter-priority, manual 256 multi-segment, centre-weighted, spot 1.5-inch 110,000 pixels +2 to -2EV in 0.3EV increments Auto, on, off, slow, red-eye PAL or NTSC 320 x 240 at 15fps with sound KYOCERA FINECAM S5 £500/5MP

KONICA REVIO KD500 £500/5MP

Other features Image storage Batteries Battery life AC adaptor Weight Dimensions Transfer Software OS

OLYMPUS C-50 £500/5MP

1

Automatic Digital Subject Program Selection SD card 2x AA or 1x CR-3V 260/560 shots (monitor on/off) Not supplied 185g (without battery or card) 110mm(w) x 52.5mm(h) x 32.5mm(d) USB Minolta DiMAGE Viewer application Windows 98/Me, 2000 or XP. Mac OS8.6-9.2.2, OSX 10.1.3 or later

MINOLTA DIMAGE F100 £400/4MP

added bonus, but you might want to keep a CR-V3 cell in your pocket for use in emergencies. These are more expensive than AAs but have a much longer running time. Image quality is another area that potential buyers will want to pay close attention to. 5-megapixel cameras are still significantly more expensive than 4-megapixel models, so is the increased detail rendition worth it? In the case of the F300, it almost certainly is. Where some 5-megapixel models struggle to offer useful improvements, the F300 produces some really crisp, fine detail, and without excessive sharpening effects. Its images can occasionally look a little flat, but this can easily be fixed later on – and it’s better to have flat images than bleached-out highlights and dense black shadows. In short, you don’t have to worry that you might be sacrificing optical quality for the sake of compactness. 5-megapixel cameras don’t get a lot better than this, and for £500 you’re getting a camera that’s capable of top-notch results and controls that – with a little patience, admittedly – match those in far more expensive cameras.

Verdict

64-400 ISO cover a reasonable range, and you’ll have to pay a good bit more to get a camera that can reach 800 or even 1,600 ISO. The zoom range is good enough, though it could do with going a little wider at the short end, and if you’re not happy with the camera’s automatic image processing, you can manually adjust the colour (natural, vivid, black and white), contrast, saturation and sharpness. The default settings will prove fine much of the time and, if not, you’ll be better off adjusting these things in your image-editor later on anyway.

NAVIPAD Like the rest of the controls, the navipad buttons are positive and well spaced

A good-value revamp of an excellent camera The F300 offers a useful increase in detail rendition over the 4-megapixel F100. It’s very good value, too, especially with the bundled 64MB SD card. More advanced controls can be fiddly to access, though

5 6

PRO Impressive levels of sharpness and good exposure. The F300 copes well CON Shots taken in dull conditions stay dull. Little to add punch and saturation in poor light

2 INDOOR SHOTS

5 6

PRO The slow flash mode balances well with ambient light, and the LCD screen remains crisp CON The lens scarcely goes wide enough for small interior shots

2 IMAGE QUALITY

5 6

PRO Worried that a compact camera can’t produce sharp, high-quality results? This one can… CON The high-tech focusing system doesn’t always get the job done, especially in low light

FEATURES

90

IMAGES

90

BUILD VALUE

81 88

1 1 1 1

87% FINAL SCORE

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REVIEWS

5-MEGAPIXEL CAMERA OLYMPUS C-5050 ZOOM Price Resolution Lens Memory Battery Life Contact

£650 5 megapixels f1.8-2.6 3x zoom 32MB x-D Picture Card Not quoted Olympus 0800 072 0070 www.olympus.co.uk

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Olympus C-5050 Zoom Olympus has chosen a process of evolution and refinement for its enthusiastorientated digital cameras, rather than dramatic new designs. Has it paid off?

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DIGITAL RANGE

OLYMPUS E-20 Price: £1,200 Megapixels: 5

5

C-5050 Price: £650 Megapixels: 5 C-50 Price: £500 Megapixels: 5 C-730UZ Price: £445 Megapixels: 3

£

5 030

C-4000 Price: £380 Megapixels: 4

T

he Olympus C-5050 Zoom is the latest and most advanced in a series of cameras that fits between Olympus’s point-and-shoot digital compacts and its SLR-style E20 pro-level camera. The C-5050 Zoom offers the dimensions of a compact camera with the features of a pro model – and combines them pretty successfully, too. Sticking to a shape that’s served Olympus well for a while now, the C-5050 Zoom is quite compact, yet ‘grippable’ too, thanks to a chunky moulded handgrip to the left of the camera. This also houses the four AA cells that power the camera, which is good news for AA fans who are used to having to accept more expensive (if you want to buy spares) proprietary lithium-ion cells.

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Better than ever Not only that, this latest enthusiasts’ model from Olympus packs in a quite amazing array of features. Without increasing the size of the camera significantly, Olympus has added a thumb-operated control wheel, a tilting LCD panel and double-barrelled card slots, so that you can now use Compact Flash cards and MicroDrives in one, or SmartMedia or xD Picture Cards in the other. A 32MB x-D card comes as standard, which will keep you going for a while, but you’re likely to want to invest in extra, larger cards soon, since the 32MB card supplied stores a maximum of eight 2,560 x 1,920 image in SHQ (Super High Quality) mode and 26 at the HQ setting. The C-5050 Zoom can actually produce larger output files, up to 3,200 x 2,400 pixels (7.7 megapixels), but this inevitably uses in-camera interpolation, and you’re more likely to want to do this kind of resampling in Photoshop under more controlled conditions. But the C-5050 Zoom also offers a more useful RAW mode. This stores the image information as captured by the CCD, so that instead of relying on in-camera processing to produce editable TIFF or JPEG files, you transfer the RAW files and use special software on your computer to decode and optimise the data. RAW files enable you, in principle, to squeeze the last ounce of quality, colour and tonal range out of your images. And

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

7 HANDGRIP The C-5050 is easy to hold, thanks to the big handgrip and smart, crackleblack finish

while they do take up around 8MB of space on your memory cards, they’re still half the size of a TIFF file.

Pro-level features We’ve mentioned that the C-5050 Zoom offers pro-level features, and apart from its multiple card slots, it includes programmed auto-exposure, shutter-priority and aperture-priority modes, plus full manual control and ‘scene’ modes designed specifically for landscapes, portraits, night scenes, sports and landscape/portrait shots. You can check your images for over- or underexposure as soon as you’ve taken them, thanks to the histogram display available in the shooting mode (it shows you whether the exposure has ‘clipped’ the

7 LENS That f1.8 lens is fast enough for low-light shooting, and sharp, too

highlights or shadows), and you can auto-bracket exposures with a series of three or even five shots. With its fast f1.8 lens and 5-megapixel resolution, the C-5050 Zoom – on paper at least – looks just about as good as digital cameras can get without taking the big leap into the digital SLR market. As ever, though, the true test is how a camera handles in real photographic situations, not just its options list.

Pro-level build? Now, given that the C-5050 Zoom is one of the least expensive ‘serious’ digital cameras around, you might be expecting reasonable build quality but nothing outstanding. This is where the C-5050 Zoom springs its

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7

C-5050 ZOOM PERFORMANCE

2 SKIN TONES

1

MODE DIAL Menu fiddling is kept to a minimum, thanks to a mode dial that offers instant access to all

3

5 6

4

PRO Excellent colour rendition, even in tricky conditions like this bluish early morning light CON There are no ‘cons’. The Olympus didn’t trip up once. Flash shots are neutral-toned, too

2 OUTDOOR SHOTS 7

3

SHUTTER RELEASE The shutter release, zoom switch and other minor controls are all positioned perfectly

PowerShot G3 and top-of-the-range Nikons. Direct shutter speed and aperture control is easier on this camera than on many compacts (see the Minolta DiMAGE F300 on page 28), thanks to the thumbwheel controller and the intelligent control layout in general. What’s more, the main mode dial offers direct access to the Program, aperture-priority, shutter-priority and manual modes – no more fiddling about with menus. You can change the metering pattern, apply exposure compensation, change the flash mode and swap the memory card slot in use, all via buttons on the camera. What’s more, when you do need to access menu functions, the four-way navipad on the backplate offers short-cut access to all the major functions like the quality setting, white balance and more.

OLYMPUS C-5050 ZOOM FULL SPECIFICATIONS Sensor Lens Focus Exposure modes Metering Monitor AE compensation Flash Video output

WORTH A LOOK

2

5-megapixel, 1/1.8-inch 5.3MP CCD Olympus f1.8-2.6 3x lens Auto, manual, 20cm in Macro mode, 3cm in Super Macro mode Program AE, aperture-priority, shutter-priority, manual, scene modes Digital ESP, spot, multi-spot 1.8-inch 114,000 pixels +2EV to -2EV in 0.3EV increments Auto, on, off, slow, slow 2nd curtain, red-eye PAL or NTSC OLYMPUS C-50 £500/5MP

MINOLTA DIMAGE F300 £500/5MP

Movie recording Other features Image storage Batteries Battery life AC adaptor Weight Dimensions Transfer Software OS

CASIO QV-5700 £550/5MP

THUMBWHEEL The thumbwheel controller speeds up many operations, but it could be easier to get to

Image quality

This comes across as such a good camera, even before you use it, that the image quality seems almost incidental biggest surprise. Its crackle-black finish isn’t just easy to grip, it feels extremely durable, too, not to say expensive. That impression is echoed throughout the camera, which feels weighty and solid in your hands and has very robust, positive-feeling controls. What’s more, the controls are all in the right place. Admittedly, the new thumbwheel directly below the mode dial is a little awkward to get to, but you adapt soon enough and it does speed up many operations and settings. We particularly like the swivelling LCD panel, which can flip upwards through 90 degrees to make waist-level and tripod-mounted shooting far easier. It tilts up to 20 degrees the other way, too, for overhead shots. Interestingly, the limited movements of this LCD feel a lot more useful and logical than the flip-out-and-swivel LCDs on the Canon

7

LCD The LCD panel hinges up through 90 degrees for waist-level compositions

1

320 x 240 at 15fps without sound Multiple memory card slots: xD-Picture Card, SmartMedia, Compact Flash 4x AA or 2x CR-V3 Not quoted Supplied 125g (without battery or card) 77mm(w) x 69mm(h) x 22mm(d) USB Olympus Camedia Master Suite Win98/Me/2000/XP. Mac OS8.6-9.2.2, OSX 10.0.4

NIKON COOLPIX 5000 £700/5MP

This comes across as such a good camera, even before you use it, that the image quality seems almost incidental. It’s not, of course. Here, though, the C-5050 Zoom is just as impressive. Shots are uniformly well-exposed, extremely sharp (though maybe a fraction over-sharpened here and there) and punchy. It even managed to produce colourful, contrasty shots during the flat, dull spell that lasted all through our test period. The focusing didn’t trip up once, colours were always neutral and the Olympus impressed us with every shot it took. This is an extremely good camera. The Canon PowerShot G2 was once considered one of the best non-SLR digital cameras around, but the C-5050 knocks it, and its successor the G3, into a cocked hat. It feels far more solid, handles better and the finish and controls are just wonderful. It’s packed with all the features serious photographers could need, and it makes them all readily accessible with a very well-planned control layout. What’s more, there isn’t a 5-megapixel camera on the market that can beat its image quality. At £650, the C-5050 is an absolute steal…

Verdict

7

Olympus’s proam camera range just gets better and better A classic Olympus shape but a continually improved finish, layout and design – together with first-rate results – make the C-5050 the best camera and cheapest in its class…

5 6

PRO Excellent exposure control and detail rendition, producing good, punchy images CON Maybe inclined towards slight over sharpening now and again, but that’s easily

2 INDOOR SHOTS

5 6

PRO The 35mm (equivalent) lens is wide with a f1.8 maximum aperture CON Again, no ‘cons’? The C-5050 has got a ‘second curtain’ flash mode for realistic slow flash shots

2 IMAGE QUALITY

5 6

PRO Biting sharpness, accurate exposure, good colour saturation and contrast CON Apart from some faint over sharpening, this camera appears to have no weaknesses

FEATURES IMAGES BUILD VALUE

93 96 98 95

1 1 1 1

96% FINAL SCORE

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

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REVIEWS

3.1-MEGAPIXEL CAMERA FUJIFILM FINEPIX S602 PRO Price Resolution Lens Memory Battery Life Contact

£700 3.1 megapixels (6-megapixel output) f2.8-3.1 6x zoom 340MB MicroDrive 240 shots (using EVF and MicroDrive) FujiFilm 020 7586 1477 www.fujifilm.co.uk

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FujiFilm FinePix S602 Can you really get professional-level photographic tools this far under £1,000? FujiFilm seems to think so, and maybe we could be convinced too

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DIGITAL RANGE

FUJIFILM FINEPIX S2 PRO Price: £1,700 Megapixels: 6

5

FINEPIX S602 PRO Price: £700 Megapixels: 3.1 FINEPIX S602 Price: £550 Megapixels: 3.1 FINEPIX M603 Price: £600 Megapixels: 3.1

£

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FINEPIX S601 Price: £400 Megapixels: 3.1

F

ujiFilm is one of the few manufactures to design and build its own imaging chips. Its novel SuperCCD design uses hardware/ software interpolation to produce the final image sizes, and while the raw resolution of SuperCCDs looks a little low compared with similarly-priced rivals, the image quality it produces is some way higher than the raw resolution would suggest. It’ll be interesting to see what FujiFilm’s new HR and SR imaging chips can do. These will be appearing in new models during 2003. The HR SuperCCD chips are much smaller, allowing even more compact digital camera designs; while the SR chips use double-barrelled image sensors for a far higher dynamic range than digital cameras have so far been capable of recording. In the meantime, the existing models still offer very good results and, indeed, value for money. The S602 Pro is a good example, offering a number of significant enhancements over the existing S602, and pushing it into professional territory but without the price tag that normally goes with it.

2

3

7 LENS The S602 Pro’s 6x optical zoom is useful, but its zooming range is now by no means unique

Professional features The S602 Pro has four major enhancements over the base model. And arguably the most important is the provision of an external flash sync socket on the front of the camera. Most 4-megapixel and above digital cameras have enough resolution for many types of pro work, but don’t work with studio flash setups. Instead, you’re stuck with the weedy on-camera flashguns, which don’t offer the power or the lighting control – you can’t take them off and move them around. With its studio flash capability, the S602 Pro leaps straight out of the amateur market and into the professional sphere. It incorporates another modification – a very slight one this time – which could also make a big difference. It’s now possible to screw a conventional cable release into the shutter button, making macro shots, still lives and time exposures far easier. The S602 is reasonably light on batteries, and even

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

runs pretty well on alkalines. But the Pro version comes with a set of rechargeable NiMH cells and a charger. And, to top off the Pro package, you get a 340MB MicroDrive thrown in. That gives you a lot more storage for not much more cash. And, although MicroDrives are power-hungry, according to FujiFilm’s figures it doesn’t make much of a dent in the S602 Pro’s capacity – only around ten shots per battery charge.

Build and handling The S602 Pro model doesn’t just represent a cosmetic marketing revamp, then. Sold alongside the standard S602, it offers genuine extra value and capabilities. And all this with a camera that’s got a great deal to offer in

7 LENS FOCUSING RING The large manual focusing ring makes the S602 Pro perfect for serious photographers

many other ways. The S602 Pro is a long way from being compact, but it’s chunky and ‘grippable’ (the black crackle finish helps). The controls are positive, firm, logically-placed and fine for those with bigger-thanaverage hands as well as the rest of us (how often can you say that about a digital camera?). It doesn’t have the metal finish of some of its upmarket rivals, but that means it’s not slippery either and your fingers won’t freeze in cold weather. The S602 Pro is well specified. With a choice of three metering patterns and a whole range of exposure modes, it can cope with any kind of subject and lighting conditions and, indeed, any level of user expertise. You can stick it on full auto for those who don’t know what

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7

FLASH The S602s built-in flash is supplemented on this Pro model with an external flash sync socket for hooking up to studio lights

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there are other factors to take into account, like its good colour balance and saturation. Our camera, though, didn’t provide the image ‘bite’ we’re used to seeing from SuperCCD cameras. It showed a slight softness which could, admittedly, be attributed in part to the relentlessly dull and overcast weather conditions that plagued our outdoor tests. The S602 Pro showed another characteristic we’ve come to expect from this SuperCCD, and that’s punchy reds that are actually a bit overblown and lack tonal separation. A comparatively minor quibble, but worth pointing out.

The professional’s choice? The S602 Pro really does have ‘pro’ features. One of the major factors that would put a professional off buying an ordinary digital camera is not necessarily

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3.1-megapixel, 1/1.7-inch 3.3MP SuperCCD Super-EBC Fujinon f2.8-3.1 6x lens Auto, manual, Macro, Super Macro mode Program AE, aperture-priority, shutter-priority, manual, scene modes 64-zone multi-pattern, spot, average 1.8-inch 110,000 pixels +2EV to -2EV in 0.3EV increments Auto, on, off, slow, red-eye, slow with red-eye PAL 640 x 480 at 30fps with sound FUJIFILM FINEPIX S602 £550/3.1MP

NIKON COOLPIX 5700 £900/5MP

Electronic ViewFinder The EVF is bright and responsive, but it’s no substitute for the optical SLR system found on expensive cameras

Other features Image storage Batteries Battery life AC adaptor Weight Dimensions Transfer Software OS

MINOLTA DIMAGE 7HI £970/5MP

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Dual media slots, external flash sync, Compact Flash/MicroDrive, SmartMedia 4 x AA 240 shots (using EVF and MicroDrive) Supplied 500g (excluding batteries) 121mm(w) x 81.5mm(h) x 97mm(d) USB FinePix Viewer, DP Editor, VideoImpression, PhotoDeluxe 4.0HE Win98/Me, 2000 or XP, Mac OS 8.6-9.2, OS X

MINOLTA DIMAGE 7I £700/5MP

the image quality, but the inability to hook up to professional studio flash systems. Battery power would be another issue and limited storage capacity a third – and the S602 Pro tackles these to one degree or another. The threaded shutter release is a simple but smart move, too. But the 3.1-megapixel SuperCCD does feel like the weak link here. The S602 Pro is a great camera in terms of features, build and handling, but put the images up against those from the 5-megapixel Olympus C-5050, for example, and the difference in detail rendition is obvious. At 1:1 on-screen magnifications, the edge effects and sharpening artefacts of the SuperCCD’s 6-megapixel interpolation become obvious. FujiFilm will be keen to point out that outright definition isn’t the only measure of image quality. Quite right. Dynamic range, saturation and colour balance are extremely important, too, and the S602 Pro does very well in all of these areas. But fine detail is its Achilles heel, and if you’re the sort of photographer who puts razor-sharp definition right at the top of your wish-list, then the S602 Pro’s not for you…

Verdict

FUJIFILM FINEPIX S602 PRO FULL SPECIFICATIONS

CON Inclined to overexpose a little in flat lighting. You might need to focus manually in poor light

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LCD The 1.8-inch LCD is bright and crisp, and the rest of the backplate controls are good, too

they’re doing and leave the camera to sort everything out. The movie mode is quite a surprise, too. Most digital cameras can only manage a sluggish 15fps frame rate and a modest 320 x 240 resolution, but the S602 Pro can shoot 30fps at 640 x 480 resolution. It’s no camcorder, but its movie quality is far higher than most digital cameras can manage. But what about the image quality? At this price, the S602 Pro is mixing with some very good 4-megapixel cameras and a couple of the cheaper 5-megapixel models – including the excellent Minolta DiMAGE 7i. The images are crisper and sharper than you’ll get from any normal 3-megapixel camera and, in terms of detail rendition, we’d put the S602 Pro somewhere around the level of a good 4-megapixel model. However,

PRO The S602 Pro has nice, neutral colour rendition and well-controlled contrast

2 OUTDOOR SHOTS

With its studio flash capability, the S602 Pro leaps straight out of the amateur market and into the professional sphere

WORTH A LOOK

2 SKIN TONES

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Metering Monitor AE compensation Flash Video output Movie recording

PERFORMANCE

7 MODE AND COMMAND DIALS The S602 Pro’s main mode dial is big, clear and positive

Sensor Lens Focus Exposure modes

FINEPIX S602 PRO

Genuinely pro features and not just a marketing revamp The S602 Pro addresses some key areas for professionals, including studio flash capability and increased storage capacity. It’s a great camera…

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PRO Again, very neutral colour, and an ability to bring out colour on the dullest of days CON Tends to overexaggerate reds and doesn’t differentiate red tones too well, either

2 INDOOR SHOTS

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PRO Good balance between flash and ambient light in slow flash mode CON Focusing can be a little unreliable and you may need to increase the sharpness

2 IMAGE QUALITY

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PRO The S602 Pro always produces clean looking shots with good saturation and colour balance CON Lacks the bite that we remember from previous SuperCCD cameras

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FEATURES IMAGES BUILD VALUE

81 89 95

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90% FINAL SCORE

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

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REVIEWS

3.4-MEGAPIXEL CAMERA SIGMA SD-9 Price Resolution Lens Memory Battery Life Contact

£1,300 (body only), £1,640 as tested, with 17-35mm zoom 3.4 megapixels Not supplied Not supplied (Compact Flash/MicroDrive) Not quoted Sigma 01707 329 999 www.sigma-imaging-uk.com

SAMPLE IMAGES ALL THESE IMAGES CAN BE FOUND ON OUR CD

Sigma SD-9 It’s not just the cheapest digital SLR (with interchangeable lenses) you can get, it boasts revolutionary new imaging technology, too. Is this the future?

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ON OUR COVERDISC

VIRTUAL TOUR Try before you buy! Rotate and view this camera on-screen with our unique virtual reality tour

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ON OUR WEBSITE

OPINIONS & SHOPPING Post your views, see what other readers think then buy this camera! dcmag.co.uk/sd9

DIGITAL RANGE

SIGMA

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SD-9 Price: £1,300 Megapixels: 3 SA-9 Price: £380 FILM CAMERA

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SA-7 Price: £210 FILM CAMERA

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o many digital cameras use CCDs to record images, that it’s easy to slip into the habit of using the term ‘CCD’ to indicate an imaging chip. After all, Canon continues to use cheaper CMOS chip type for its high-end digital SLRs – and with some success. However, it’s taken little-known camera maker, Sigma, and chip manufacturer, Foveon, to come up with something completely new. Conventional CCDs and CMOS chips only respond to the intensity of light, not its colour. That’s why digital cameras need ‘RGB filters’ overlaid on top of the chip. Essentially, one picture sensor in four has a red filter over it, one has a blue filter and the other two have a green filter (the human eye is more sensitive to green, so it gets greater emphasis). When the camera processes the image, it has to interpolate the colour information – essentially ‘guess’ at the colours to fill the gaps. Each red sensor, for example, is used as the basis for calculating the red component in three more around it. The fact that you’re not aware this has been done when you view the final image is testament to the effectiveness of this interpolation. If you apply heavy manipulation to digital camera images or distort their individual colour channels, though, you’ll find the image starts to break up into noise and other artefacts. The Foveon chip is different. It copies conventional film technology by using three sensitised layers, one on top of the other – one to record red light, one to record green light and one to record blue light. The result is that no colour interpolation is necessary and images should – in theory – be sharper, crisper and clearer.

Sigma’s assault With the main camera manufacturers intent on developing their existing technology, Sigma is the company spearheading the assault with this brand new technology. The Sigma SD-9, the first camera to use the Foveon chip, isn’t especially remarkable in itself. It’s comparable in specs and features to a mid-range film SLR, offering programmed auto-exposure, aperturepriority, shutter-priority automation and full manual

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

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7 HANDGRIP The camera functions are powered by two CR123A cells, while four AAs in the base power the digital side

control. There’s no built-in flash and, as is usually the case with digital SLRs, no lens is supplied. You can shop around and pick up attractively-priced camera lens bundles, though. Be aware, however, that the Foveon chip is physically smaller than the 35mm frame, so you’ll need to apply a ‘focal length factor’ to work out the lenses you need. With the SD-9, this factor is 1.7, so the 17-35mm zoom we used for this review is equivalent to a 29-60mm lens on a 35mm film camera. Buying optics for digital SLRs is expensive – superwideangles like this don’t come cheap. This lens adds around £340 to the SD-9’s price, and if you go the Nikon or Canon route, it’ll prove a lot more painful still.

7 LENS You don’t get a lens with the SD-9 – this is an optional 17-35mm optic

At an all-in price of £1,640, though, this bundle still comfortably undercuts the Nikon D100 and FujiFilm FinePix S2 Pro digital SLRs. The SD-9’s lower cost has a clear knock-on effect. It doesn’t come with any kind of memory card, no AA cells for powering the digital functions and – most annoying of all – you don’t get the two little lithium cells for powering the camera functions. These aren’t available at your local newsagent, and it’s going to take a trip to the local camera shop and a cheque for £10-12 to put this right. Once it’s up and running, the SD-9 is bulky and solid feeling. It doesn’t have the finesse of a Nikon, Canon or FujiFilm, but it works well enough. The focusing is a bit

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Getup&go Where to go, what to shoot

APRIL 2003

UNFOLD THIS 8-PAGE SECTION! ■ Map of sites ■ Top photo tips ■ Places to visit ■ Pocket guide

BASED ON ORDNANCE SURVEY MAPPING © CROWN COPYRIGHT, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: AM134/02

THIS MONTH

FROGS AND TOADS Spring is the right time of year to capture our amphibious friends

HOW TO CAPTURE SILHOUETTES!

STEAM TRAINS We travel to Gwynedd in North Wales for a bit of train spotting!

Chorus of frogs

Feeling fit? Then climb the 199 steps to this spectacular Yorkshire ruin

WILDLIFE Laurie Campbell heads for his garden pond to picture amphibious breeding habits he evening frog chorus is a sure sign that spring is here, and frogs and toads are emerging from their winter hibernation to set about breeding. Once a familiar sight, these vocal amphibians have decreased in numbers considerably in recent years, due to changes in land usage. They are naturally shy, making the breeding season the best time to find them, as they return in huge numbers to their hatching ponds to spawn. Frogs may breed anywhere from February to April, while toads tend to start in March, and newts later still. As their wetland habitats have declined, frogs

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ROCKY CLOSE-UPS Cornwall’s Granite Coast provides plenty of unusual photo opportunities Detach this section and take it on your travels!

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in particular have taken to domestic pools, making your garden one of the best places to photograph them. Encourage them by providing plenty of shady, moist shelter around a deepish pond. Drainpipes and upturned plant pots are useful, and make good props, too. The two species are easy to tell apart: frogs have slender bodies and smooth, moist skin; toads have more bulbous bodies and dry, warty skin. Though you’ll need to approach them slowly to avoid frightening them, they can be gently picked up (as long as they are not a mating pair, or the rarer natterjack toad which is

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WHITBY ABBEY

Fold out this guide to find 9 tips!

CLOSE-UP TIME

The depth of field is likely to be very shallow on macro shots. Make sure you focus on the eyes and everything will be fine

protected), and moved into more photogenic surroundings. Front views often make humourous anthropomorphic portraits, but experiment with your images – frogs swimming in clear water present good silhouettes when backlit. Once breeding has taken place, look out for spawn floating around the shallow margins of ponds. Frog spawn grows in clumps, while toad’s spawn is thin and straggly. It takes about three to four weeks for tadpoles to form before they lose their tails and grow legs to become froglets. A macro lens will be essential here, but resist the temptation to move the spawn!

GET SOME INFORMATION Snipe Dales Country Park – site facilities, key species, education, events, maps etc [w] www.lincstrust.co.uk/reserves/snipe/snipe.html

Getup&go to… SNIPE DALES Shooting from above ensures that both the frog and the lily are in focus

SNIPE DALES AIM FOR SKEGNESS Take the A158 from Lincoln east to Skegness. Turn right onto the B1195 after Horncastle towards Spilsby. Snipe Dales Country Park signposted on the left.

MOVE IT

You can gently move frogs but make sure your hands are wet

© Laurie Campbell 2003

Get down low and use a bean bag to support the camera close to ground level – tripods rarely go this low, so make one or buy one from a camera shop. You could be lying there a while so wear waterproofs or use a plastic sheet.

LILY POND

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GET DOWN AND DIRTY

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TOP TIP

LINCOLNSHIRE

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DETAILS

NEWT NEWS

Newts lay single eggs directly onto foliage and spawn later than frogs

© Mark Hamblin 2003

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© Laurie Campbell 2003

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BASED ON ORDNANCE SURVEY MAPPING © CROWN COPYRIGHT, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: AM134/02

© Laurie Campbell 2003

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HOW TO GET THERE

WHAT IS IT? Located on the southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, Snipe Dales is one of the few surviving areas of seminatural wet valleys. The 220 acres of park and reserve, managed by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, includes nine recently excavated central ponds that have increasingly been colonised by frogs and toads. There is open access to the park, which includes a large area of coniferous and deciduous woodlands.

EYES FRONT

Use a bean bag for support on very low shots

LOCATION Winceby, Near Horncastle, Lincolnshire.

© Laurie Campbell 2003

© Laurie Campbell 2003

WHAT ARE THE FACILITIES? Toilets at amenity block.

WEBSITE

TADPOLE TANK

www.open.ac.uk/daptf/index.htm The website of the Declining Amphibian Populations Task Force. The DAPTF raises money and distributes this in the form of small seed grants to projects.

This froglet was photographed in a tank, set up in time for the water to clear. A sheet of glass in the tank restricts the field of movement to a couple of inches

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Getting it right: Use a lens of about a 200 – 300mm focal length, with a close-up lens or macro facility to get in close. Anything shorter is best kept for habitat shots. Depth of field will be limited so focus on the eyes. Amphibians stay still for long periods so short shutter speeds are rarely required, but beware of using flash or drives, which may frighten them.

POST-SHOOT THE CLONE TOOL

© Mark Hamblin 2003

Best results: Take close-ups of tadpoles in an aquarium, fitted with an extra sheet of glass to contain them within a narrow field of focus.

Free.

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EXPERT ADVICE

Pete Martin specialises in travel and general photography

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

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TOAD HALL

Toads are a welcome guest in the garden. Encourage them with shady spots such as this plant pot, which also makes a good prop

Remove distracting background items in your photographs using the Clone tool. Give this a softish edge and change its pick-up point regularly to prevent unnatural recurring patterns forming as you copy from elsewhere in an image.

Getup&go to… STEAM TRAINS ALL IMAGES © Ian Butters 2003

GWYNEDD

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PORTHMADOG

AIM FOR BANGOR By car: Take the A55 from Chester to Bangor, turn onto the A487 to Porthmadog, where the station is on the seafront.

BASED ON ORDNANCE SURVEY MAPPING © CROWN COPYRIGHT, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: AM134/02

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HOW TO GET THERE

EVENT/ACTION FULL HEAD OF STEAM T

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hey’re dirty and smelly, and environmentally dubious, but steam trains still have a nostalgic romance. Ever since Dr Beeching axed half our railway network back in the 1950s, enthusiasts have been reclaiming it, restoring hundreds of miles of line and rolling stock. You don’t have to be a trainspotter, out on platforms in all weathers, to get good pictures of steam locomotives in action. Today there are many heritage lines around the country, from recommissioned branch lines to narrow gauge, industrial networks. Most run a number of traditional steam engines, sometimes with ‘visiting’ locos, though some use diesels at quiet times. You’ll find locomotives and rolling stock

RAILWAY CHILDREN

Celebrating 140 years of steam this year, the Ffestiniog Railway is the oldest independent railway company in the world, steaming through the spectacular Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. This narrow gauge line was constructed to carry slate 15 miles from the Blaenau Ffestiniog quarries down to Porthmadog.

STEAMING ALONG Longer exposures show movement on panning shots; shorter ones freeze it

from many eras, and all manner of railway paraphernalia around station platforms. As well as pictures of trains coming and going, there’s plenty of detail to shoot, and drivers sometimes allow you to get footplate shots. You may even be able to visit loco sheds to see restoration work. Many locomotives have been converted to run on oil, producing a cleaner, whitish steam that’s best photographed using backlighting on damp, murky days. The plumes of sulphurous smoke associated with coal-burning engines are rarer nowadays, but many lines run special days when these are in use. You’ll even find occasional photography days (and evenings) when static displays are fired up for visiting enthusiasts. Most timetables enable you to get off at various stations along a line for a range of picture opportunities, but for great action shots of trains charging along with a full head of steam, it’s worth searching out local banks, cuttings or bridges with good views of the track. Look for these on Ordnance Survey maps or ask at the railway station. Always observe track safety procedures and do not stray onto railway or farm property without permission.

LOCATION Ffestiniog Railway.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? Adults £3.60; concessions £2.70; children £1.80.

WHAT ARE THE FACILITIES? Toilets, café/restaurant and shop at Porthmadog station. Wheelchair access to most buildings and trains.

WEBSITE

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Don't forget the details – steam trains are full of them

DOUBLE TAKE Accurate exposure can be difficult with such dark subjects as steam engines

BEST RESULTS TIPS FOR SHOOTING TRAINS Clouds of smoke may affect exposures, causing loss of shadow detail on engines. Dull days produce lower tonal ranges, enabling more information to be captured. Three-quarter views of oncoming trains require shutter speeds of about 250th sec to freeze movement.

GET SOME INFORMATION Website linking a number of Welsh narrow gauge lines [W] www.greatlittletrainsofwales.co.uk

www.festrail.co.uk Ffestiniog railway website with all timetables and pictorial history of the line.

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FOOTPLATE FOCUS

DETAILS WHAT IS IT?

Focus on a given spot and shoot when the engine reaches it

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Billowing plumes of smoke evoke nostalgic days of steam railway travel for Ian Butters

POST-SHOOT LEVELS TOOL Use Photoshop’s Levels tool to control the balance between highlights in the steam and dark shadow details on the engines. Adjust the highlight and shadow sliders at either end of the histogram to remove superfluous empty areas, then use the mid slider to control the tonal range between them.

CHECK FOR CLUTTER Don’t let stray items such as unwanted branches clutter the shot. Check around the frame before taking the picture.

■ Now send us your pictures! Email a small JPEG to [email protected] with your name & a few words about the shoot, and we'll reply!

to fold this booklet: 8 How This is side A. Turn over for side B

Side A

STEP 1: Detach sheet from rest of section

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Side A

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STEP 2: Fold this side in half horizontally

STEP 3: Now fold around into a square

NORTH YORK/SILHOUETTES

SIDE B: OUT AND ABOUT ON INDEX:

2 PHOTOGRAPH SILHOUETTES SIDE A: HOW TO

WHAT’S IN THIS ISSUE

TRIPOD

TOPICS COVERED

>

EQUIPMENT Three tips for better silhouettes

6

FOLD ALONG THIS LINE SECOND

DETACH HERE

LIGHT FROM BEHIND Do remember that silhouettes work better when the light is behind your subject not in front of it.

to take pictures of North Yorkshire’s magnificent abbey and priory ruins

2 THE NORTH YORK MOORS

FILTERS

to shoot silhouettes 5 Looking that really grab you? We’ll tell

■ Tips ■ Equipment ■ Dos/don’ts

LIGHTING

Exposing for the light implies short exposure times. Nevertheless, use a tripod to allow smaller apertures so that all the subject's outline is sharp.

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on the monastic trail 5 Get and discover the best places

2

■ Detailed maps of how to get there

Filters can put colour into your silhouettes, from enhancing the light with a little warmth, to adding a full fauxsunset effect. Graduated filters let you control where this colour goes.

03

you what to look for and how to make pictures really work

The key to silhouettes is backlighting, which should be several stops lighter than the subject. This will normally be the sky but can be any bright light source.

02

LOOK FOR SIMPLE OUTLINES Do look for subjects with simple but interesting outlines. Make sure these read without the detail.

Dos and don’ts

GETTING IT RIGHT: SILHOUETTE PHOTOS .

FOLD ALONG THIS LINE FIRST

TEAROUT FACTSHEET NO.6

APRIL 2003

Getup&go

Getup&go HOW TO SHOOT SILHOUETTES

8

Few images are more dramatic than a stark silhouette, strong and black against a bright sky. Shape is a visual stimulant for the brain, and by reducing the tonal range of your subject to little more than a dark shadow against the light, the eye is free to wander around its outline, leaving the mind to fill in the detail. Result? An intriguing and powerful photograph. Chances are it has happened by accident before when you’ve shot into the sun. Let’s help you get it right every time you want it.

SUITABLE SUBJECTS

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Any subject that has a strong, evocative outline will make a good silhouette photograph. In town, look out for a skyline of chimneys and television aerials, church towers and spires, and suspension and girder bridges. Out in the countryside, keep an eye out for trees, bare or in full leaf, and dramatically-shaped rock formations. Ruined abbeys and castles also make perfect subjects, with gothic windows and battlements creating intriguing shapes within the silhouette.

EXPOSURE FOR SILHOUETTES

2

The easiest way to create a silhouette is to expose for the sky. Simply aim your camera at an area of sky that excludes the sun, so that it fills the frame. Trap the light reading with the camera’s exposure lock, then recompose your shot around the subject and press the shutter. Experiment with readings from different parts of the sky to see what works best.

FOCAL LENGTH MATTERS

3

With a wide-angle lens and a backlit subject you’ll probably

shapes, both behind and in front of the subject, that merge with your subject and confuse the issue. A low point of view will place more of the subject against the sky and reduce the number of potentially conflicting items.

produce a silhouette simply by pointing and shooting on auto exposure. The subject’s normal exposure is overwhelmed by the large light source, of which the sun is just a small part. But a telephoto narrows the angle of vision, and if the sun is in shot it can unduly influence the light reading, causing your picture to be underexposed. Instead, meter from an area of sky close to the sun but excluding this from the frame.

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USE YOUR EYES

What our eyes see is interpreted by the brain, and often we don’t notice overhanging branches or rubbish bins protruding into the picture. Train your eyes

to act objectively like a lens, recording everything before it. To decide if a scene will work as a silhouette, squint at it through half closed eyes. This reduces the contrast range and excludes a lot of tonal detail, letting the shadows and highlights dominate.

7

INTRODUCE SOME COLOUR

Put more colour into a sunset sky by fitting a coloured filter over your lens. 81 series

warm-up filters do just that, orange and red filters are full-on! If your camera won’t accept filters, simply hold them in front of the lens.

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NOT JUST THE SKY

Don’t just look for silhouettes against the sky. Any bright light source will do, whether it’s a lamp, a reflection of the sky in a pool, or a brightly lit subject. Just make sure its light intensity is 2 or 3 stops more than that on the subject.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

Keep silhouettes simple, clean and easy to ‘read’. Beware of conflicting

NO SILHOUETTE?

4

If you want a normally exposed subject and not a silhouette when shooting into the light, move in close and take a reading with the subject filling the frame. Trap the exposure then move back and recompose before shooting. Alternatively, use a little fill-in flash to illuminate the subject, exposing generally for the background.

CONTROL THE SKY

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Use graduated neutral density filters to darken parts of a plain sky. These work by reducing the amount of light in a stepless progression across the image from zero to the maximum density of the filter, which will be calibrated in stops – for example, a one or two stop filter. Beware that they can affect the silhouette, too, if not used with care.

Getup&go... routeplanner PULLOUT NO.6

Follow North Yorkshire’s monastic trail North Yorkshire is full of magnificent ruined abbeys, and they’re all in fabulous locations for great photographs

TAKEN FROM ROAD MAP 4

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2 1 RIEVAULX ABBEY WHAT IS IT? The earliest of the great Cistercian abbeys, Rievaulx is unusually built on a north-south axis rather than an east-west one. Founded in 1132, much of the church building, along with the refectory, is well preserved in its tranquil valley setting. But the outer walls have gone, leaving the high clerestory windows suspended in mid air on the graceful nave columns. WHERE IS IT? At Helmsley, on the A170, 13 miles east of Thirsk. WHILE YOU’RE THERE Visit nearby 12th century Helmsley Castle or Duncombe Park, an 18th century baroque mansion with an outstanding English landscape garden where you can find some of the oldest trees in the country. ENTRANCE 10am-6pm daily. Adults £3.60, children £1.80. FAMILY FRIENDLY? Snacks are available at Rievaulx but there’s a great tearoom a couple of miles away at Duncombe Park, offering home baking and a children’s playground. MORE INFO www.english-heritage.org.uk

TAKEN FROM ROAD MAP 4

2 2 MOUNT GRACE PRIORY WHAT IS IT? Explore the faithfully restored two-storey cell, with its own little garden, to see how a monk would have lived in the 16th century. There’s also an exhibition in the Arts and Crafts style restoration of the old manor house, on the site of the old priory guest house. WHERE IS IT On the A19, 10 miles north of Thirsk. ENTRANCE 10am-6pm daily. Adults £3.00, children £1.50. FAMILY FRIENDLY? Apart from picnicking in the wooded grounds, there’s little to keep children interested, so why not treat them to the World of James Herriott, a fascinating recreation of the life of the famous literary vet, housed in the former surgery of author, Alf Wight, just off the Market Place in nearby Thirsk. MORE INFO www.english-heritage.org.uk

BASED ON ORDNANCE SURVEY MAPPING © CROWN COPYRIGHT, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: AM134/02

BASED ON ORDNANCE SURVEY MAPPING © CROWN COPYRIGHT, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: AM134/02

TAKEN FROM ROAD MAP 4

2 3 FOUNTAINS ABBEY WHAT IS IT? The jewel of Yorkshire monasticism, and one of the few abbeys to survive Henry Vlll’s rampages with little damage, Fountains Abbey dates from 1132. The remarkably preserved refectory buildings still allow a good insight into monastic life. WHERE IS IT? 2 miles west of Ripon, off the A61. WHILE YOU’RE THERE Yorkshire’s only World Heritage Site, Fountains Abbey is part of Studley Royal, 150 acres of exquisite Georgian gardens packed with lakes, cascades, temples and gazebos to explore. ENTRANCE 10am-6pm daily. Adults £4.80, children £2.50. FAMILY FRIENDLY? There are plenty of activities to keep the children happy. MORE INFO www.fountainsabbey.org.uk

BASED ON ORDNANCE SURVEY MAPPING © CROWN COPYRIGHT, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: AM134/02

orkshire was once home to many of England’s greatest abbeys, and if you’re visiting Whitby Abbey, it’s worth seeking out the other religious ruins in the area. The wild medieval landscape of the North York Moors attracted the Cistercians in particular, and it is their abbeys that dominate the region, from Rievaulx to Fountains Abbey, Byland and more. A convenient circular route takes in the major sites, with the added bonus of the moors and some fine coastline around Scarborough to keep the kids happy.

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Getup&go to… CAPE CORNWALL

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ALL IMAGES ©Tony Howell

CORNWALL CAPE CORNWALL AIM FOR PENZANCE By car: Take the A30 to Penzance then follow the A3071 to St Just, from where the National Trust car park is signposted west of the village.

BASED ON ORDNANCE SURVEY MAPPING © CROWN COPYRIGHT, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: AM134/02

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HOW TO GET THERE

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LANDSCAPE CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

WHAT IS IT? Cape Cornwall is the only cape in England, separating the Bristol and English Channels. Accessed on foot by the South West Coastal Footpath, and now protected by the National Trust, its dramatic granite landscape is surmounted by a ruined chimney stack, the only evidence of unsuccessful tin workings here in the 19th century. The cliffs give way on the southern side to the small, pebbly beach at Priest's Cove.

softly rounded by the constant action of the waves. You’ll need to explore around low tide when the granite shore is exposed. One of the attractions of the Cornish coast is beach-combing – walking the tide line looking for what has washed up. Such serendipity will turn up no end of intimate abstract images here among the rock pools and seaweed. The sheltered boulder beach at Priest’s Cove is covered with granite pebbles of all sizes and shapes, regularly rearranged at the whim of the tides, while further around the cape the bedrock has been scoured into a succession of weird shapes by the action of waves and tumbling boulders.

WAVE POWER The action of waves and boulders has scoured this pattern in the rocks

The natural colour of the granite here is white but the action of algaes has tinted it brown and green in places. An ebb tide leaves the rocks looking wet and shiny, while the incoming tide provides matter images. Look for attractive rock formations or arrangements of pebbles, using your viewing screen to frame possible compositions.

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HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? Car park £1.50.

WHAT ARE THE FACILITIES? Parking, food and drink available.

LIMPET LAND Low sun creates strong shadows of the limpets, throwing them into sharp relief

WEBSITE www.cornwalltouristboard.co.uk

GETTING IT RIGHT Check a tide table to find out when low tide corresponds with late afternoon or early morning. Strong side lighting gives a more 3D feel to rock formations and pebbles, but may cause exposure problems on light stone. Subtle colour differences will be rendered more accurately and with better saturation in flat lighting. A polariser gives more translucence to the water in rock pools by reducing the reflections.

To get both foreground interest and the background in focus, use a wide-angle lens and a hyperfocal focusing technique.

GET SOME INFORMATION Cornwall tourist board has information on where to stay, places to visits, events, walks etc [w] www.cornwalltouristboard.co.uk

8

A long exposure blurs the waves to a mist around the rocks

Cape Cornwall.

BEST RESULTS

TOP TIP MISTY WATER

LOCATION

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ot for nothing is Cornwall called the Granite County, and nowhere is this more apt than the coastline around Land’s End, where the Atlantic breakers roll into lash incessantly against the rugged granite cliffs. The area can’t fail to produce dramatic landscape pictures, but just a few miles to the north, the cliffs and beaches around Cape Cornwall allow you to get up close and personal with this most ancient of rocks. The ancient beach that once lay here was raised up, then covered by deposits from the last Ice Age, which are now slowly eroding the present tidal beach below. The result of this geological action is an area rich in granite boulders,

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The Granite Coast lures Tony Howell down to Cornwall in search of rocky close-ups

N

DETAILS

POST-SHOOT IMAGE EDITING Highlight pebble arrangements by adjusting the lighting ratio between the foreground and background. Select the desired foreground subject then feather this by 3-4 pixels. Create an Adjustment Layer from this selection and adjust the Levels or Curves as desired. Use the Inverse selection to create and adjust a background layer if required.

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SEEING DOU

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Getup&go to… WHITBY ABBEY

GHOUL TIM

The medieval fis of the abbey in t

A long time expo of handheld flas

Gothic romance and roofless, it’s easy to why Bram Stoker used the abbey as the setting for his novel, Dracula. Though its fishing fleet is diminishing, Whitby itself is still picturesque. There are fine views from the abbey headland, but you’ll get better ones from the opposing hilltop across the River Esk, where a huge arch of whalebones and a statue of Whitby’s son, Captain Cook, provide a foreground counterpoint to the abbey standing proud above the town. It’s worth parking here and walking down into town after a quick shooting session, returning later for the evening light, when the local sandstone and red roof tiles glow golden.

BEST RESULTS ARCHITECTURAL PICTURES Architectural photography demands attention to a building's verticals to prevent it looking like it is falling backwards. Wide-angle lenses are the worst culprits, so make sure the camera back is upright as you compose your shot. Alternatively, shoot from further back (or a higher viewpoint) on a longer lens. Either way, a tripod makes for a more considered approach.

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enry Vlll’s dissolution of the monasteries in the mid-16th century destroyed much of Britain’s best religious architecture, but the ruins that remain still cast an irresistible spell over photographers. Yorkshire has many such monuments to one man’s power, as far afield as Rievaulx and Fountains Abbey, but none have such a spectacular setting as Whitby Abbey. Isolated high on a headland overlooking the colourful fishing port, Whitby Abbey is reached by a 199-step climb from the cobbled streets – a most dramatic but tiring approach! Its elevated situation allows atmospheric, brooding silhouettes against the sky. The empty gothic windows and arches of the east face make a good subject for this treatment, especially in spring when the setting sun is directly behind it. A medieval fishpond here creates fine foreground interest and is excellent for reflections. The west side is more limited but offers good shots over gravestones in front of the adjoining 12th century St Mary’s church. This is also the spot to head for if your visit is outside opening hours. Close up, the abbey’s soft sandstone is badly weathered and much detail is lost, but the pillar stumps that remain after the nave collapsed in 1762 make useful foreground devices. Gaunt

H

8

LANDSCAPE Mike Kipling dons fangs and a cloak to visit Count Dracula’s favoured Yorkshire haunt, Whitby Abbey

GET SOME INFORMATION There are plenty more of our heritage sites to visit around the country [W] www.theheritagetrail.co.uk

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WET GRASS The fishpond offers useful foreground material in this photograph

SOFT BREATH This ethereal image was achieved with an orange filter and by breathing on the lens to give a soft-focus effect

EVENING LIG

The church grave face of the abbe

NORTH YORKSHIRE

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UBLE

sh pond provides excellent reflections the late afternoon sun

WHITBY ABBEY

ME

AIM FOR SCARBOROUGH

osure allows time for several bursts h to illuminate the gravestones

ALL IMAGES © Mike Kipling

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Essentially the same shot as our main one (left), you can see what a difference a few minutes makes to the light, and to the treatment

COOK'S LAND

The silhouetted statue of Captain Cook provides excellent foreground interest for this shot of the abbey across the river from the opposite hilltop

HOW TO GET THERE

BASED ON ORDNANCE SURVEY MAPPING © CROWN COPYRIGHT, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: AM134/02

8 8

eyard offers the best view of the west ey

SOFT LIGHT

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DETAILS WHAT IS IT?

8

GHT

By car: Turn off the A1(M) near Thirsk onto the A170 east to Scarborough. Turn north here onto the A171.

The original church dates back to 657, but was destroyed in 867 by invading Vikings. Revived in 1070 by the Normans, only to be rebuilt a third time in 1220, it finally met its end at Henry Vlll's hands in 1538, after which it fell into decay, never to be rebuilt. Bram Stoker put Whitby on the literary map in 1897, using the town and abbey as a major setting in his novel, Dracula.

SHADY SILHOUETTE

Shooting against the sunset adds drama, while a graduated neutral density filter darkens the sky to great effect

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? Adults £3.60, concessions £2.70, children £1.80.

OPENING TIMES 10am-4am until 31st March, 10am-6pm thereafter. Tel 01947 603 568.

WHAT ARE THE FACILITIES? Toilets and shop at the site.

INFORMATION 11th –12th April, thousands of goths will gather for Whitby's Gothic Weekend.

8

POST-SHOOT CONVERGING VERTICALS Correct any converging verticals with Photoshop. If the subject is central, Select All, then go to Transform/ Perspective (Edit) and pull out the top corners until the verticals are right (use the Distort control on individual corners if the subject isn’t central). Stretch the resulting picture slightly to prevent the image looking squashed by pulling up the top edge with the Distort control.

SIGMA SD-9 PERFORMANCE

2 SKIN TONES 7 MODE DIAL The SD-9’s a no-nonsense camera with nononsense controls

1

5 6

4

7

3

The SD-9 has some other interesting characteristics. It doesn’t save images in JPEG or TIFF format at all. Instead, it saves them in its proprietary RAW format. Each file is around 8MB, so you’d better get your wallet out again to buy some large-scale Compact Flash or IBM Microdrive storage. Once you’ve transferred these RAW images to your computer, you use the bundled Sigma Photo Pro software to open, decode and optimise them. Now it’s possible to save them in whichever format you like.

This is the first hint you get that the Foveon chip development (or the SD-9) may have some way to go. The dim and murky images on the LCD look dim and murky here, too. Leaving the software set to auto-optimisation improves them, but there’s still a good deal of work to be done in Photoshop if you want to match the brilliance and clarity of rival digital SLRs. But while you’re messing around in Photoshop, if you try out the Unsharp Mask filter, you’ll discover something very interesting. The interpolation techniques of existing sensors mean you can only take this so far before digital artefacts wreck the image. And yet, with the SD-9’s images you can really wind up the sharpness and reveal some quite startling underlying definition. On a good day, the SD-9 will give a 6-megapixel digital

Sensor Lens Focus Exposure modes Metering Monitor AE compensation Flash Video output Movie recording Other features

WORTH A LOOK

2

3.4-megapixel, 3.5MP Foveon X3 CMOS chip Not supplied N/A Program AE, shutter-priority, aperture-priority, man 8-zone evaluative, centre-weighted, centre 1.8-inch 130,000 pixels +3EV to -3EV in 0.5EV increments Not supplied PAL or NTSC No Interchangeable lenses, FireWire and USB OLYMPUS E-20 £1,200/5.0 MP

MINOLTA DIMAGE 7HI £970/5MP

Image storage Batteries Battery life AC adaptor Weight Dimensions Transfer Software OS

NIKON D100 £1,700 (body only)/6.1MP

Between them, the SD-9 and the Foveon chip have introduced a dramatically different imaging technology at a highly affordable price. As yet, though, the image quality doesn’t live up to its promise. You’ll need to do a lot of image-editing work to reveal this duo’s potential, and most people want good results straight out of the box. We’ve also a couple of concerns about reliability. We’ve had three different SD-9s pass through our hands now: one was DOA, one worked fine and this one introduced horizontal stripes in some images. All of which leaves us with a bit of a dilemma. The technical superiority and potential image quality of the Foveon chip is obvious. What’s more, the SD-9 is the cheapest digital SLR you can get. At the moment, though, the implementation of this new technology – whether it’s the camera’s or the chip’s fault – isn’t good enough to make us want to spend all that cash.

1

SIGMA SD-9 FULL SPECIFICATIONS

Compact Flash/Microdrive 4x AA for digital functions, 2x CR123A for camera functions Not quoted Supplied 803g (without batteries or lens) 152mm(w) x 120mm(h) x 79mm(d) USB & FireWire Sigma Photo Pro Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP. Mac 9.2.1, OSX 10.1.1 or later

FUJIFILM FINEPIX S2 PRO £1,700 (body only)/6MP (12- megapixel output

5 6

PRO Lots of detail to be found if you’ve got time to work on the images, with a good tonal range CON Gloomy looking, it takes some hefty software tweaks to restore normal looking tones

2 INDOOR SHOTS

The next big thing?

Verdict

X3 images

NAVIPAD The controls are logical and the menus easy to navigate

SLR a nasty fright, even though it’s only got a 3-megapixel chip (strictly, 3 x 3, since there are three sensor layers).

With the SD-9’s images, you can really wind up the sharpness and reveal some quite startling underlying definition hit and miss, though, and in tricky conditions we often had to switch to manual. Worse still is the LCD panel on the back which, despite its 130,000-pixel resolution, proved dim, murky and sluggish. Or was it the recorded images that were dim and murky?

7

LCD A £1,300 camera needs a better LCD than this – or maybe it’s the Foveon chip’s initially murky results

LENS You can fit any of Sigma’s extensive lens range to this camera

CON Too much manipulation needed – you’ll end up choosing the skin tones you want manually

2 OUTDOOR SHOTS

3

7

PRO A bit grey in our tests, though the Photo Pro Software can fix this

The imaging technology has clear potential, but it’s early days If you spend time optimising the S-D9’s images, it’s clear what the Foveon chip is capable of. But most users will be disappointed by the out-of-the-box image quality

5 6

PRO If you opt for the 17-35mm Sigma lens, you’ll get a 29mm equivalent wideangle view CON Without flash, you’ll have to rely on the long tonal range to capture high contrast shots like this

2 IMAGE QUALITY

5 6

PRO You can resample and sharpen the SD-9’s images to match those from a 6-megapixel SLR CON The default image quality is way below that you get from rival cameras

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FEATURES IMAGES BUILD VALUE

65 77 94

1 1 1 1

79% FINAL SCORE

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

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REVIEWS

IMAGE ENHANCEMENT SOFTWARE

MAT BROOMFIELD Mat Broomfield has been writing about computers for 15 years and has been involved in digital imaging since the first PC version of Photoshop. He may be unhealthily fond of his Olympus E10

WEBSITE WWW.FUTURENET.CO.UK

Silverfast AI DC Pro 6 Accelerate your image processing workflow and help your digital photos to be all that they can be. Mat Broomfield tests a versatile program aimed at novices and serious pros alike

0

INFO

SILVERFAST AI DC PRO V6 Price $299 US Pro version $119 standard version Manufacturer Lasersoft Imaging Tel 00 494 315600927 Website www.silverfast.com

x KEY FEATURES CONTROLS ■ Offers cheaper, more advanced and versatile enhancement tools than Photoshop ■ Guides novices gently through the enhancement process ■ Fully compliant with ICM colour management ■ Includes tools for professional printers and publishers ■ Numerous colour models supported ■ Adjust exposure, white balance, gamma, histogram and more ■ Dust and scratch removal ■ Red eye removal ■ Digital lightbox ■ Batch processing

0

EXPERT TIP Mat Broomfield PC EXPERT

LIGHT TABLE Use the Virtual Light Table to select images for individual or batch processing.

036

ou might think the market is flooded with photo-editing programs but there’s still room for a program that focuses exclusively on the enhancement stage of digital imaging. Silverfast AI DC has evolved from one of the world’s most professional and beloved scanner driver programs. In most ways, scanning an image and processing one from a digital camera are very similar. In both cases, the objective is to tweak, or sometimes drastically modify the digital image data – usually that means adjusting the brightness, contrast and gamma, perhaps sharpening an image or removing a colour cast but it might involve something as radical as completely replacing colours within an image. Silverfast can handle all that and more, but what makes the program particularly useful is its ability to satisfy various user skill levels. If you’re new to image processing, the program will take you by the hand and using an almost fully-automated approach, it will enhance your photos until they meet with your approval. If on the other hand, you’re a professional photographer or publisher who needs to balance images according to the needs of a particular print process, or manipulate your images within a tightly colour-managed workflow then Silverfast AI can handle that with equal aplomb.

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2 USING SILVERFAST DC There’s a wide range of tools for the novice and more experienced digital photographer

01

02

01 Preview window

This shows the current image you’re working on and any colour or brightness adjustments you make. The filter effects are only made to the final saved image.

03

02 Filters

After colour, contrast and brightness adjustments you can add filters. Filters that can be applied in combination sometimes share the same dialogue box, but not always.

04

03 Slider controls

You can make adjustments to your photo’s contrast and white balance levels using these little slider tools.

05

06

04 Job Manager

You can perform complex enhancement sequences with this tool. You can even modify stages to add unique elements to sub-groups within the job.

05 Scan Pilot

A wizard-based tool for adjusting images step by step. You can define which stages are included in the procedure, so

complexity grows in pace with your growing skill level.

06 Densitometer

The Densitometer gives you

numerical feedback of the pixel beneath the cursor, so you can check that the colours fall within the parameters of your print progress.

Mass produced When you first load the program, you’ll be greeted by the Lightbox and the Scan Pilot. The Lightbox is an overly simplistic integrated cataloguing program that enables you to view all of your images and select those for processing. Silverfast offers extensive batch processing modes, in which you can perform identical processes on multiple images. Better yet, you can create sub-processes within a batch, and apply that to all or some of the images in the batch. For instance, you may wish to auto-adjust the gamma for every image, but only run a particular filter over those images that are larger than a specific size. Novices will appreciate Scan Pilot, the super-friendly step-by-step tool that automates the process of

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

enhancing photos and the great thing is, by following the Scan Pilot stages, you get used to editing your images in the right way – adjusting brightness and gamma first, then making colour adjustments, before using masks and filters. There is the option to ignore Scan Pilot and do everything manually and plenty to keep the professionals out there happy. You can select from numerous colour models, and adjust the settings by dragging sliders and adjusting input levels until you like the onscreen result, or you can adopt a scientific methodology, entering adjustment values into a master numeric grid. The program also offers colour management options to ensure that what you

see on-screen is what you print. The program includes a fairly limited number of photographic filters, the results of which, irritatingly, are not shown in the preview window, which can make cumulative or combination effects difficult to gauge. In most cases, Silverfast offers similar functions to those found in Photoshop, but they are organised for a faster, more logical workflow. The enhancement algorithms used are more versatile than Photoshop’s and enable you to compensate for really bad photography or difficult shooting FINAL conditions. An undo mode would SCORE have been nice, but Silverfast is still a valuable program.

75%

REVIEWS

MINI-TEST FLASHES

Five flashy numbers… Manufacturers have been slow to produce flashguns compatible with today’s digital cameras. Here are six of the best to date

T

oo often considered the poor relation to natural light, flash can be a very creative light source with the right equipment and a bit of know-how. Aside from stepping in when the sun's not around, flash can also act as a 'fill', eliminating harsh shadows from a subject on a sunny, cloudless day; or be put to creative use with action shots, 'freezing' a subject in motion while stylistic blurred trails of movement are picked up from the

surrounding ambient light. Many built-in on-camera flashguns now include these options for fill-in flash and slow-sync, but they're also inevitably under-powered, meaning a range of sometimes little more than 5m. They can't be moved from their fixed, central position either – not conducive to flattering results. External flashguns not only offer the chance of off-camera shooting angles, but they pack a lot more punch, with ranges that

can exceed 70m at the top-end. You're also more likely to find features like 2nd curtain flash, stroboscopic effects and, most importantly, the ability to tilt and swivel the flash head to 'bounce' your flash light off reflectors, walls or ceilings for soft, even lighting. effects. How much you spend will depend largely on your power and feature needs, but it's not a good idea to skimp on what really should be your second most important piece of camera kit…

METZ MECABLITZ 54MZ-3 6 Price: £277 (with required SCA 3002 adaptor), Contact Hasselblad (www.hasselblad.co.uk), Supplied items: None, Flash range: 42 metres (ISO 100), Battery type: 4 AA-size (alkaline, NiCd or NiMH), Flash modes: TTL, auto, manual

7

The Mecablitz 54MZ-3 has everything any top-of-the -line brand flashgun can offer, so as with the cheaper Metz Mecablitz 44MZ-2 (see opposite), it’s a choice alternative for Canon and Fuji users wanting more for their money (Fuji cameras traditionally use Nikon Speedlites). Minolta Dimage users don’t have a dedicated gun yet either, so the Metz is the best choice here, and Olympus Camedia owners only have the FL-40 which, for £400 shouldn’t be an option for anyone

You get what you pay for: this only has limited power range

NIKON SB-30 5 This miniature number is Nikon’s entry-level equivalent to the Canon Speedlite 220EX, but with a guide number of just 16 metres it’s pushing the boundaries of usefulness. It’s reasonably robust, extremely compact and does have the option of TTL, auto and manual modes, which is a pleasant surprise. Saying that, if you’re willing to go the lengths to learn how to make the most of manual mode, you’re likely feel rather limited with a power range of 16 metres. Other features include a built-in wide-angle diffuser, (though this looks like it’ll snap off at the first sign of impatience), automatic fill-in flash (with the relevant Coolpix setting) and a limited tilt for close-up subjects. Results aren’t bad as long as you don’t stray too far from your subject, and the FINAL lack of a zoom reflector doesn’t cause too much trouble, but it’s touch and go SCORE as to whether this brings you enough advantages over built-in flash to warrant the money. You’d be better off saving up for a higher-end model.

62%

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

87%

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

Price: £90 Contact: Nikon (www.nikon.co.uk) Supplied items: None, Flash range: 42 metres (ISO 100), Battery type: 1 3V CR123A lithium, Flash modes: TTL, auto, manual

038

with sense. The 54MZ-3 is over £100 more than the 44MZ-2 and though it beats other makes in this price range, you should still have a good think before spending the extra cash. You get a greater 42-metre power output with this model – useful if you’re shooting large groups of people, or subjects at a distance but for the most part won’t mean any gain in quality. Feature-wise you get high-speed synchronisation (the only way to use fill-in flash and a wide aperture to throw your background out-of-focus on a sunny day), power packs for fast recycling times, flash exposure bracketing for optimum exposure, as well as 25 partial output settings. The LCD setup is also more straightforward to use. Not enough gains to warrant FINAL SCORE the extra money for most, though.

7 Canon, FujiFIlm and Minolta users, take note: this is featureladen but pricier than the 44MZ-2

; 5

NEXT MONTH

CAMERA LENS FILTERS

7NIKON SB-50DX Price: £200 Nikon (www.nikon.co.uk) Supplied items: Infra-Red Filter S-9IR and Soft Case SS-50, Flash range: 42 metres (ISO 100), Battery type: 2 3V CR123A lithium, Flash modes: D-TTL and manual The first thing that has to be said is that a guide number of 22 metres really isn’t sufficient for a flashgun weighing in at £200 – yes, it’s a significant improvement over built-in flash, but Nikon really should be offering more for the money; Canon’s price equivalent offers a far more useful rating of 42GN. The SB-80DX offers a much improved guide number of 38 metres, but at an extra cost of £90. It’s a shame that the Metz guns aren’t fully compatible with all Nikon cameras. To some extent this power shortfall is made up elsewhere; the LCD and backplate setup are first-rate, and there’s full dedication with

Coolpix and digital SLR flash functions such as slow-sync, rear-curtain, 3D matrix flash metering, and flash exposure compensation, and there’s a manual mode (albeit full power output only) for the more serious enthusiasts wishing to take real creative control, as well as a built-in infra-red trigger for wireless slave use. Before you get too excited though, there are some minus points in the features list too; for example, the LCD provides no distance shooting scale, so you’ve got to refer to an accompanying piece of card to work out maximum flash distance at a given aperture; there’s no swivel facility, so bounce flash is restricted to walls rather than ceilings; and the auto zoom reflector doesn’t work FINAL with the Coolpix range – it has to be set manually SCORE on the flashgun. That’s too many faults to make this good value.

73%

7

8 CANON SPEEDLITE 420EX Price: £180 Contact Canon (www.canon.co.uk) Supplied items: None, Flash range: 42 metres (ISO 100), Battery type: 4 AA-size (alkaline, lithium or NiCd), Flash modes: E-TTL only

7 The built-in wireless feature here is a bonus, but the low power output isn’t

You can make the most of Canon’s superb E-TTL technology with the 420EX

For an extra 50 notes, this flashgun seems to offer disproportionately more than its predecessor the 220EX – there’s a swivel and tilt head for bounce flash techniques, a zoom reflector for optimised output at differing focal lengths, the ability to use it as a slave (or master) in conjunction with other flashguns, and an altogether bigger and sturdier build that better reflects its price tag. With the Powershot G2, G3 and Canon’s digital SLRs, the 420EX can offer rear-curtain flash, slow-sync flash, flash exposure compensation, flash-exposure lock and FP flash. The lack of overrides for setting aperture and power output manually will hamper the more serious enthusiast, particularly when balancing the light levels of foreground and background. For this sort of control you need to look to the 550EX and be prepared to spend another £90, or consider one of the Metz alternatives. The extra money on the 550EX doesn’t get you vast amounts more power though (only half a stop) – a guide number of 42 metres on the 420EX is more than adequate for anything but serious professional use. Overall the 420EX is a FINAL sensible choice for beginners and more serious users alike, but a SCORE little pricey for a flashgun that hasn’t needed to incorporate an LCD.

78%

7METZ MECABLITZ 44MZ-2 Price: £277 (with required SCA 3002 adaptor) Contact Hasselblad (www.hasselblad.co.uk) Supplied items: None, Flash range: 42 metres (ISO 100), Battery type: 4 AA-size (alkaline, NiCd or NiMH), Flash modes: TTL, auto, manual

7 Bags of featuress make this model fantastic value

The Metz guns have always been considered the best of the third-party offerings and nearly always represent better value than the manufacturer’s own-brand models. The 44MZ-2 is comparable with the Canon Speedlite 420EX (above) and the Nikon SB-80DX in terms of power output, but is streets ahead when it comes to

features. It has rear-curtain synchronisation, slow-sync compatibility, auto zoom reflector, full TTL flash mode, auto fill-in flash, and can take advantage of any other functions that digital cameras offer, such as the flash exposure lock and flash exposure compensation features offered by Canon cameras, or the ADI flash control and multi-segment centreweighted metering found on Minolta’s Dimage models, and so on. On top of this there’s full manual control, giving you the option of manually setting aperture, ISO speed, zoom length, and power output in eight increments – useful if you want to master flash for truly professional results. If there’s a downside, it’s the LCD setup, which is poorly thought out, but not enough of FINAL a problem to make this anything short of SCORE excellent value. Minolta, Olympus, Canon, Contax and Fuji users should all consider this.

85%

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

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DIGITAL CAMERA SHOPPER

NEW FROM THE MAKERS OF DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE!

What? Why? How? Looking for a new digital camera? Digital Camera Shopper makes it easy. Compacts, SLRs, lenses, accessories, scanners, software, tripods, bags and more… whatever you are looking for, Digital Camera Shopper shows you what to buy and how to buy it.

ON SALE EVERYWHERE FROM 24 APRIL 2003 Find out more at www.dcmag.co.uk

The UK’s only dedicated digital camera buying guide

WEB ALBUM SOFTWARE

LAB TEST

Labtest

WEB ALBUM SOFTWARE I

n this digital world, you’re no longer reliant on slide projectors, photo galleries or even physical prints to share your photos with family, friends or a wider audience. The natural medium for digital images is the web, but constructing a website from scratch can be daunting, especially if your skills and experience tend towards photography rather than Java programming. To bridge this gap, software companies are now releasing packages that claim to do all the hard work for you, letting you concentrate on taking and editing your pictures while their software takes care of the technical details. We’ve chosen six packages that will appeal to digital photographers, from absolute web novices to more experienced users. All share the ability to transform your digital images into an organised album that can form part of a website, but they do that in very different ways. At the cheapest end of the market are dedicated album creators that come with few bells and whistles, such as image editors or graphical interfaces. You can search any of the popular download sites (see the web links box on page 43 for more information) for these and prices vary from free to around £10. If you want the reliability and support of a commercial program, £20 to £50 will get you a basic image-editing package with a range of pre-set templates – Photo Explosion and Picture It! are good examples. Many of their projects, such as greetings cards, calendars, stickers

and so on, are based around your inkjet printer but almost all packages in this price range also include some web projects. Similarly priced programs that concentrate on archiving your images and desktop/web albums are Adobe Photoshop Album, Serif’s MediaPlus and Ulead’s Photo Explorer, but their image-manipulation functions tend to be limited. If you already have a good editor that can optimise your images for web use, you might prefer to buy a web-design package, which will cost from £50. These allow you to put together a site from scratch, but inevitably mean immersing yourself in the nuts and bolts of web layout and even HTML code.

Creative features There are three main steps to getting your images from your camera to a website. The first is the uploading and individual image manipulation that all digital photos require – cropping to fit, adjusting levels and colour, plus any creative effects you want to add. Secondly, your finished images will need to be organised into a coherent theme, resized to work well together visually and often renamed. Lastly, this desktop album has to be turned into a collection of web pages, coded in HTML and with file sizes suitable for web use. Regardless of how good your work is, no one is going to wait for an uncompressed 4-megapixel image to download over a 56K dial-up connection.

ON TEST

WEB ALBUMS SERIF MEDIAPLUS Price: £60 MICROSOFT PICTURE IT! DIGITAL IMAGE PRO 7.0 Price: £60 NOVA DEVELOPMENT PHOTO EXPLOSION DELUXE Price: £40 ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ALBUM 1.0 Price: £40 DATADOSEN JALBUM Price: Free ULEAD PHOTOSHOP EXPLORER 8.0 Price: £16

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

041

LAB TEST WEB ALBUM SOFTWARE TOP TIP Archiving – back up your albums onto CD at least once a month. It’s bad enough when your hard disc fails or your PC is stolen without losing irreplaceable images at the same time

? EXPLAINED

SERIF MEDIAPLUS

EXIF

MICROSOFT

NOVA DEVELOPMENT PHOTO EXPLOSION

PICTURE IT! PRO

Exchangeable Image File Format is the standard used by most digital cameras to embed information in JPEG images. EXIF data usually comprises exposure information, date, camera name, whether the flash fired and the focal length, but can include anything from comments to GPS location data.

PRICE CONTACT WEBSITE

£60 0800 376 7070 www.serif.com

PRICE CONTACT WEBSITE

MediaPlus is a dedicated media-management package with almost no ability to alter any of the files it organises. Its excellent browser windows display navigation, thumbnails, a preview window and a window dedicated to albums (collections of media files). Files can be categorised with keywords to aid searching, but with no ability to enhance or re-format files, it feels very limited in scope. The web album creation wizard is, on the face of it, very flexible, with plenty of templates and extensive user control over web page attributes like thumbnail layout, colours, fonts and – uniquely – metadata search tags. MediaPlus can’t compress or resize images, so its website is 17MB in size. You’ll need to resize the images in an editor before creating sites in this package, making MediaPlus little more than a glorified image viewer.

5 6

PRO Excellent browser and good web options CON No image manipulation

49% FINAL SCORE

All the packages on test except JAlbum and MediaPlus allow you some degree of creative control over your images, with both automatic and manual control over brightness, contrast and colour, though usually with sliders rather than the more powerful histogram graphs. The same programs also have functions to add artificial fill flash and backlighting effects, and enable you to eliminate red-eye. Picture It!, Photo Explorer and Photo Explosion offer a range of filters to add visual effects, with Picture It! able to use standard Photoshop plug-in filters for extra flexibility. In order to really get to grips with your images, you’ll need the functionality of layers and range of selection tools – freehand, smart edges, colour and preset shapes – that only Photo Explosion and Picture It! offer. They’re also the only packages that enable you to add text, painting, graphics and frame or edge

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£60 0870 601 0100 www.microsoft.co.uk

Microsoft’s image editor is a slick product clearly aimed at a novice consumer audience. Picture It! Pro comes with a good image browser with scalable thumbnails, then proceeds to hand-hold you through enhancements (levels, colour, resize, crop, rotate and so on), including Photoshop plug-in filters. Selection tools are average, with an edge finder, lasso tool and shape cutouts, but don’t expect adjustment layers or paintable masks. Although Picture It! has a neat batch-adjust ‘Minilab’, it doesn’t let you alter image size or compression quality. There are thousands of templated projects, including CD archiving, but this is the only program on test that can’t output HTML for your website. Instead, it goes online via its built-in browser and uploads your images to MSN Photos online gallery. This is great for absolute novices but won’t appeal to users with their own webspace and site to fill.

5 6

PRO Fully-featured image editor CON Can't output HTML pages

58% FINAL SCORE

effects to your images, plus they have clone and blemish removal brushes.

Album features Once you’ve built up a collection of finished images, you can think about organising them into a themed album. All the programs on test except JAlbum come with an image browser that displays thumbnails of all the images in a folder, and Photo Explorer and MediaPlus also have neat preview windows. All the browsers except Picture It! let you sort the thumbnails by name or date, search for individual images and display detailed picture information, such as the EXIF data collected by your camera (including exposure and flash settings). Photoshop Album drops your images onto a neat timeline, so you can see when you were busy out shooting. With some packages you can categorise your

PRICE CONTACT WEBSITE

£40 01752 202 507 www.novadevelopment.co.uk

This image editor has a huge range of features, bonus programs, fonts, sample photos and templates. At its heart is an image editor aimed at pure novices, split logically into three sections. The first is an image browser with thumbnails, image and EXIF info. There’s a great batch-adjust option, letting you adjust quality and format, plus run the usual enhancements. The second is the individual photo-edit page with basic selection and image-editing options, including a clone brush, text and a range of filters. Lastly, the project mode has templates for cards, calendars and other novelties. The web album launches from the browser, but you’re limited to 29 (poorly designed) themed templates. There are some nice touches (you can specify the order of images in the show, you have some control over image quality and you can add an email/web signature) but it all feels too restrictive.

5 6

PRO Solid image browsing and editing skills. CON Atrocious template design

61% FINAL SCORE

images using tags (Photoshop Album) or keywords (MediaPlus), which is great for simplifying searches. Only JAlbum lets you include sub-directories in your album. The image browser is where you can apply batch adjustments to a number of images simultaneously. Ideally, you should be able to alter a bunch of images automatically so that they match each other and suit the medium where you’ll publish them (web, slideshow or print). Always apply batch effects to copies of your images in case you need the originals in the future. Photo Explosion and Photo Explorer have the best batch adjustments, allowing you to rename, move and save groups of images to a range of file formats at set quality levels. Photo Explosion and Picture It! also let you run enhancements on a batch of images: cropping, rotating, eliminating red-eye and – most usefully – auto-tweaking brightness, contrast and colour. All the programs except

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ALBUM 1.0

DATA DOSEN JALBUM

ULEAD PHOTO EXPLORER 8.0

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EXPERT TIP MARK HARRIS WEB ALBUM EXPERT

KEEP IT SIMPLE! Google is the most popular site in the world and also one of the most basic. Keeping design to a minimum and content to a maximum means your site will load faster and work better with different browsers. DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

PRICE CONTACT WEBSITE

£40 020 8606 4001 www.adobe.com

Aimed squarely at a consumer/enthusiast market, Photoshop offers a range of projects to let you create cards and calendars, web albums, archive CDs and slideshows. The image browser has excellent filing and search functionality, including tags that you can drag onto your images to categorise them. It even places your images on a timeline – a smart feature for anyone who takes a lot of photos. While there are limited image-enhancement options (no selection tools), the presence of an Edit In Photoshop… option confirms Photoshop Album’s role as primarily a publisher rather than an editor. Creating a web album is fairly simple, with 15 templates of varying quality. Most allow you to select the size and quality of images, whether to display captions, file and date, and give the option of including an email signature. The Javascript 3D gallery is a lot of fun.

PRICE CONTACT WEBSITE

Free N/A www.datadosen.se

JAlbum is a unique piece of software that is designed to do just one thing – turn your digital images into a self-contained website. Based around the Java Virtual Machine (which accounts for the majority of its hefty 7.5MB download), JAlbum is basic but easily expanded. There are already a good range of new skins, styles and scripts to download from Datadosen. You simply drag-and-drop a folder of finished images into the Image Directory dialogue and specify an output folder. You can perform basic image manipulation on the Edit page, plus add captions and rename the images. JAlbum’s strength is not in the range but in the utility of the options it presents – you can set thumbnail and main image size and quality, whether the site links to the large original files, whether to include EXIF data on a neat little pop-up and re-order the images by date and name, or in reverse. Upload is via a modest FTP.

PRICE CONTACT WEBSITE

£13 01327 844 755 www.ulead.co.uk

Photo Explorer does far more than its name suggests, cataloguing all your audio and video files as well as organising your digital images. Based around a file browser that includes a superb batch-edit function and preview window, Photo Explorer combines basic image-editing functions with a staggering range of publishing options. As well as web albums, it can create auto-run CD slideshows, DVD slideshows in PAL or NTSC, has a superb range of printing layouts, a few projects (calendars and wallpaper) and can convert your images into MPEG video files – a great way to showcase low-res photos on a website. Despite its simplistic interface, there’s plenty of power – as demonstrated by the way it uses comprehensive dialogue boxes rather than templates to generate the HTML pages. It also comes bundled with a speedy ACDSee-style image browser called Instant Viewer.

* WEB LINKS USEFUL LINKS

5 6

PRO Superb slideshow publishing CON No batch adjust. Lack of professional detail

66% FINAL SCORE

JAlbum and MediaPlus have the facility to resize and rotate images, while Picture It! and Photo Explorer also let you stretch and distort them.

Web creation and upload Now that you’ve got a bunch of good looking, labelled pictures, you’ll want to turn them into web pages. All the packages except Picture It! walk you through the process, offering set templates that you can fiddle with to a greater or lesser extent. Picture It! is unique in that it doesn’t actually create HTML-coded pages with your images, but instead uploads them straight to the MSN Photos online database using a built-in web browser. This means your pictures are visible immediately but it doesn’t allow you to incorporate them in your own site or have any say over how they’re displayed. Picture It! has none of features detailed below.

5 6

PRO Free, easy to use, powerful and expandable CON One-trick pony

57% FINAL SCORE

With all the other packages you can add captions to each image and (with the exception of MediaPlus) select the compression quality. JAlbum, Photo Explorer and Photoshop Album let you choose or limit the size of each main image, and alter the size and layout of the thumbnails. JAlbum and MediaPlus let you order your images, while Photo Explosion and Photo Explorer let you choose the order in which they’re displayed. With Photoshop Album and Photo Explorer you can tinker with the web colours and page properties, and they also let you record an audio file to accompany each image. JAlbum and Photo Explorer include camera EXIF data in your albums – we like JAlbum’s pop-up information. All the packages except MediaPlus let you re-name the web pages created (index.html is the default) and all offer a preview function so that you can see the end

5 6

PRO All-round image browser and editor CON No FTP client

78% FINAL SCORE

result. MediaPlus, Photo Explosion and JAlbum have a built-in FTP client to upload your finished album: the others use web uploads or you’ll need a separate FTP program. JAlbum’s upload function is clearer than the others on test and includes a Smart Upload function that avoids uploading the same files more than once. Most ISPs offer at least 5MB of space for personal websites, but if you haven’t arranged any, there are plenty of free webspace providers on the net. Apart from Picture It!’s MSN gallery, Photoshop Album and Photo Explorer also offer online album hosting.

Other extras There are plenty of other features on offer, too. All but JAlbum can produce slideshows of your images for viewing on your desktop or, in the case of Photoshop Album and Photo Explorer, as a self-running CD or Video-

http://downloads.zdnet.co.uk This UK download site is well categorised and has a great selection of software for all operating systems. www.photobox.com The winner of our online printing lab test can host your web album (up to 100MB in size). Even better, anyone visiting it can order highquality prints of your work. http://download.com.com If you can’t find the shareware package you’re after here, it probably doesn’t exist. Also features dozens of help files to demystify all aspects of HTML web design. www.freewebspace.net This site has a searchable database of over 350 free webspace providers, some with large 100MB allowances and others that don’t litter your site with annoying popup or banner ads.

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

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LAB TEST WEB ALBUM SOFTWARE TOP TIP Browsing your site – check how your website looks in different browsers, including older (and, if possible, Mac) versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape

? EXPLAINED PDF FILES This is Adobe’s own read-only format for text and images. You’ll need the free Acrobat reader to open the high resolution files, which you can then scale to fit your screen. PDF files are generally much larger in size than similar Word or HTML files.

SERIF MEDIAPLUS

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

PICTURE IT! PRO

NOVA DEVELOPMENT PHOTO EXPLOSION DELUXE

PERFORMANCE

PERFORMANCE

PERFORMANCE

The points MediaPlus gains for allowing user control over font style and size, colours, borders and framing are negated by simple errors such as not using the album title at the top of the page (‘My Pictures’ may be accurate, but it would be nice to be able to change it). Although you can alter the thumbnail size, MediaPlus generates the same image regardless, meaning a blocky, pixellated mess at anything over 200 pixels square. Navigation is awkward, forcing you to revisit the thumbnail page rather than allowing to go from one large image to the next. And since MediaPlus doesn’t compress your original images, these can be really large. Owing to the size of the site (over 17MB in total), we didn’t use the FTP client to upload the site, but it seemed uncomplicated enough.

Resizing and changing the JPEG image quality of our gallery of test photos has to be done individually – a time consuming and boring task that should be possible using the Minilab batch adjust. Compression efficiency is good, with our largest 1.3MB images (the toy cars) squeezing down to 77KB while maintaining acceptable quality. Uploading to the MSN photos is simplicity itself, taking less than two minutes using a broadband connection. If you haven’t already got a MSN Passport .Net account, you’ll need to register for that to get your 30MB online storage allowance. Customising the display of your images online is limited to putting them in folders, where they show as thumbnails.

Photo Explosion’s image browser is impressive – packed with info and able to batch-adjust many images simultaneously. Its editing functions are also respectable given the price, with a useful smart selection tool (including anti-aliasing and feathering), some fun filters and manual colour, brightness, contrast and focus controls. The package takes only seconds to generate the website, which works correctly and ends up a respectable 1.2MB in size. Unfortunately, the template designs are ugly and the one attribute you can’t alter is the size of the images – a maximum 266 pixels high just isn’t large enough to do justice to anyone’s photography. A good all-rounder, but probably only worth considering if you don’t have an image editor.

KEY FEATURE 1 KEY FEATURE 1

A great browser window makes it simple to track your media file – and even acquire files from the web.

The built-in web browser integrates well with IE6 (using your cookies), presenting you with a single interface all the way from working on your images to viewing them online.

KEY FEATURE 2

KEY FEATURE 2

KEY FEATURE 2

The gallery-creation wizard is simple – click on areas of the page to customise the look and feel of your pages.

Just like your local high street minilab, the Minilab feature applies set enhancements to a batch of photos.

Check out the cheesy but fun animated GIF templates that enable you to add fireworks or kaleidoscope effects.

CD that you can play on most domestic DVD players. Photo Explosion can also produce slideshows for Palms, PDAs, Pocket PCs and graphics for some mobile phones. Photoshop Album goes one better with a unique 3D gallery that displays your images in a variety of Quakestyle environments, from museums and churches to Stonehenge. It’s bizarre but fun, and easy to set up. Photo Explosion’s panorama software can stitch your images into 360-degree vistas. MediaPlus and Photo Explorer have the intriguing feature of being able to strip a website of all its media files – an excellent way of acquiring non-copyright online images and sound files. JAlbum has the most promising long-term feature – it can

utilise standard Java scripts to enhance your albums. The JAlbum website already has a range of add-on features available to download, including adding audio comments to your images and improvements to the naming systems. All the packages except JAlbum, MediaPlus and Photo Explosion can archive your images and albums to back-up media like CD-Rs.

the software itself. All of these programs are designed for enthusiasts rather than professionals, and none takes more than a few minutes to install and an hour or two to get to grips with. The web album creation process was uniformly straightforward, as long as you work from copies rather than original image files, there’s little that can go wrong. The biggest ease of use differences are in image browsing and manipulation – as your collection of images grows, the benefits of categorising and batch adjusting your pictures become much more noticeable. Photo Explorer and Photo Explosion have the best combination of cataloguing features. Photo Explosion and Picture It! are more complex image editors than the

KEY FEATURE 1

044

MICROSOFT

Ease of use All the packages have good online help pages and all but JAlbum come with a paper manual. Picture It!’s manual is especially comprehensive, including hints for getting the best out of your camera, scanner and monitor as well as

You’re limited to using the painfully amateur album templates for your album, complete with nasty animations and music.

; 3

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ALBUM 1.0

DATADOSEN JALBUM

ULEAD PHOTO EXPLORER 8.0

PERFORMANCE

PERFORMANCE

PERFORMANCE

Photoshop Album makes short work of generating the site, taking just 11 seconds to compress and resize the images. The site comes out to 1.35MB in total, with the 800 x 600 images ranging in size from 35KB to 107KB. Compression quality is good rather than exceptional. The layout isn’t especially attractive as the default caption, if you don’t add one, is the camera name. Large captions can distort the thumbnail columns, making the layout appear lopsided, although navigation around the site is simple and logical. Photoshop Album is closer in feel to the cut-down Elements than Photoshop itself, although both editors already have excellent image browsers. Ultimately, Photoshop Album lacks the batch adjustments, FTP client and ability to include EXIF data that would make it a must-have buy.

JAlbum is a joy to use, although you will need a decent image editor to enhance and crop your images beforehand. Generating the site takes around a minute, giving a very efficient total file size of just 1.1MB and some beautifully compressed images. It is the only package to allow a subdirectory of images within the album. The template designs supplied are all neat and functional, as is the pop-up EXIF data – essential for camera buffs. A link to the JAlbum website appears on each page and, while you can easily this in the HTML source, it’s a great way to advertise this indispensable one-trick pony.

Photo Explorer is intuitive to use and is that rare piece of software that gets more impressive the more you use it. Browsing, image enhancing and batch adjusting are straightforward and unburdened with frills. It is the slowest package on test to generate HTML, taking 80 seconds to output a 1.2MB site, complete with EXIF data captions and custom header and footers. Images are efficiently compressed, gaining little pixellation or digital noise. The wealth of features compensates the lack of an FTP client. Video file management is welcome now that movie modes are found on nearly all new digital cameras. This superb piece of software comes closer than any other package on test to managing the whole creative process.

KEY FEATURE 1 Creating a full-screen PDF slideshow with navigator is a matter of just a single click. You can even save the slideshow as an auto-run CD to mail to your friends.

KEY FEATURE 1 The edit page is far more modest than most, but you can still rotate images and even write your captions directly into the JPEG file.

KEY FEATURE 2 Fifteen skins are supplied, each with a handful of style options. JAlbum searches for skins in the skins directory and displays them in a window. More are available to download from the site.

NEXT MONTH

WE PUT ALL-IN-ONE PRINTERS THROUGH THEIR PACES

? EXPLAINED FTP File Transfer Protocol is the most efficient way to upload files to your websites. Internet Explorer can perform basic FTP uploads, but you can find dozens of dedicated FTP clients on any of the download sites.

KEY FEATURE 1 A superb batch-adjust function converts to any of dozens of file formats, and changes image sizes and compression simultaneously.

KEY FEATURE 2 The file browser has an intelligent search, scalable thumbnails and a useful data/preview window.

KEY FEATURE 2 The image browser is designed to make filing and searching for your images as easy as possible.

others on test, although neither has the power or flexibility of a package like Paint Shop Pro.

Results and performance The test site we used consisted of 20 images – a total of just over 16MB. The time taken to compress and resize images and to create the web pages varied but even the slowest, Photo Explorer, took less than a minute and a half. This is a huge time saving over creating the web pages with design software, especially if you want several different themed albums or will be adding to the albums on a regular basis. The programs all performed well in compressing the images down to acceptable sizes

– the largest was Photo Explorer at a total of 1.7MB. This was also the most easily customisable package, although the option to limit the file size of images didn’t work especially well. The total includes the thumbnails, the HTML web pages and any other graphics or code that the package added in (navigation arrows, for example). Photo Explosion’s 1.2MB is less impressive than it sounds as the images are constrained to a much smaller size – the extra space is taken up with unnecessary design frills. JAlbum creates a slim 1.1MB site with a clean design. Picture It! doesn’t create any HTML pages, as its gallery is entirely web-based at MSN Photos. MediaPlus can’t compress or resize images, so its website is a

massive 17MB in size – you’ll need to resize the images in an editor before creating sites in this package. Looking at the quality of the compressed and resized images, Photo Explosion compressed the main images to the largest extent, giving notably poorer quality images than the others. Picture It! and Photoshop Album created good images but JAlbum and Photo Explorer were best on test – compressing very efficiently to produce smooth, noise-free photos. Some templates are certainly better designed than others. At the bottom of the taste tree is Photo Explosion Deluxe. Nearly all its 29 styles are painfully poor – either American themes like Thanksgiving (complete with

0

EXPERT TIP MARK HARRIS WEB ALBUM EXPERT

ADDING EXTRAS Liven up your website with hit counters, polls and message boards, available for free from sites across the net. To find them, just follow links from sites you like.

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LAB TEST WEB ALBUM SOFTWARE WEB ALBUM SOFTWARE TIP If you’re worried about the security of your images, then you’ll have to use web-based photo services like MSN Photos or Apple’s .Mac, both offer password protection of your pics

1

SPECIFICATIONS AT-A-GLANCE

SERIF MEDIAPLUS

MICROSOFT

PICTURE IT! PRO

NOVA DEVELOPMENT ADOBE PHOTO EXPLOSION DELUXE PHOTOSHOP ALBUM 1.0

Price

£60

£60

£40

£40

Tel

0800 376 7070

0870 601 0100

01752 202 507

020 8606 4001

URL

www.serif.com

www.microsoft.co.uk

www.novadevelopment.co.uk

www.adobe.com

Operating system?

PC

PC

PC

PC

Image enhance?

None None

Photo adjustments, plus clone, sharpen and backlight Freehand, colour and edge sensing, pre-set shapes

Photo adjustments, plus fill-flash, backlight and sharpen

Selection tools?

Photo adjustments, plus heal, fill-flash and backlight Freehand, colour and edge sensing, pre-set shapes

Searchable image browser?

Searchable, shows EXIF data and preview

Basic browser only

Searchable, shows EXIF data

Searchable, shows EXIF data and timeline

Image categories?

Yes

No

No

Yes

Batch adjust?

None

Name, enhance and file format

Name and enhance

None

Manipulate image

Rotate and flip

Rotate, resize, stretch and distort

Rotate, resize and flip

Rotate and resize

Web album templates

5

None

29

15

Customise HTML plates?

All aspects

No

No

Add frame and change colour

Online album?

No

Yes

No

Yes

Set image order?

No

No

Yes

No

Set gallery image qualities

Thumbnail size only

Main image size and quality

Thumbnail size, basic main image quality

Thumbnail size, main image size and quality

Display EXIF data?

No

No

No

No

Upload

FTP

Web

FTP

Web

Archiving/Slideshow?

No/Yes

Yes/No

No/Yes, and VCD disc

Yes/Yes, and VCD disc

Features %

50%

50%

61%

61%

Performance %

40%

63%

58%

71%

Ease of use %

65%

70%

70%

75%

Overall %

49%

58%

61%

66%

animated turkeys) or saccharine pet and birthday galleries. Photoshop Album and MediaPlus have templates in similarly questionable taste but at least both also have simple templates to choose from. Navigation is easy and the layout neat, but larger captions disrupted the columns slightly. The styles and templates from JAlbum are pretty good, but the lack of a preview means choosing one is a bit hit and miss. They share a crisp, efficient layout, and the multitude of layout options mean you can fit as many or as few thumbnails as you like on a page. Photo Explorer has no templates, but almost every aspect of layout and colouring is alterable – a refreshingly simple method.

Conclusion None of these packages are a substitute for decent webdesign software. If you want to make the most of what HTML has to offer, a package such as FrontPage is well worth the investment in time and money. But all of them can help you organise and publish your photos,

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and the package you choose will depend very much on what other software you already own. Picture It! and Photo Explosion are user friendly and more powerful than they first appear. Their batch-adjust features are good and Photo Explosion’s comprehensive image browser recommends it to anyone in the market for midlevel image editor. While Picture It! is more of a traditional editor, the lack of HTML code generation rules it out for anyone who wants to integrate a gallery into their own site rather than use MSN’s (admittedly convenient) online album. The differences between the image-cataloguing programs – MediaPlus, Photoshop Album and Photo Explorer – show just how young this market is. All three have superb file browsers, the preview windows in MediaPlus and Photo Explorer proving more useful than Photoshop Album’s gimmicky timeline. MediaPlus stumbles when it comes to image manipulation – it doesn’t even let you compress or change file formats, rendering it little more than a glorified image viewer.

None

Photoshop Album is more competent, offering useful image tweaks and solid publishing options, from 3D galleries to VCD slideshows. Photo Explorer, though, pushes all the right buttons, with a well thought out range of useful features, including a supremely flexible web gallery feature that allows EXIF data display, audio comments and highly customisable layouts. Moreover, it also forms the heart of a true multimedia library, able to capture stills from video files, convert your images to an MPEG movie and strip websites of their media files. The odd man out in this test is JAlbum. With no browser or manipulation features, it concentrates on a single function, allowing you to create HTML galleries from your edited images. It’s breathtakingly simple, efficient and free of overblown interfaces and, most importantly, produces neat, attractive pages. Given its non-existent price tag, JAlbum is perfectly suited for anyone who already owns image-editing and webdesign software but wants to reduce the time and effort of building a page by hand.

HOW WE TESTED THE WEB ALBUM SOFTWARE DATADOSEN JALBUM

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

ULEAD PHOTO EXPLORER 8.0

Free

£16

N/A

01327 844 755

www.datadosen.se

www.ulead.co.uk

PC, Mac, Linux, Sun & OS/2

PC

None

Basic photo adjustments plus sharpen

None

None

None

Searchable, shows EXIF data and preview

No

Yes

None

Name and file format

Rotate, resize, flip and mirror

Rotate, resize and distort

15

No

No

All aspects

No

Yes

No

Yes

Thumbnail size, main image size and quality

Thumbnail size, main image size and basic quality

Yes

Yes

FTP

Web

No/No

Yes/Yes, plus VCD and DVD disc

37%

82%

77%

75%

80%

75%

57%

78%

VERDICT esigning an image-based website isn’t difficult, but it is time-consuming. Images have to be organised, re-sized and compressed, then integrated into HTML pages that themselves need a certain amount of design thought and work. None of the packages on test have the range of functionality required to give you complete creative control – at the least you’ll want a web editor to tweak the final pages and add other content to your website. Having said that, several packages stand out as offering excellent time-saving and organisational abilities. If you’re new to digital imaging, Nova’s Photo Explosion Deluxe is a handy image editor, has a great image browser and some fun publishing features (such as panorama stitching and DVD slideshow software) but

D

its album templates are limited and somewhat ugly. So, the more experienced user has two real options. Datadosen’s elegant and simple JAlbum freeware focuses solely on the creation of web pages from your images, and it does that almost faultlessly. Its ability to grow with scripts and user-defined styles and skins should give it a long shelf-life. But the most impressive package overall is Ulead’s Photo Explorer 8.0. It has an excellent multimedia file browser offering a range of batch-adjust and cataloguing options, plus customisable web gallery pages, including EXIF data, audio comments and page layouts. Photo Explorer will complement your image editor, making it easier to enjoy and share your images and movie clips instead of leaving them languishing on your hard drive.

esting album software isn’t straightforward. Although all the packages on test share the ability to transform your digital images into an organised album that can form part of a website, they do it in very different ways. Why you prefer one package to another is likely to depend far more on the features list and your opinion of the tools and interface than differences in performance. For this reason, we rated each of the packages on how they coped with certain common tasks. We chose to assess the packages resizing and renaming capabilities, file compression efficiency and uploading. Our sample gallery consisted of 20 shots (four in a subdirectory) ranging from 400K to 2MB in size, taken on a variety of cameras and in different orientations. We tried to make the web albums as similar as possible – limiting thumbnail

T

pictures to 120 x 120 pixels and main images as close to 800 x 600 pixels. Where possible, we selected 70 per cent JPEG quality for the main images. We also added a few captions, tried to include EXIF data and rename the final webpages. We timed how long the packages took to generate the website (including compressing and resizing images) and measured the file size of the final website created. We then rated all the features on offer from each of our packages, weighting the ones that are more useful to photographers (so basic image-editing functions got more points than painting tools). Lastly, we rated the packages for ease of use, awarding points for logical, intuitive functionality, good manuals and useful help and error messages. The final percentage score that you see for each package took all the above elements into account.

WEB DESIGN

P

ublishing your images to a web gallery template is all very well, but the creative process doesn’t stop with Photoshop. If you want to create a website that does full justice to your work, you should consider investing time and money in dedicated web-design software. Microsoft Front Page (£120) offers a powerful yet user-friendly introduction to site design and layout, enabling you to work in a familiar WYSIWYG window or tackle the raw HTML code as you become more confident. Macromedia Dreamweaver MX (£340) is more expensive but comes with an unparalleled array of visual tools, enabling you to create professional-looking websites. Step beyond HTML and you can create multimedia content that combines your photos with audio or video animation – Macromedia Flash MX (£420) will test your talent and technical knowledge in equal measure. But you don’t need to spend this kind of money at first. Begin by looking at the simple HTML code that makes up any web page – just open them in Word or Notepad, and basic web editors can be had for free from any of the download sites. HTML is easy to learn and there are plenty of online guides – you should be able to alter basic features in a matter of hours.

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Trailblazers Travel the world, see interesting things and shoot them

WINNER!

THE GREAT WALL, CHINA YVONNE SCHNELL “This picture was taken with a Canon PowerShot Pro90 IS”

02 02 Photographed by: Phil Hodkinson Location: Kerala, Southern India Camera used: Canon PowerShot S30

03 Photographed by: Dave Perkins Location: Mont St. Michel, France Camera used: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-F707

Trailblazers 048 DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

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05

04 07

204 Photographed by: Charles Phillips Location: Las Vegas, USA Camera used: FujiFilm FinePix 6900

205 Photographed by: Richard Cheesmar Location: Vietnam Camera used: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-F505V

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GET YOUR PICTURE FRAMED! Send them in and the best gets framed and returned. We’re looking for landmarks, unusual events or just something fabulously composed. Start planning that trip away! ■ Email us at [email protected]

206 Photographed by: Troy Bertrand Location: Houston, Texas Camera used: Minolta DiMAGE F100

This month, you have mostly been to…

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207 Photographed by: Paul Stevens Location: Dambulla, Sri Lanka Camera used: Minolta DiMAGE EX

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6

1 2

7

5

Trailblazers DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

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YOUR PHOTOS

DAY IN THE LIFE

EMAIL US! Send in your life – see opposite!

MEET MARC CASS

01

A professional stuntman for the past 14 years, Marc has starred in numerous high-profile movies including Die Another Day, Saving Private Ryan and Titanic as well as regular TV appearances in 999, Cracker and The Bill. He has also worked as a stunt coordinator on Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Harry Potter 1 and 2. Marc has an extensive range of skills including stunt car and bike driving, wire work, fencing, bungee jumping, parachuting, underwater work, stunt fights and falls. He can currently be seen performing stunt driving duties in Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines.

The stuntman From celebrity stand-in to human fireball, it’s all in a day’s work for Marc Cass, as these pictures prove ork on big budget TV or movie shoots typically involves an early start for Marc, who’s usually up, dressed and on location by 7am. Once he arrives and has breakfast, he’s off to have his hair and make-up done, have his costume fitted, and rehearse his scenes (especially important if wire and harness work is involved). Marc can spend much of his 14-hour day sitting around waiting to be called into action by the director. If he’s working as a stunt double – as he did on The Avengers and Dollar For The Dead – he also has to learn to run, jump, walk, fight, ride horses in exactly the same way as the actor does, only stepping in at the moment when the action becomes too frenetic for the thesp to do

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the job. Naturally, this isn’t without its difficulties: the lighting, sun and shadows need to be in exactly the right position for him to replicate the actor’s actions, and there’s always the danger that something can go wrong. "I’m more concerned about getting the stunt right than in how dangerous it can be," he says. "You don’t want to end up potentially ruining a £250,000 set or snookering the actor. There are a lot of people – the crew, actors and director – who need you to get it right." It’s surprising, then, that Marc has had relatively few accidents – his worst being on the set of Cracker, where a bad fall compressed several of his vertebrae. "If you’re a secretary and you make a mistake, it’s not that big a problem.

If a stuntman makes a mistake he can be out of work for six months." Marc reckons that age also takes its toll on the professional stuntman. "The ground gets harder as you get older; the bruises last longer.” To compensate, Marc spends most of his days off keeping fit, typically going to the gym five days a week when he’s not working. He also works increasingly as a stunt coordinator where he develops and shoots action scenes that other stuntmen perform. "When I started it was all about the money, but now I want to feel challenged, enthusiastic and passionate about the work I do," he says. Marc’s biggest challenge, though, has still to come: his ambition is to become an action movie director…

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CONTACT US

Now it’s over to you: we want your life in our hands (or on these pages anyway). If you have a visually interesting job that you think might make a good Dayinthelife, please email us today at: [e] [email protected]

T BE INSPIRED! www.marccass.com 03

Dayinthelife a i h lif 01 It’s dangerous work… Marc is flung sideways through a window using an air-ram, during the closing bridge battle sequence in Saving Private Ryan. 02 Careful with that chip pan As in-house stuntman for BBC TV series, 999, Marc was called to perform dangerous jobs on a daily basis. Here he dons a fireproof suit and silicon gel mask to demonstrate the dangers of chip pan fires.

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03 Falling fast Marc takes a fall from a balcony as Emilio Estevez’ double during the filming of 1998 Hollywood western, Dollar For The Dead. 04 Walking the walls Marc doubles for Emilio Estevez during this shoot-out scene in Dollar For The Dead – air-rams fire the stuntman into the air, enabling him to apparently run down the walls of the cellar, guns blazing.

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05 Stunt double to the stars Marc has a chat with Emilio Estevez. Marc also doubled for Eddie Izzard in the film version of The Avengers. 06 Out of the fire… Marc is flung into the air as an explosion goes off behind him during a specially commissioned photo shoot for the Daily Star.

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07 …and falling to earth Same shoot, different angle. Marc uses specially designed ‘stunt’ boxes to break his fall. Performing stunts like this need a lot of experience and equipment – Marc has plenty of both. 08 The human torch Tough day at the office? Then just imagine being chained to a crateful of Molotov cocktails and then being on fire for a living. But Marc’s more worried about getting the stunt wrong, than being injured.

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Digital Camera’s website forums offer a wide range of topics, advice and tips for newcomers and experienced snappers alike. This month, your attention turned to the relative merits of Photoshop Elements vs Paint Shop Pro... dPeter Wass asked: “I wondered if people could give me their opinion about the advantages of Photoshop Elements compared to Paint Shop Pro 7 (PSP7). I presently have PSP7, but It seems that most people on this list are fans of Elements, or for those with more money, Photoshop. I think I understand the advantage of Photoshop due to the overall power of the program. However, I was wondering if there is any good reasons for me to purchase Elements?” dLeslie Nicholson replied: “Not really Peter, I think it’s like buying a car – some models appeal; some don’t. The grass is greener springs to mind – if what you have is doing the job for you, why change? I have Elements and, for photographic manipulation, it’s excellent. I have tried PS7, but I can’t justify the cost. I’ve even tried doing tutorials made for 7, with Elements and you can get round most things reasonably well.” dDave Tyrer added: “The cloning brush in Photoshop Elements is great – a real plus. But PSP7 is great for image mapping when doing web stuff – it depends what you want to use it for. Both are good for post processing pictures dJim Madden liked neither: “I use Adobe at work but hate the ground it works on. Corel has all the tools of Photoshop, but has the extra advantage of having a full set of tools – Corel is easier to use, faster more stable…

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Star Letter PhotoImpact 8 winner Memory matters

Ricoh’s missing features Far be it from me to accuse your journalists of rushing their reviews, but the spread on the Ricoh Caplio RR-30 (March) forgot to mention one of the camera’s most prominent features. Having used the RR-30, I can tell you that its biggest selling point is its claimed shutter response time of 0.25 seconds which, to my knowledge, is the fastest on the market at any price. This is worth mentioning because slow response is a real bane of digital cameras. The Ricoh also shows an unusual amount of control over exposure for such an inexpensive camera, multiple shot capability and automatic time-lapse. The information you printed suggested the reviewer had spent about 30 minutes with the camera. The overall judgement wasn’t necessarily unfair, but it would have been a stronger piece with a bit more detail and a sense that the camera had been examined to more obviously expose its strengths and limitations. John Dunn DCM We aim to ensure that every camera we test is given as comprehensive an evaluation as possible, and this was certainly the case with Ricoh Caplio RR-30. As far as we’re concerned the 0.25-second shutter response time isn’t as big a deal as it first appears, since it still takes the camera time to focus before your shot is captured. The only way you can achieve 0.25 sec is when you focus into the distance. The other features you mention aren’t likely to appeal to the vast majority of amateur photographers either.

Where’s my DVD? I order your magazine through a newsagent, and when I read your comment in the February edition about

I’ve been reading your magazine for the past three issues. Based on your excellent camera tests, I decided to splash out on my first digital camera, the Konica KD-400Z, which you gave 90%. I’m pleased to say that I’m delighted with it! In three weeks I’m off to New York and Toronto for an eight-day holiday and need some memory cards to store as many pictures as possible. My camera can use Memory Sticks, Secure Digital (SD) and MultiMediaCards (MMC). I’ve noticed that MMC cards seem to be the cheapest of the three options. Does this mean they are inferior in any way? I’m thinking of buying three 64MB cards which should be enough for 120 maximum quality pics. I’d really appreciate any advice you can give me. Neil Genge DCM MultiMediaCards are cheaper than their SD and Memory Stick rivals, partly due to economies of scale – mass-production helps manufacturers buy in or make parts cheaper and there’s more competition from rival companies all targeting the same consumers, but also because MMC is an established technology with less wastage due to product failure during manufacture. SD and Memory Stick, by contrast, are still relatively new which makes them more expensive. We suggest in any case you only buy cards recommended by the camera manufacturer. Third-party cards may look cheaper on paper but, in practice, reliability problems and iffy build could mean you either lose your precious shots or, worse still, cause some damage your camera. In either case, the camera maker is unlikely to be sympathetic should you try to claim against your warranty. This month’s Star Letter wins a copy of Ulead’s PhotoImpact 8.

an optional DVD version, I asked my newsagent to obtain that one. We’re in February now and the copy that has turned up is the CD version. I’ve complained to my newsagent, who says he ordered the DVD version but the CD one is only available. He has sent the CD version back to his suppliers in another attempt to obtain the DVD magazine, but I don’t hold out much hope. Why do you

advertise the option of the DVD mag when you can’t deliver? Brian Walker DCM Unfortunately, unforeseen technical problems stop the issue 4 cover DVD in its tracks at the last moment and we were left either getting out the CD-ROM version as normal one putting the magazine on sale late, which really wouldn’t have done at all. To make amends, there’s definitely a DVD version available of this issue now for the foreseeable

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Tell us what you want! Every issue, it’s our aim to improve the magazine. Write in to [email protected] He wanted…

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future. We look forward to hearing about what you think of the disc and its contents, and if you have any burning suggestions for content you’d like us to include.

Up-close cameras I’m thinking of buying a digital camera, preferably under £350, and I’m looking for something especially good at close-up photography – insects, tropical fish, plants, flowers and so on. I’ve been reading your reviews and not much is said on this aspect – the focus tends to be on the overall image quality and colour balance. What would you recommend? David McKane DCM You’ll be pleased to hear that you can find two articles on the subject of macro photography in this issue. You can find out how to shoot close up of plants and animals in our spring photo feature on page 16, and there is a macro photography tutorial on page 82. Although most digital cameras come with

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At the time of this shot of bike racer, Valentino Rossi, I was working in the Formula One business and managed to get a paddock pass for the 2-wheeled race weekend at the Brno Moto GP in the Czech Republic. I found a bit of track just inside the first corner where I could shoot with an unobstructed view. Many of my shots were of Valentino (above). The style, colour of his leathers and bike all add to the attraction. The shot was captured using a Canon D60 in sport mode with a 35-350mm lens. The only thing I did to the image post-shoot was crop the left-hand side using Microsoft Photo Editor. Bonnie Lane Fantastic picture, Bonnie. Does anyone else have any cracking action shots they’d like to send in?

FinePix portrait I took this photo of my daughter, Maisie, after reading your article on taking better portraits (issue 4). The shot was taken using a FujiFilm FinePix S602 Zoom in natural light with the camera in portrait mode and using manual focus. Marianne Archer

macro modes these days, they typically have a macro range of 10-20cm, which isn’t really close to enough to meets your needs. Instead we suggest you try the Olympus C-5050, reviewed on page 30, which has a super-macro mode of just 1cm, or opt for a digital SLR with macro lens.

Thanks Marianne. This shot just goes to show that you don’t need an expensive studio or extensive lighting to create beautiful portraits.

Olympus’s C-5050 packs in 5 megapixels and boasts a 1cm macro range to boot

Manchester moors I took this shot during a winter walk on the moors between Huddersfield and Manchester, using a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71. Who said it was grim up north? Karl Dines Not us that’s for sure. To prove it you can find lots more exotic northern sights in this month’s GetUp&Go section, including spooky tour of Whitby Abbey.

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SECTION #02

YOUR IMAGES

Section highlights…

CREATIVE PROJECT PHOTO SURREALISM SEE PAGE 58

CREATIVE PROJECT PHOTO SURREALISM This ethereal face you see opposite was inspired by Canadian architecture. Derek Lea tells the story

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PHOTO CLINIC REJUVENATE AN OLD PHOTO The story of a precious baby photo, worse for wear but now restored after years inside a wallet

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PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS HOW TO SOLVE FLASH ERRORS AND USE FILTERS The most common flash niggles, indoors and out, plus using filters to dramatic effect in Elements

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PAINT SHOP PRO TUTORIAL CREATE SIMPLE 3D EFFECTS Change the perspective of your photos using clever drop shadow, blurring and lighting effects

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PHOTO CLINIC SEE PAGE 64

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Your images Making and creating better pictures

Tutorials you can trust!

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Our aim is to bring you creative ideas, expert tips and quick fixes you can use in your own work. Authoritative A leading professional in his/her field writes every tutorial. Value-added We try to include

Contact our editorial team image files, and full or trial software so you can try the tutorial for yourself, delivering a complete package. Clear Our large page size means we can add extra elements, explanations and detail to each tutorial.

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PROJECT PHOTO SURREALISM YOUR GUIDE DEREK LEA Derek's work blends photography, illustration and digital art. He has won a number of awards and is a contributing author of New Masters of Photoshop

[email protected]

PORTFOLIO DEREK LEA WEBSITE WWW.DEREKLEA.COM

Building an architectural face Follow digital artist Derek Lea as he combines a simple portrait with images of architectural details to create this surreal and compelling creature

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PROJECT

KEY DETAILS

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ON OUR DISC

■ IMAGE FILES All the elements you need to recreate this architectural face in Photoshop are on the coverdisc

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SKILL LEVEL

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1

TIME TO COMPLETE

4

HOURS

he idea for this creative project came from Matthew Harvey, art editor of Computer Arts magazine. Harv contacted me about an idea he had for a cover image of a special Photoshop supplement and wanted me to work on it. We agreed he would supply the photo of a model and I would add some patterns to her eyes and figure out a way to make her look surreal and otherworldly. I usually send art editors a detailed sketch of what I plan to do and follow it closely while working on the image but we agreed that some flexibility was necessary here. We tossed around some ideas involving ornate wooden furniture and intricate metal work but after looking around, I decided that the architectural details on some buildings in my home city of Toronto’s financial district were perfect.

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FIND A MODEL

The face shot was done at close range with a single light source. The light was positioned centrally to make the shadows believable when we flip half of the face over to replace the other half. This will give the face a more alien feel.

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Rainy days I set out on foot into Toronto on a freezing cold, rainy day. Despite the discomfort of shooting in the cold, the overcast conditions proved useful in keeping the contrast of my images to a minimum without any highlights or heavy shadows. I used a lens with excellent range (Nikkor 24-120) because some detail was close up and some far away. I actually ended up using a different model for the face in this project, (she was photographed with my Fujifilm Finepix S2 Pro) and the architectural detail is different to the Computer Arts piece, although I did leave a few of the original aspects in. The result was this strange and compelling creature you see opposite. The following tutorial was done in Photoshop 7 in CMYK mode since the destination was print.

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SHOOT THE ARCHITECTURE

Almost all of the architectural detail that I wanted to shoot were up high. Wherever possible I tried to stand on things like newspaper boxes, steps, or in some cases even parked cars so that the perspective of the resulting shot would be more dead on.

3 TOOL SCHOOL LAYERS PALETTE Here in the Layers palette submenu, is where you will find functions like merge layer set and duplicate layer set.

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DIFFERENT ANGLES

Here’s an example of how some pieces of architectural detail were shot at different angles with their end uses in mind. This piece was likely to curve around the side of her cheek that is why it was photographed on this slight angle.

Everything you need to create this image is on your CD All All the images images, filters filters and plug-ins you you need to to cre create this image are are on your your co cover CD. CD. All All images images are are © to to Derek Derek Le Lea.

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FACE

DETAIL

DETAIL

DETAIL

DETAIL

face ace.tif

detail1.psd detail1.psd

detail2.psd detail2.psd

detail3.psd detail3.psd

detail4.psd detail4.psd

PROJECT PHOTO SURREALISM TOP TIP Adding a stack of individually masked layers to a set gives you the opportunity to add a layer set mask, affecting all of the individual layers together, yet leaving their individual masks intact

STAGE 1

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INITIAL FACE ADJUSTMENTS There are some preparations and manipulation we’ll need to do to the face to make it look smooth and alien before we start adding any architectural details.

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EXPERT TIP DEREK LEA PHOTOSHOP EXPERT

LAYER BLENDING MODES The various blending modes of the layers can help greatly in terms of time and flexibility in your files. Here, we have used the Darken Blending mode. This affords us the luxury of painting a little sloppier, which is much quicker. When darken is selected, only areas that are lighter on underlying layers will be affected. So when we paint over the edge of her jaw with a dark flesh it won’t go onto our very dark background. Further down the pipe you’ll also see the uses of lighten and colour blending modes.

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DUPLICATE THE BACKGROUND

First, make a duplicate of the background layer. Choose duplicate layer from the Layers palette sub menu or drag the background layer onto the Create New Layer icon. Select your duplicate layer and choose Edit8Transform8Flip Horizontal from the menu.

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CLONE OUT THE BLEMISHES

Create a new layer and select the clone stamp tool (s). Make sure that Use All Layers is enabled. Hold down the option key and click to sample a smooth area then click on the blemishes to cover them using the smoother skin from your sampled area.

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ADD A LAYER MASK

Use the rectangular marquee tool (m) to select the left side of the layer. Next, from the layer menu choose Layer8Add Layer Mask8Hide selection. We’re going to duplicate one half of the face. Don’t worry about the hard line dividing the images on the layers.

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MAKE HER SMOOTH

Concentrate on her forehead, cheeks, and above her lips. Try varying the size and opacity of the clone stamp tool to achieve a softer, less drastic effect in some areas. You can access the size and opacity controls for this tool in the brushes presets palette.

IN FOCUS 08

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SOFTEN THE MASK EFFECT

To soften the hard line left by the marquee tool, select the brush tool (b) and choose a large soft brush. Open the Brush palette (click the toggle button). Disable any dynamics or pressure sensitivity options and paint using 100% black on the layer mask.

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PAINT HER SKIN

To lessen the intensity of her pores create a new layer and select the paintbrush. Using light opacity settings (25-50%), sample colours from the image using the eyedropper tool (option), and slowly paint over her pores until they start to appear smooth.

Using layers to blur the image

ADDING SOME BLUR

Use the blur tool (r) on a new layer with the Use all layers function enabled in the tool options bar. Again, select a nice large brush and set varying strength settings. Go ahead and paint over any areas that you think need to be softened further. Concentrate on the jaw, ears, and the sides of her head as well as any visible hairline.

STACKING I invented this term to describe building up a group of layers for a specific part or element of the image. When you pile duplicate layers on top of each other with various blending modes, adding adjustment and colour layers within selections generated from underlying layers, the result is called a stack. It’s a good idea to link your stacked layers or place them into a set to move or transform them as a group.

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SOFTEN HER JAW

Create a new layer and set the blend mode to darken so the background is unaffected. With the brush tool, sample some darker areas from the jaw using the eyedropper (option). With a soft brush and low opacity gently paint over the edges of the jaw line.

USE ALL LAYERS This is a very handy function for what we are doing here. This function is essential when you need to blur the contents of the image while preserving the flexibility that layers offer us. With this enabled the blur tool creates softened pixels on our empty layer by sampling the pixels from layers below.

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…PAINT SHOP PRO

CREATING LAYER MASKS IN…

STAGE 2

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ADJUSTMENT LAYERS By using adjustment layers we can change colour without causing any deterioration to the image. Also we can go back and edit our adjustment layers at any point later on, should we change our minds.

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…PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS

Found in the Masks palette. To learn more go to http://tiemdesign.com/HOWTO/2001/June/PSP7SMask/

IN FOCUS 09

…PHOTOIMPACT

Doesn’t have layer masks built in, so you’ll need to be creative. Go to www.arraich.com/elements/pse_mmultilayermasks1.htm

Accessible from the Mask Mode button in the status bar. More info at http://solo.abac.com/streamrdr/tutorials/masks.html

Using the Levels function

ADJUSTING LEVELS

Create a levels adjustment layer (choose one from the bottom of the Layers palette). Darken the shadow and brighten the highlights. Duplicate the adjustment layer like we did earlier and reduce its opacity to 20% then set the mode to soft light to enhance the contrast further.

SLIDERS There are three sliders in this window, operating the levels, the midtones and the highlights. Drag them right and left to darken or brighten different parts of the image.

CHANNELS We did an overall adjustment to the image with all channels selected here. You can, however, adjust the levels of individual colour channels here too.

EXPERT TIP

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WHITER EYES

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THE IRIS HUES

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ADJUST THE LIPS

Draw two closed paths around the eyes. In the paths palette, click on the load path as a selection button. Create a Selective colour adjustment layer in the Layers palette. Select whites from the menu and use the sliders to brighten the white bits of the eyes.

DEREK LEA PHOTOSHOP EXPERT

MAKEUP AND MODELS It is important to think differently when shooting digital photos for the purpose of Photoshop work. You will notice that we simulate the look of dark lipstick digitally as opposed to putting it on our model. The reason being, if we decided to not use the lipstick it would be much harder to remove it. It is easier to add darker areas of colour than take them away. When shooting models for this purpose you should use a minimum of makeup to keep your options open.

Draw closed paths over the irises. Generate a selection from the paths and create a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer in the Layers palette. Increase the saturation to about +46, and adjust the hue to about -33 – this will change her eyes to a bright green.

? EXPLAINED CLOSED PATH A closed path is simply an enclosed shape drawn using the path tool. You simply need to work your way back to the original point of your shape when drawing it to close it up. It is important to make sure your paths are closed when you’re creating them for the purpose of generating selections from them.

BLENDING MODE This defines how a layer will react with underlying layers, ie. how it will blend in with the rest of the image underneath. By default, all new layers have a blending mode of normal. But feel free to experiment – blending modes are powerful things, and when you start combining various layers with different blending modes the results can be quite interesting.

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BRIGHTEN THE IRISES

In the paths palette, load the iris paths as a selection again. Create a new levels adjustment layer and increas the highlights/darken the shadows in all channels. Select the black channel and make a similar adjustment to that channel only.

13

MASK THE LIPS

Enter quickmask mode (q). Select the brush tool and a soft edged brush. Adjust the size of the brush to something you feel comfortable using. Paint with an opacity setting of 100% and a foreground colour of black until you have painted over her lips entirely.

Invert the selection (command-shift-I) so the lips are the active selection. Create a new levels adjustment layer in the Layers palette. Brighten the highlights, darken the shadows considerably and darken the magenta midtones to increase the pink colour.

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PROJECT PHOTO SURREALISM TOP TIP Toggle your brush sizes up and down quickly using the [ ] keys. The [ key decrease the brush size and the ] key increases it

STAGE 3

2

IN FOCUS

ADDING DETAILS With our face image prepared, it is now time to bring in some of the architectural elements from the other files.

3 IN DETAIL LAYERS PALETTE

15

Using the Free-Transform

ADD SOME DETAIL

In the file: details1.psd, draw a rough selection around the detail with the polygonal lasso tool. Hold down command and drag it as a new layer. Move it to the right cheek area and use Edit8Free Transform (command-t) from the menu to rotate, resize, distort and scale it.

SKEW Grab a central point and hold command to skew. Hold down the shift key to constrain movement to the x or y axis. Hold down the option key to skew out from the central point.

DISTORT/PERSPECTIVE Hold down command and move a corner point to freely distort the box. Hold down command-optionshift and move a corner point to distort the perspective of the box.

Direct your attention to the bottom of the Layers palette. Here there are buttons which prove useful throughout the tutorial: the adjustment layers pull-down menu, create a new layer, create a layer set, and add layer mask.

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SPHERIZE

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STACKING LAYERS

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MASK THE SET

Draw a square marquee on this layer so the detail is on the right side. Choose Filter8Distort 8Spherize. Change the amount to 100 so it’s wrapped around an invisible sphere. The detail size will increase; just use free-transform again to resize it correctly.

Duplicate the layer and change the blending mode to overlay to snap up the contrast. Command-click the layer icon in the Layers palette then create a new levels adjustment layer. Brighten the detail midtones and highlights in the levels dialog box.

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EXPERT TIP DEREK LEA PHOTOSHOP EXPERT

DRAG LAYERS As well as using the Move tool to drag one image from its window onto another open window you can drag layers straight from the Layers palette.

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18

STACKING CONTINUED

Make a selection from the detail layers. Create a new layer on top with a blending mode of colour. Sample a facial colour close to the detail with the eydropper tool. Fill the selection on the colour layer with your new foreground colour (option-delete) and deselect.

19

MAKE A NEW LAYER SET

Use the Create a new set button in the bottom of the Layers palette to make a new layer set. Drag all of your detail layers in from top to bottom so they’re in the right order. Click Add a layer at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a mask to the layer set.

Take your time here. Use a number of different sized soft brushes with varying opacity settings on your layer set mask to gently mask out the edges of the architectural detail. In areas like the right side you‘ll need some harder edged brushes to create a sharp edge.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT PHOTOSHOP TECHNIQUES

STAGE 4

New Masters of Photoshop, published by Friends of Ed. (www.friendsofed.com) gives tips on image combining techniques, as well as inspiration and insight into this kind of creative process

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MORE DETAILS Following the same method of transforming, duplicating, stacking, creating sets, and masking, we’ll add in the rest of the detail to the right side of the face.

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ANOTHER SET

24

LIGHTEN THE BROW

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MERGE THE SETS

In details2.psd, make a selection. Drag your selection to the working file. Make another stack of layers, put it in a new set, free-transform the detail set, using masking techniques to blend it. Create a new layer with a lighten mode and use colours sampled from her skin to paint over the shadows on her cheek.

22

THE EYEBROW

25

ADD A CURL

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DUPLICATE THE SET

Open the file details3.psd and make a selection from the existing path. Drag the contents into the working file as a new layer. Use freetransform to place the piece over the right eyebrow. Do the same stacking technique as for the two previous sets, put the layers in a new set and add a mask to the set.

23

MASK THE BROW

26

POSITION THE CURL

29

COLOUR ADJUSTMENTS

Select a small, soft brush and mask out the hard detail. Use a larger soft brush to remove the bit at the upper right. Use the radial gradient tool with a setting of foreground to transparent and a foreground colour of black to create a smooth gradient near the bridge of her nose to blend the detail in to that area.

? EXPLAINED SAMPLING Something you do when using tools like the paintbrush or the stamp clone tool. Often sampling is performed using the option key when you have a specific tool selected. With the clone stamp tool, sampling defines the origin point of the part of the image you will replicate. When using the paintbrush tool, sampling accesses the eydropper tool to select which colour you will paint with.

Create a new layer and change the blending mode to lighten. Using colours sampled from the image and soft brushes with varying opacities, paint over darker areas of the eyebrow that still remain visible.

STAGE 5

Bring in the area outlined in a path from the file details4.psd as a new layer. Do the entire transform, stack, set, mask process again and make this curl look like it belongs just above the detail on her brow.

In file:details1.psd, make a selection from the existing path. Make a stack, a set, add a mask, and use free-transform to reshape it to surround the previous curl. Drag this new set under the previous set.

2

THE FINISHING TOUCHES Now that we have introduced the detail to the right we need to copy it to the left. And also it is time to adjust her skin tone to something less natural.

With your set selected, choose merge layer set from the Layers palette sub menu (converts your set to a single layer with a mask). Drag all the layers into it that make up your architectural details, from top to bottom so that they stay in their current order.

With this set selected, choose duplicate layer set from the Layers palette sub-menu. Now choose edit8Transform8Flip Horizontal from the menu. Use the move tool (v) while holding down the shift key to move it horizontally into place, to the left of the image.

Create a selective colour adjustment layer and in the neutrals section, boost the cyan values and reduce magenta and yellow. On a new layer with a blending mode of colour and an opacity of 10%, fill the entire area with a foreground colour of c58 m13 y24 k4.

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PHOTO CLINIC RESTORATION YOUR GUIDE ED DAVIS Ed Davis is a London-based advertising and corporate photographer with many years experience of studio and location photography. He specialises in image manipulation, and delivers creative solutions that combine photography and digital technology. He is a member of NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) Equipment used: a scanner and Adobe Photoshop 7

[email protected]

WEBSITE www.ed-davis-photography.co.uk

Rejuvenating an old photo Using adhesive tape to hold together favourite photographs causes damage over time. Ed Davis shows you how to use Photoshop and a bit of imagination to reconstruct a ripped and stained picture

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e’ve all kept photographs in our wallets or handbags over the years, but we’re often unaware of the damage this causes until we take a photograph out to show our friends and discover the picture is bent, creased or has fallen apart. This may be our only photograph of a close relative or friend.

CLINIC

CHALLENGE US

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THE READER ANTHONY STONE Anthony was given this photo of his twin cousins. He sent us a scan of the image because he was curious to see how well a pro could restore it!

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CHALLENGE LEVEL

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1

BEFORE

This month’s photograph of twins has been stuck together with adhesive tape. As the photograph has aged, the glue has dried out, turned brown and separated from the cellophane. A brown stain is visible under the left-hand baby’s head, hiding the collar and leaving a brow line across the photograph. An attempt has been made to stick

The photograph is ripped, stained and the twins’ legs have been lost

AFTER

together the ripped right-hand corner of the image. Our task is to end up with a photograph that doesn’t look as if it’s been retouched. Since the picture is so badly damaged – with chunks of it missing – the solution is to frame the final print in an oval shape to give the impression that the image carries on behind the frame.

The photograph looks natural and the babies are sitting on a traditional fur rug

TIME TO REPAIR

10

HOURS

NOW SEND YOURS! Contact us via email with a 100K JPEG attached and, if we like it, we’ll get in touch! Email us today at: [email protected]

8 04

Photo Clinic 064

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The photograph has ripped, and is covered in brown glue stains from an attempt to hold it together with adhesive tape. The surface is cracked, revealing the white paper under the emulsion and the legs have been chopped off.

02 MISSING BACKGROUND

04 MISSING LEGS AND FEET

Solution: Separate the twins from the background, create a larger area to work with and centralise the twins.

Solution: Reconstruct some of the twins’ legs from the existing image, and recreate the arm. Use the Copy and Paste and Free Transform tools.

01 BROWN STAINING

03 RIPS, CRACKS AND OVERALL DAMAGE

05 PRESENTATION

Solution: Remove the colour, leaving only one tonal range and use Desaturation in the Image/Adjustments Menu. The image is now monotone.

Solution: Retouch the image using Copy and Paste, the Clone tool and the Healing brush to get the picture ready for reconstruction.

Solution: Create shadows, introduce a fur rug for the babies to sit on, expand the background and frame the picture to hide the missing feet.

4

FURTHER INSPIRATION

Once you have finished retouching a picture, you can think about the presentation. An oval surround can enhance the overall effect

STAGE 1 HOW TO GET RID OF STAINS

2

Use the Desaturation command to remove the brown stains left by the dried out glue of the adhesive tape.

01

REMOVE THE STAINS

04

THE MISSING PICTURE

07

START REMOVING THE BACKGROUND

An attempt has been made to repair the photograph by applying adhesive tape over the damage. This has since dried out, leaving a brown stain. There are also small blemishes on the faces of the twins, clothing and background.

STAGE 2

02

DESATURATE THE IMAGE

05

SELECT THE RIGHT SHAPE

08

KEEP REMOVING THE BACKGROUND

In the Options Bar, open Image8Adjust8 Desaturate. This takes away the colour from the image, neutralises some of the stains and gives one tonal range to work with. The warm black and white tone can be recreated later.

03

DESATURATION EFFECT

06

ENLARGE THE CANVAS

09

CREATE A NEW BACKGROUND

The brown taped areas and the stains are much easier to retouch when you’re working with one tonal range – the uniformity of the tone enables you to produce an evenly retouched picture.

2

HOW TO EXPAND THE BACKGROUND Remove the twins from the existing background, expand the canvas and centralise them in the frame.

There is a great deal of damage to the background. Because the twins are in reasonable condition we are going to concentrate on making a new background.

Use the Lasso Tool from the Tool Bar (L), with a feather setting of 1px and make a selection around one of the twins. Copy (Ctrl + C) and Paste (Ctrl + V) the copy on its own layer. Repeat with the other twin. They can now be moved independently.

Changing the shape of the photograph minimises the amount of retouching required. The twins had to be supported – the helper’s arms, which are marked in blue, need to be removed. The red marks represent a guess at how the legs might have looked.

Click on the eye icon of the Background layer, on the Layers palette. The original image will disappear, leaving the twins on a clean surface. From this point it is possible to put them on any kind of background.

Next, expand the size of the canvas to give more space around the twins. Click Image8 Canvas Size and, in the dialog box, type a suitable size – for example 200%. This increases the background 200% in each direction and gives you plenty of space.

At this stage, you can choose to keep the background as near as possible to the original print, or you can create your own (for example, a studio setting, park or at home). Here we’ve sat our twins on a fur rug in a studio.

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PHOTO CLINIC RESTORATION ONE-CLICK FIX If you are applying a filter or an adjustment and you want to enlarge your image to see the effect more clearly, press Ctrl+ to enlarge and Ctrl- to reduce the size of the image

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EXPERT TIP ED DAVIS PHOTOSHOP EXPERT

BACKGROUND MATERIAL If you have a fur rug to hand and a digital camera, you can take a photograph of it and import it into Photoshop. If not, look on the net for a good side view photograph of a polar bear, Copy and Paste a section of the fur into the shape you require.

10

CREATE A BACKGROUND

13

GIVE DEPTH TO THE IMAGE

16

CRACKS AND BLEMISHES

Create a new layer, click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Then, select the Rectangular Marquee tool from the Tool bar (M), and click and drag a rectangle from the top-left corner to the bottom-right side, level with the babies’ knees.

To give depth to the area the twins are sitting on, click Edit8Transform8Perspective (Ctrl + T), then drag the handles on the bottom of the box out, and the handles on the top in, in order to distort the area and give it some depth.

STAGE 3

11

INSTANT BACKGROUND

14

CREATE THE FUR RUG

17

CREATE THE MISSING LEGS AND ARM

To produce a mottle effect background, change the colours in the Set Foreground/Background Colour box on the Tool bar to two different shades of grey. On the Option bar, click Filter8Render8Clouds. The area will be filled with a soft, mottled effect.

Import an image of a polar bear from the internet. Open the image in Photoshop, click the Lasso tool in the Tool bar (L) and select an area of fur. Copy (Ctrl + C) and Paste the fur onto the photograph of the twins (Ctrl + V) and desaturate (step 1) the photograph of the fur.

12

SOMETHING TO SIT ON

15

FINAL SETTING

18

BLEND IN

Follow steps 10 and 11 again, but this time select the bottom part of the image and add a 5px feather to the Rectangular Marquee tool. As before, select another two tones of slightly darker grey to give the impression that the babies are sitting on a surface.

Switch off the layers containing the twins (see step 8), position the fur rug approximately where it should be and click and drag. This enables you to see the background, foreground and rug clearly. You can then turn the layers with the twins on and off until the position is correct.

2

HOW TO REPAIR AND RECONSTRUCT THE IMAGE Reconstruct the ripped pieces, repair the cracks and clean up the stains, using the Copy and Paste technique, the Clone Tool and the Healing Brush.

Select the Healing brush (J) from the Tool bar, move the cursor over an undamaged area, hold down the Alt key, click and drag the mouse to a damaged area and release. Repeat until all the smaller blemishes are covered.

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Make a selection around the baby’s arm using the Lasso tool (L), with the feather setting at 1px. Copy (Ctrl + C) and Paste (Ctrl + V), then click Edit8Free Transform (Ctrl + T), move it into place and right-click inside the box. Click8Perspective and drag the corners of the box to taper the image to form the leg.

In the Tool bar, select the Eraser tool (E), chose a soft-edge brush, click on the layer with the new part of the leg, remove any parts that overlap, leaving a soft edge. To blend the two parts together, click Image8Adjust8Levels (Ctrl + L) and adjust the tone of the new leg using the sliders.

4

FURTHER INSPIRATION

19

MERGE THE IMAGES

Once all the new sections of the twins are in position and adjusted, they can be merged into one layer. Turn off the layers that are not part of the twins, click on the Eye icon in the Layers palette, then click the small arrow in the top-right of the Layers palette, and click Merge Visible on the drop-down menu.

IN FOCUS

20

Experiment with a different tone. To give the image a more modern feel, leave it back and white and frame it with a black border. There are many ways to finish off the retouching – it’s a personal choice

NEW SHADOWS

Click on the New Layer icon on the Layers palette. Drag the new layer below the twins’ layer. Select the layer with the twins, leave cursor on the layer and press Ctrl to make a selection around the objects. Click New Layer, pick the Paint Bucket tool (G), set the foreground colour to black and click inside the selection.

21

PRODUCE SHADOWS

23

RE-COLOURING

24

THE OVAL FRAME

Copy the direction of the lighting and shadows. Turn off the twins’ layer. Click the Lasso tool, make a selection around the top of the image and Copy and Paste onto its own layer. Click Edit8Transform8Distort to the left, open the Filters Palette8Blur8Gaussian Blur and use sliders to make it look natural.

DIFFERENT EFFECTS

Before re-colouring, all the layers have to be merged. Click on the small arrow at the top of the Layers palette, click on Flatten Image and click Image8Adjust8Hue/Saturation (Ctrl + U). Click the Colorize Box and adjust the Hue and Saturation sliders.

@ SEND YOURS! We want your faded, damaged pictures today! Send them in, we’ll fix them up for free, show everyone how we did it and send them back restored! The sort of pictures we’re after need to be decent photos which have become damaged – unfortunately we can’t make badly composed/shot photos good. ■ Contact us via email, with a small JPEG of the photo attached, and if it’s right for the mag, we’ll get in touch. How’s that for a bargain? Email the following address:

@

[email protected]

22

FINISHING TOUCHES

As the original photograph was so badly damaged, it would be difficult and time consuming to reconstruct the whole image including the background. Framing the photograph is a good way to hide what is missing.

OVAL SURROUND Once you have finished retouching the picture, you can think about how to show it off. Once mounted in an oval shape, no-one will suspect the extent of the damage

TONAL EFFECTS Experiment with tonal effects – here we’ve left the picture back and white and framed it with a black border

Click the Create a New Layer icon on the Layers palette, pick the Elliptical marquee and select your frame. Invert the selection (Ctrl + Shift + I), select Paint Bucket, choose a colour and click inside the selection.

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TUTORIAL SOLVING FLASH ERRORS YOUR GUIDE TIM DALY Tim has written several books on photography including The Digital Photography Handbook, The Digital Printing Handbook and The Desktop Photographer, and he continues to write for The British Journal of Photography and AG. His photographs have been exhibited across Europe

[email protected]

PORTFOLIO TIM DALY WEBSITE WWW.PHOTOCOLLEGE.CO.UK

Solving flash errors in Photoshop Elements There’s no need to dump those less-than-perfect flash photographs in your camera’s wastebasket; try a few simple edits in Photoshop Elements first. Tim Daly sheds some light on six easy techniques TUTORIAL

KEY DETAILS

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SKILL BOOSTER

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U

sing your built-in flash unit to add extra light to your digital images will take many shots to master, but Photoshop Elements can bale you out of your early mistakes. Unlike continuous daylight, flashlight turns on and off in an instant and frequently lasts for less than 1/1000th of a second. Yet in that brief amount of time, the character and atmosphere of your image will be changed forever. Flash photography is tricky for novices and professionals alike but Elements can deal with the six most common mistakes. Red eye takes top spot as the easiest flash mistake and is caused by light reflecting back off your subject’s

retina. Better digital cameras are usually fitted with a red-eye reduction mode which fires off a weak pre-flash to close your subject’s iris. In subdued lighting, your iris opens up to allow more light in so when direct flash is used, the wide open iris shows the red disc-like retina in all it’s gory glory. Reflective surfaces are the next hardest subject to include in flash photographs. Light travels in straight lines and if any of these surfaces falls in its way, then the result is an obvious hotspot. Reflected back at great intensity, light forms into tiny white patches, particularly on spectacles, the glass in picture frames and the

CORRECTING HOTSPOTS

biggest offender of them all: windows. Burn-out is a more severe example of the same kind of error, but is most often caused by the flash light accidentally hitting an object before it reaches its intended target. As flash is self-regulating and works by shutting itself off after it bounces back off the first subject in its path, burn out is a common problem when composing with rangefindertype compact cameras. The complexities of arranging flash light to cover a more substantial area is the root cause of the final two mistakes: over-exposure where your images turn out much brighter than you expected and darker or under-exposed images.

One of the most common headaches of flash photography is a hotspot like this one. Here’s what to do…

EXPERT TIP TIM DALY PHOTOSHOP EXPERT

OFF-CAMERA FLASH GUNS Many flash errors can be solved by using a flash unit removed from the camera body. Attached to the hotshoe adaptor via a flexible sync cable, the off camera flash can offer more choice in light direction and position. Many good quality digital compacts can be linked to more powerful flashguns, which are well worth considering if you feel limited by your present results.

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01

ZOOM INTO THE HIGHLIGHTS

Metallic or reflective subjects like this bronze statue are notoriously tricky to light, even with studio flash. Typically the flash makes a narrow hotspot in the centre of the frame. The trick is to remove the hotspots but still maintain a highlight.

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02

STAMP IT OUT

Pick the Rubber stamp tool from the toolbox and select a large soft-edged brush. Pick sample points from as near as you can without compromising the original detail or introducing foreign colours. In small strokes, remove the brightest areas.

03

BURN IT IN

Finally, pick the Burning in tool and set it to Highlight mode with a large soft-edged brush. Darken the highlights only and reduce its Exposure to 20%. Gradually work on the brighter areas without making them identical to their surroundings.

; 5

SOLVING DARK BACKGROUNDS

01

JUDGE THE BACKGROUND

02

SELECT THE DARK AREA

A large foreground subject is one reason for a dark background

03

LEVEL IT OUT

When shooting at close range, your subject can blot out the remaining background and prevent it being exposed correctly. With this example, a noontime shot looks like it was taken at sunset.

Use your lasso tool to draw around the dark background until the shape is captured in one selection. To add more selection, hold Shift and draw; to remove sections, hold down the Alt key.

WARMING UP

Flash used outdoors can often make your photos look cold and sometimes the result won’t resemble your original subject…

01

CURING COLD FLASH

Flash mixed in with daylight often causes the final image to look colder than expected. When one colour dominates, others such as skin tone are weakened and the image looks stark.

02

REMOVE THE BLUES

Open the Enhance8Adjust Colour8Colour Variations dialog box and click the Midtone option. Make sure the Colour Intensity amount is set halfway, then click on the Decrease Blue thumbnail.

IMPROVING COLOUR

NEXT MONTH

MAKING CREATIVE EDGES IN PHOTOSHOP

Apply a 2 pixel Feather radius to your selection to soften the edge, then open the Levels dialog (Enhance8Adjust Brightness Contrast8 Levels). The mid-tone slider can brighten the selection.

03

ALL WARMED UP

The final result has lost its blue cast, leaving an accurate skin tone and a much sunnier atmosphere all over. You can always return to the Variations dialog and make more adjustments.

The other possibility with using flash outdoors is over-exposure where all strong colour definition is lost

* WEB LINKS PROFOTOS

01

RESCUE WASHED OUT IMAGES

When flash mixes with strong daylight, the result can be an over-exposed result. Whites and pastel tones predominate and all strong hues are lost. First, make a duplicate background layer.

02

MULTIPLY THE LAYER

Next, make this duplicate layer active then choose the Overlay blending mode from the Blending modes drop down menu in your layers palette. Your weak image will now be beefed up.

03

ALTERNATIVE ENDINGS

The success of the Blending modes really depends on the colours in your original image, so if the Overlay mode overcooks your image, try the Colour Burn at 50% as an alternative solution.

Check out the in-depth flash techniques of Les Voorhis at www.profotos.com/ education/promag/articles/ october2001/fill_flash/ index.shtml

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TUTORIAL PHOTOSHOP FILTERS YOUR GUIDE TIM DALY Tim has written several books on photography including The Digital Photography Handbook, The Digital Printing Handbook and The Desktop Photographer, and he continues to write for The British Journal of Photography and AG. His photographs have been exhibited across Europe

[email protected]

PORTFOLIO TIM DALY WEBSITE WWW.PHOTOCOLLEGE.CO.UK

Photoshop filters and how to use them Don’t just use filters straight off the menu; you can achieve much more creative results with a bit of lateral thinking. Tim Daly shows you four new ways to get subtle TUTORIAL

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KEY DETAILS SKILL BOOSTER

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MINS PER IMAGE

NEXT MONTH How to add movement to your digital photos

* WEB LINKS

S

oftware filters work in exactly the same way as conventional camera filters but have the added advantage of variable intensity and, if used carefully, reverse gear. With paintbrush, pencils and pastels a good starting point for minimal or simplified compositions like a still life or a sparse landscape, these filters will remove most fine details from your image, leaving a pattern or preset design across your work. Most creative filters have additional tools within a dialog box such as brush size, stroke length and background texture. The real problem with all these tools is that they apply the same preset routines to each and every image

that is processed through Photoshop. Filters are generally applied as the finishing stage and unfortunately become an indelible part of your Photoshop file, but if applied sensitively and to a more flexible home like a layer, filter effects can be both sensational and genuinely timesaving devices. If you are uncertain about the damaging effects of your filtering, make a duplicate layer first and apply the filter to this rather than the underlying original. The advantage of working on a duplicate layer is that you can use the Eraser tool to cut holes through the filtered layer to reveal unfiltered parts underneath. Filters work by applying mathematically generated

FOCUS BLUR ON A LAYER

responses to both pixel colour and their position in your bitmap. With complex routines such as the Lighting Effects filter, the huge calculations can slow down older PCs. Make sure your software has enough memory for this kind of task – ideally this should be five times greater than the largest image file you’ll encounter. Photoshop and Photoshop Elements share the same filter pack, but only Elements gives the user a visual taster of the effect in the palette. If you’re really keen on filtering, you can customise your application with a plug-in filter pack like Coral KPT, Andromeda or Xenofex, (see Web links below left).

Use two layers to create a soft focus effect behind the image and blend it to the original

CORAL KPT6.0 www.coral.com The latest version is distributed by Corel and features wacky effects called Goo, Sky Effects, LensFlare, Turbulence and many others.

XENOFEX www.xenofex.xom Download a trial version of the Xenofex filter here. It adds a wonderful set of texture filters to your imaging application.

ANDROMEDA www.andromeda.com Another Photoshop plug-in that lets you drape a photographic image around a 3D shape like a cube or sphere. You can download a demo version from this site.

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01

MAKE A DUPLICATE LAYER

Rename your background layer and then make a duplicate layer by clicking on the tiny icon at the base of the layer palette. Return to your layers palette and turn off the uppermost layer by clicking on the tiny eye icon.

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USE THE GAUSSIAN BLUR

Working on the bottom layer, pick the Blur8Gaussian Blur filter and move the dialog box into an area of your desktop that doesn’t get in the way. Move the Radius slider until it reaches 15 and your layer appears defocused.

03

CUT THROUGH WITH THE ERASER TOOL

Turn back on the sharp uppermost layer and select the Eraser tool with a soft-edges brush of 30 pixels and with 100% Opacity. Next, gradually remove the areas of this layer that you want to be blurred ie. to reveal the underlying soft-focused layer.

? EXPLAINED

FADING TEXTURE FILTERS

01

APPLY THE TEXTURIZER

From the filters menu, choose Texture8 Texturizer to access to the most versatile range. This filter dialog offers you four preset designs or other textures in Photoshop’s Preset8Texture folder.

02

You can apply a fade effect in Photoshop with minimal fuss. Just follow these three simple steps…

DECIDE ON THE STRENGTH

Experiment with Scaling and Relief. Scaling determines individual texture component size and Relief controls contrast. Don’t panic if images look crude, even if you’ve set low values.

BLENDING FILTERS

03

FADE UNTIL SUBTLE

Immediately after filtering, do Edit8Fade Texturizer. You’ll see two controls found also on the layers palette. Reduce the Opacity slider to 45% and experiment with the Blending options.

You can blend using the Fade command but there’s no return gear once you’ve done an edit. Here’s a better way to do it…

VECTORS V BITMAPS It’s impossible to apply a filter to a Type layer because it’s a vector rather than pixel layer. To solve the problem, select Layer8 Rasterize8Type which makes it uneditable by changing it into a pixel layer. Once completed you can apply any filter or colour effect to it, but you can no longer change the type face or font, or correct spelling mistakes. Blur filters are great for making type look as if it’s caught in a high wind.

FADING FILTER EFFECTS IN PHOTOSHOP To avoid the very obvious effects of a filter ruining your image, select the Edit8Fade (the name of your last filter) option immediately after making the filter command. This enables you to vary the intensity of the filter outside its dialog box and creates an effect just like the Layer opacity slider in your Layers palette. Filters that have been reduced by the Fade Filter command look much more skillful and complimentary.

BLENDING FILTERS In addition to the Fade Filter command, filters can also be modified using the same Blending modes found in layers. Blending modes can produce very unexpected results by merging the effect with its selection area or layer.

01

NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE MIX

Use a separate layer which can be blended, cut through and discarded if needs be. This technique mixes negative and positive in one image.

02

INVERT LAYER

Take a single layer image, click the duplicate layer and make a negative with Image8 Adjustments8Invert. Image colours look odd at first.

03

BLEND AND CUT

From the Blend pop-up menu on the layers palette, choose Hue blending mode. Use the Eraser tool (upper layer) to ‘paint’ back positive areas.

CORRECTING DUST AND SCRATCHES

Touch up damaged scans of negatives and transparencies

0

EXPERT TIP TIM DALY PHOTOSHOP EXPERT

FILTER PROBLEMS IN PHOTOSHOP All filters are available when working in the RGB colour mode, but the set will reduce if you are editing CMYK, Greyscale, Lab or Index mode images. If you are editing a 16 bitper-channel image all the filters will be out of use. If the filters still seem unavailable, double-check that you are not working on a type or vector layer by mistake.

FILTERING IN SMALL AREAS

01

MAKE THE SELECTION

Use the lasso selection tool to select the area you want to filter and make a 50 pixel feather radius so it blends with its surroundings.

02

DUST AND SCRATCHES FILTER

Make your image 100% then do Filter8 Noise8Dust. From dialog, set the Threshold value at 1 then increase the Radius pixel by pixel.

03

RETOUCH ANY LEFT-OVERS

Don’t use one huge filter on the marks, or your image will lose sharpness. Large dust marks can be removed using the rubber stamp tool.

You can filter smaller selection areas but a much better way to ring fence the effects of a filter is to apply it to a duplicate layer. Once applied, cut away the excess layer areas with your Eraser tool and let it float over your background layer and use the Layer variables such as opacity and blending modes to make it look convincing.

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NEW SERIES GET STARTED WITH PAINT SHOP PRO YOUR GUIDE JOE APICE Joe has been a keen amateur photographer for over 20 years and trains others in basic camera techniques. His work has been exhibited in local galleries and he’s an avid user of Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop

[email protected]

PORTFOLIO JOE APICE

Creating simple 3D effects with PSP Enhance your photos with simple three dimensional effects and see your pictures from a different perspective. Joe Apice explains how TIPS GUIDE

KEY DETAILS

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MINSPERIMAGE

NEXT MONTH Reflections

W

henever we view a photo, we see the image on a two dimensional plane. Over the years, photographers have used tricks and techniques to give photographs the illusion of the third plane or depth. These techniques have included blurring and shadowing effects, perspective alignment and colour enhancement. When objects in the foreground are very sharp and those in the background are a little out of focus, our eyes interpret the image as having depth. An image on a computer screen or printed on photo paper looks two dimensional, but as soon as you add a drop shadow to

the photo it seems to lift itself off the paper. In the perspective approach, foreground objects are larger than those in the background, creating an illusion of distance or depth in the image. In both cases, the intent is to fool the eye into believing that objects are on a different plane and make a two dimensional image look three dimensional. With the tools available in photo-editing programs such as PSP, many of the techniques – once thought to be a black art – can be replicated quickly. Effects, such as drop shadowing, bevelling, embossing, blurring and lighting not only make things

IMAGE PREPARATION

7TOOL SCHOOL TOOL PALETTE The Lasso tool, Selection tool, Clone brush and Preset Shapes tool are located in the Tool palette

simple, but also provide an excellent degree of control. In this month’s tutorial we will be using some basic tools to achieve a simple three dimensional effect. Hopefully they will help you develop some ideas of your own to make images look three dimensional.

Set the foreground and background colours and make the initial selection of those objects that will be in the foreground

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3 IN DETAIL COLOUR AND LIGHTNESS The Auto Color Balance and Auto Saturation commands are not available in earlier versions of Paint Shop Pro. To achieve similar results with the earlier versions of PSP, use Colors8Adjust8Color Balance and Colors8Adjust8Hue/Saturation/ Lightness command.

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DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

01

SET THE COLOURS

Using the Eyedropper tool, set the foreground and background colours. The foreground colour is set by placing the Eyedropper tool over one of the leaves and clicking the left mouse button. The background colour is set by placing the Eyedropper tool at the top edge of the sky area and clicking the right mouse button.

02

MAKE THE SELECTION

The flowers will be used to create the illusion of an object in the foreground. To select the flowers, use the Lasso tool in Freehand mode, set the Feather value to zero and make the selection. The flower selection is then copied to a separate window using Edit8Copy and Edit8Paste8As New Image commands.

03

THE SKY IS BLUE

Although the flowers were cut off when the picture was taken, they can be restored with the Clone tool. Before doing so, we need to add a border at the top of the image to make the cloning possible. To add the border, go to the Main Menu bar and select Image8Add Borders. Uncheck the Symmetric box and enter a value of 20 to 25 pixels in the box labelled Top.

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FURTHER INSPIRATION

NEXT STEPS

For simple 3D effects, cut and paste an object from another photograph into the image. First select the object using the Lasso tool, then use Edit8Copy to store the object in memory. Move to your main image and use Edit8Paste to place the object in the foreground

* WEB LINKS

Next, we’ll make the brightness adjustments, create a frame to give an illusion of depth, diffuse some of the details and add colours to warm the scene

TUTORIAL WEBSITE http://psp7tutorials.homestead. com/index.html The perception of depth or distance can be achieved with the use of colours, shadows, overlapping shapes, perspective and detail. Shadows and overlapping shapes work best with objects in the foreground; contrasting colours are best suited when separating objects in the background; and perspectives provide a feeling of depth between the foreground and background.

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ADJUST THE BRIGHTNESS

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CREATE OBJECTS IN THE FOREGROUND

Lightening the image removes some of the detail and diffuses the background. On the Main Menu bar, select Colors8Adjust8Curves to adjust the brightness. In the Curves dialog window, drag the point at the centre of the grid diagonally upward until the Input reads 91 and the Output reads 156.

Use the Preset Shapes tool with a line width of 10, uncheck the Retain Style and Antialias boxes and check the Create as Vector box. In the Color Palette window, click the right arrow in the Background Colour box and select the No Color option. Draw a box about 1cm from the edge and select Layers8Convert to Raster.

05

DIFFUSE SOME DETAIL

08

BEVEL THE FRAME

Use the Rectangle Selection tool, with a feather value of 15, and draw a rectangular area centred on the image about 1cm away from each of the inside edges. The frame effect is created by inverting the rectangle selection using the Selection8Invert command on the Main Menu bar.

To create a 3D effect in the frame, use a bevelling effect. On the Main Menu bar, select Effects83D Effects8Inner Bevel. When the bevel dialog window appears, enter the values shown. You can experiment with different colours in the Light Color box but white works best in this situation.

06

DIFFUSE THE DETAILS

09

RESTORE THE FLOWERS

To create the illusion of depth, blur the area inside the frame selection. On the Main Menu bar, select Effect8Blur8Gaussian Blur. When the Blur dialog window appears, enter a Radius value of 20 to 25. The blur effect acts as a separator between the foreground and background and creates the illusion of depth.

The image of the flowers should still be active on your screen. If the image is stored to disk, recall it by using the File8Open command. When the image appears, select Edit8Copy, move to the original image and use Edit8Paste8As New Layer. Use the Move tool to place the new layer with flowers on the existing ones.

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EXPERT TIP JOE APICE PAINTSHOP PRO EXPERT

USING THE BRUSH SIZE CURSOR

10

FILL THE MISSING PIECES

Remove the edge of the image and fill the empty space by cloning some of the flowers into it. On the Standard tool bar, select the Clone tool. Use a round brush in Aligned mode with the settings shown and copy some of the flowers into the area.

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ADD WARMTH

To remove the blue colour cast and add some warmth, use the Auto Color Balance filter. Select Effects8Enhance Photo8Automatic Color Balance from the Main Menu bar and when the dialog window appears, move the temperature slider to the left.

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THE END RESULT

As you can see in the finished image, 3D effects can be achieved quickly and easily with just a few basic tools. Visual effects such as these can be useful when creating greeting cards – why not try them on some of your own images?

When using the Clone tool, make sure you set your tool preferences to show the brush size cursor instead of precise cursors. You can change the cursor type by clicking the Cursor and Tablet Options tab in the Clone Tool Option palette.

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NEW SERIES GET STARTED WITH PAINT SHOP PRO YOUR GUIDE JOE APICE Joe has been a keen amateur photographer for over 20 years and trains others in basic camera techniques. His work has been exhibited in local galleries and he’s an avid user of Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop

[email protected]

PORTFOLIO JOE APICE WEBSITE http://apice.homestead.com/index.html

Making people look younger with PSP Want to look younger without resorting to cosmetic surgery? Let Paint Shop Pro be your surgeon. It’s easy and fun – Joe Apice shows you how…

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wrinkles, smooth out pores, remove blemishes and recolour grey hair. Interestingly enough, the aging process can be turned both ways. In other words, you can digitally make someone look younger and better, or you can make them older and worse (though we don’t know why you would want to make someone look older!). In this month’s tutorial we will discuss some very basic tools available in Paint Shop Pro, which you can use in order to erase those unwanted wrinkles and blemishes and reverse a little of the aging process…

GET STARTED

Make an initial selection and then apply a Gaussian Blur filter to determine the amount of softening required

KEY DETAILS

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SKILL LEVEL

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2 2

TIME TO COMPLETE

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MINSPERIMAGE

NEXT MONTH Colouring B&W portraits

8 3 IN DETAIL AUTO SATURATION The Auto Saturation feature is not available in earlier versions of Paint Shop Pro. To achieve similar results with the earlier versions of PSP, use Colors8Adjust8Hue/ Saturation/Lightness.

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ouldn’t it be nice to turn back the hands of time? At some point in our lives we all wish that we could look a few years younger – or at least be able to remove some of those wrinkles and blemishes. Over the years, people have spent thousands of pounds on products to reduce the appearance of aging. After all, most magazines and advertisements sell the idea that younger is better. In fact, our entire culture has become obsessed with looking younger. Realistically, we can’t turn back the clock, but digitally, we can. With the help of photo-editing software, we can remove

TIPS GUIDE

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

01

IDENTIFY THE PROBLEMS

Looking at the image, we can see that the woman has developed wrinkles around the eyes, the skin has large pores around the forehead and chin, and there is evidence of dry skin near the cheek and nose area. Finally, the face appears a bit too round, which may have resulted from the subject’s proximity to the lens when the picture was taken.

TOOL PALETTE The Lasso tool, Paintbrush tool, Deformation tool and Crop tool are located in the Tool palette.

8 02

SELECT THE LEFT EYE AREA

The first task is to deal with the wrinkles below the woman’s eye. Using the Lasso tool in Freehand mode, make a selection of the area around the wrinkles. To make the selection, go to the Standard Tool bar and select the Lasso tool. In the Tool Option palette, select Freehand mode and set the Feather value to 10. Make the selection as shown.

03

REMOVE THE WRINKLES

With the selection in place, go to the Main Menu bar and select Effects8Blur8Gaussian Blur. When the dialog window appears, enter a Radius value of 1.5. Generally, a Radius value between 1 and 2 is sufficient to do the job. Larger values will add more blur but the results will not look natural.

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ONE-CLICK FIX

GOING FURTHER

04

SELECT THE RIGHT EYE AREA

07

SAMPLE THE FACE COLOUR

Using the Lasso tool, make a similar selection underneath the right eye. On the Standard Tool bar select the Lasso tool. Retain the Freehand mode and the same Feather value of 10. Apply the Blur filter by selecting Effects8Blur8Gaussian Blur from the Main Menu bar and enter a value of 1.5 for the Radius.

With the selection in place, go to the Standard Tool bar and select the Eyedropper tool. Place the tool inside the selected area and sample a colour that is more representative of the average skin tone. Click the left mouse button to select the colour. This will now become the foreground colour for our Paintbrush tool.

You can quickly apply a soft focus effect to the entire image by using the Blur feature in Paint Shop Pro. On the Main Menu bar, select Effects8Blur8Soften

Remove the remaining wrinkles, smooth out the skin areas around the nose and chin, thin out the face and add some lip colour

05

FIX THE FOREHEAD AREA

08

PAINT AWAY DRY SKIN

Continue with the Lasso tool to select the area of the forehead. We want the hair to remain sharp, so make a smaller selection and use a larger feather value. In this case, used a Feather value of 15 instead of 10 to spread the selection as shown. Apply the Gaussian Blur filter using a Radius value of 2.

The Paintbrush tool enables you to change the skin colour, and it can provide a finer degree of control over the amount of retouching that is applied to the area by simply varying the opacity of the brush. Here, we’ve used a large soft brush (100), with the opacity and hardness values set at 20.

06

HANDLE DRY SKIN

09

SELECT AND SOFTEN THE CHIN

Next, tackle the dry skin around the area near the right cheek and nose. Once again, use the Lasso tool to make the selection. Keep the tool in Freehand mode and set the Feather value to 10. Make the selection as shown. Instead of applying the Gaussian Blur filter to the selection, we’ll use a different technique.

Next, use the Gaussian Blur filter to remove large pores and wrinkles on the chin. Select the chin area using the Lasso tool in Freehand mode and raise the Feather value to 15. Keep the selection away from the subject’s lips. Smooth out the area using the Gaussian Blur filter with a Radius value of 1.5.

* WEB LINKS TUTORIAL WEBSITE http://psp7tutorials.homestead .com/index.html Filter manufacturers such as Hoya and Tiffen produce high-quality softfocus filters that are used to soften the skin and reduce unwanted wrinkles and blemishes. Minolta has been marketing a soft focus 100mm f2.8 lens that is largely used for portrait photography. It produces a soft effect around your subject while the image remains very sharp at the centre. The filters available in Paint Shop Pro can reproduce these same effects at a fraction of the price. The advantage in using PSP filters is that the amount of softness can be controlled and they can be applied to the entire image or only selected areas of the image.

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EXPERT TIP JOE APICE PAINTSHOP PRO EXPERT

TOOL PREFERENCES When using the Paintbrush tool, make sure you set up your tool preferences to show the rounded Brush Size cursor instead of the Precise Cursor. This will allow you to see the exact area where the brush will paint the colour rather than guessing the size of the brush tip. You can change the cursor type by clicking the Cursor and Tablet Options tab in the Tool Option palette and unchecking the box labelled Use Precise Cursors.

SOFT FOCUS

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ATTENTION TO DETAIL

Use the Lasso tool to select the lips. To saturate the lip colour, use the Auto Saturation feature. On the Main Menu bar, select Effects8Enhance Photo8 Auto Saturation Enhancement. In the Auto Saturation window, select Normal for bias and Strong for strength.

11

LOOKING SLIMMER

Open the Layers palette and double click on Background. When the Layer Properties window opens, click the OK button. On the Standard Tool bar, select the Deformation tool and drag the bottom corners inward when the handles and guides appear.

12

A YOUNGER APPEARANCE

The areas containing the wrinkles, large pores and dry skin are essentially removed, and the face also appears younger than the original image. Depending on the portrait, you can add blusher or eye shadow to further enhance the image.

Want to create a pleasing soft focus effect? Place a shear nylon stocking over the lens before taking your picture. The stocking will soften the image and produce a very interesting effect. Try different colour stockings to vary the effects.

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SECTION #03 YOUR CAMERA Section highlights… TECHNIQUE COMMON PHOTO MISTAKES Tim Daly discusses eight classic photo blunders and how to avoid them

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TECHNIQUE MACRO MODES We explore how to use macro lenses for some stunning close-up photography

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Q&A ALL YOUR CAMERA QUESTIONS ANSWERED Aidan O’Rourke answers your camera technique, image editing and printing queries

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TECHNIQUE COMMON PHOTO MISTAKES SEE PAGE 80

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Your camera Expert guides to taking better pictures

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Our mission is to ensure that our tutorials bring you creative ideas, expert techniques, tips and quick fixes you can use in your own work. Authoritative A leading professional in their field writes every tutorial. Value added Where possible, we

Contact our tutorials team include image files, and full or trial software so you can try the tutorial for yourself, delivering a complete package. Clear Our large page size means we can add extra elements, explanations and detail to each tutorial.

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TECHNIQUE USING YOUR CAMERA YOUR GUIDE TIM DALY Tim has written several books on photography including The Digital Photography Handbook, The Digital Printing Handbook and The Desktop Photographer, and he continues to write for The British Journal of Photography and AG. His photographs have been exhibited across Europe

[email protected]

PORTFOLIO TIM DALY WEBSITE WWW.PHOTOCOLLEGE.CO.UK

Solving common photo mistakes Even a simple error can ruin a perfectly good photograph, but if you’re aware of the likely causes, you can improve your strike rate dramatically. Tim Daly looks at the top eight offences

ABOVE Unexpected cropping off the tops of heads can be caused by parallax error RIGHT This example shows a clever cropping to focus your attention on the central player in the composition

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his month we’re going to show you how to avoid annoying errors that can spoil a photograph. You know the kind of thing – a chopped off head, poor exposure, camera shake and unattractive obstructions.

01 Crop and frame Subjects such as buildings and standing people are often the wrong shape to fit into a rectangular landscape composition, so try to shoot them in a portrait format instead. It’s not essential to get everything in the frame – if you’re left with wasted space around the edges, use your zoom lens to crop closer or, if your camera has a fixed focal length lens, physically move closer. Portrait

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

shots at range are disappointing if priority is given to the whole figure rather than the more interesting facial expressions. If you’re not sure about the results you’re likely get if you go in closer, try shooting several variations such as a tight head shot, head and shoulders and the classic three-quarter length portrait.

02 Avoid obstructions It’s really easy to obstruct your camera lens when shooting with a rangefinder type digital compact. Most are positioned to one side of the lens on the top left of the camera body. In practice, this rarely proves to be a problem unless you place your fingers over the camera lens because the rangefinder viewing window won’t

4

FURTHER INFORMATION

A great way to get better ideas for your photographic projects is to look at some of the annual awards – professional photography’s version of the Oscars and the Baftas. See the web links box, below, for some of the prestigious events that take place every year

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NEXT MONTH

HOW TO SHOOT GREAT LOCATION PORTRAITS

0 EXPERT TIP CONCENTRATION AND PREPARATION

display the glaring error. This problem is more noticeable with digital compacts because they are smaller in comparison with their film-based relatives and are difficult to hold if your hands are on the large side.

03 Exposure problems Exposure problems most often occur when a photographer relies solely on automatic exposure functions rather than careful measurement and manual adjustments. Too little light will result in a darker than expected image; too much light will result in overexposure and create a much brighter image than expected, where detail is blown out and colours are pale and washy. Over exposure is most frequently caused when shooting with flash at close range or when faced with black or darker-toned subject matter. All but the most severe exposure errors can be corrected in your image-editing package with the Levels controls.

04 Parallax error Parallax error results from the slight difference in position between the viewing lens and the taking lens. The issue becomes visible when close focusing or working in macro mode. Instead of capturing the same composition as seen in the rangefinder viewing window, the taking lens shoots from a slightly lower vantage point and to the right. Parallax is not an issue with digital SLRs because what you see in the viewfinder is exactly the same image captured by the sensor. On less

ABOVE Exposure is the hardest part of photography to get right and can be influenced by a host of factors not apparent at the time of shooting RIGHT Flare occurs when shooting directly into the sun without a shade fitted to the lens

* WEB LINKS

advanced compacts, parallax is easily avoided. Use the LCD preview monitor to frame close-up subjects if your camera doesn’t have an LCD screen to avoid cropping in too tightly around the perimeter edges. Compared with other errors, images shot with parallax can be rescued by some recomposing in Photoshop, using the Cropping tool to remove areas that you didn’t account for and the Clone tool for rebuilding missing parts.

will prevent even the wobbliest posture from spoiling the shot. Success can also be achieved at lower speeds such as 1/60th and 1/30th, but only if the photographer relies on extra support such as leaning against a wall or another immovable object.

05 Autofocus error

07 Shooting into the light

Like any other automatic process, autofocus has to be guided by the user and worked within its narrow limitations. Most digital cameras have a central autofocus target, which sets the point of focus only on the object, fixed in the centre of the frame. For most landscape photos and subjects set at a distance away from the lens, this will work flawlessly and without concern, but when focus points are nearer, due care and attention is needed to succeed. Autofocus needs a clear area of contrast to work properly and will struggle to cope with areas of similar tone. In practice this means you can’t focus well on walls, bright skies and other areas of flat untextured colour. The only way to work with this problem is to recompose and lock-focus on a suitable point in the same plane. Since many digital compacts have the autofocus lock function, recomposing is possible without losing sharpness. Another associated problem is focus slip when subjects fall outside the central autofocus target and sharp focus is set by mistake at a point in the distance – again this can be fixed using AF lock.

Both colour and tonal range can be drastically altered by the position of the light, with best results occurring when the sun is behind the photographer. When shooting into the sun, a common cause of poor quality images is caused by lens flare. Shaped like a series of overlapping hexagons or a rush of white light, flare will ruin even the most carefully composed image. Digital SLRs and better compact cameras are designed to use a protective lens shade, which prevents excessive light from entering the lens on location. With each lens designed around exacting optical measurements, it’s essential that only the manufacturer’s recommended shade is used, rather than a jack-of-all-trades rubber lens hood.

06 Camera shake

ABOVE Close-up photography can suffer from camera shake, largely due to uncomfortable posture. This camera was held firm with a tripod

The best photographers have a thorough understanding of their medium and are well prepared to cope with most eventualities. The key to improving your strike rate and making mistakes a thing of the past is not to rush your picturetaking process. After composing your shot, spend a couple of seconds considering the likely exposure issues caused by lights and darks within your frame. Remember that most situations can easily be dealt with by overriding your automatic exposure and focusing functions.

If your images are frequently blurred, it is most likely caused by camera shake. This occurs when a low a shutter speed is used and it picks up the photographer’s body movement during an exposure. This often occurs in low-light conditions when the autoexposure functions set a shutter speed to cope with the lack of light. Even the slightest shakes can’t be rescued by software sharpening. On fully manual digital compacts and SLRs, camera shake can be avoided if the shutter speed is locked on a minimum of 1/125th of a second, as this

WORLD PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITIONS WORLD PRESS PHOTO 2003 Check out the results of this year’s competition, announced to the world on 14th February. www.worldpressphoto.nl

PULITZER PRIZE PHOTOGRAPHERS Check out the stunning documentary work by the New York Times’ staff photographers. www.pulitzer.org/year/2002/ feature-photography/works

ALFRED EISENSTAEDT AWARD View the best photographs taken by photographers from Life magazine in 2002. www.life.com/Life/eisies/ eisies2000/contents.html

08 Blank spaces Landscape photography can prove a demanding activity if large empty spaces are left within your compositions. When faced with the possibility of a blank space, there are two ways to solve this problem. First and easiest is to recompose and eliminate the sky by using your zoom lens at its telephoto setting. Without a large white expanse of sky influencing your camera metre, detail will be much more evident in your final print. The second and more creative way to solve the problem is to try to fill the void with overhanging foliage. Much used by landscape and garden photographers, this technique introduces much needed texture to the top section of your composition and can force the viewers attention downward and towards your primary subject. There’s no need to keep overhangs in sharp focus, so your intended depth of field should not be compromised.

@ SEND ’EM IN! Try out the techniques in this article then send us your photos. We’ll print the best each month. Email us at the following address:

@

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TECHNIQUE USING YOUR CAMERA

Seeing the world in macro mode 3

Up close, there’s a parallel world waiting to be discovered by the keen eye of a photographer armed with a few simple techniques up his sleeve. Tim Daly shows you how to shoot at close range

3 IN DETAIL PURPOSE-MADE MACRO LENSES Professional wildlife photographers opt for a specialised camera kit which includes a purpose built macro lens, specially designed for ultra close-up work without producing distortion. Better digital SLR systems based on the Nikon and Canon professional bodies can take advantage of these lenses. Unlike a mid-range zoom lens fitted with macro function, these kinds of professional lenses are fixed focus, usually around the 50-100mm focal length and produce images that can be greatly enlarged without loss of sharpness. For even greater magnification an additional bellows kit can be fitted between camera body and lens, allowing the subject to be recorded life size.

ABOVE Interchangeable lenses like this 50mm Nikon lens show focusing distance on the barrel, set against an aperture scale so you can judge depth of field at any one aperture and focal point FAR RIGHT This macro image was shot with a f11 aperture to throw the background out of focus, while keeping the foreground elements sharp

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ost digital compacts have an additional macro mode function which enables you to set focus on nearby objects to make them bigger in the frame. In ordinary shooting modes a conventional midrange zoom lens will not permit the photographer to achieve sharp focus on anything much below 50cm, which can be frustrating if your subject is on the small side. This is where a macro lens comes in. The wonderful thing about close up photography is that smaller subjects often reveal details and textures that are not apparent in normal shooting circumstances, but in order to capture that, you must remember that depth of field works differently here. As you get closer and closer to your subject, the effective depth of field diminishes rapidly until it’s reduced to a matter of millimetres, even at maximum f22. If you want to capture finely detailed images at close range, small apertures will force you to use much slower shutter speeds than normal and require the use of a tripod.

Close-up and slow shutter speeds All close focusing photography is best achieved with a tripod, as light levels are generally lower in these scenarios and camera shake can be more of a problem. A fixed camera position on a tripod will enable you to experiment and ponder on different compositions as tiny changes in position can make a significant difference to the end result. For most users the LCD preview screen on the rear of a digital camera can provide an excellent tool for checking composition and comparing different variations on the subject. For subjects shot outside on location another potential problem can be the wind. At such close distances, and forced to select small apertures such as f16 to ensure maximum depth of field, the photographer has to use slow shutter speeds to compensate. Any slight movement caused even by a gentle wind will make a blurred result. A practical answer to this is to use a makeshift windbreak made with a piece of stiff A4 white card which can also double up as a reflector to bounce extra light onto your subject.

Depth of field As mentioned, the classic problem with close focusing is the diminishing depth of field, leaving a zone of sharp focus typically measured in centimetres rather than

4

FURTHER INSPIRATION

A cheaper alternative to the specialist macro lens is the screw on or clip-on macro lens filter. Just like a magnifying glass, they produce a super-close up result in front of most digital compact lenses. The macro filter must be focused by moving the camera nearer or further away from the subject to achieve sharpness

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NEXT MONTH BETTER TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

BELOW This image was made by scanning in two separate items: the flower and a sheet of musical notepaper. After scanning and cutting out in Photoshop, both images were combined in one image file and were further enhanced by adding a drop shadow

ABOVE Armed with simple studio lighting, this still life was shot at very close range to reveal the textures and tones of a seedhead. At this scale a still life like this uses tiny reflectors the size of playing cards and a background no bigger than a sheet of A4 paper

metres. Even when the lens is set to its minimum aperture such as f22, little depth will be achieved when your subject is positioned less than one metre away. At the opposite end of the aperture scale, a wide aperture such as f4 may only produce a few millimetres of depth and will not produce pin-sharp focus across the image unless all of your subject is lying within a flat plane. The good news is that choosing the right point of focus before the shot is taken can enhance depth of field. In normal shooting mode, the temptation is to focus on the main subject regardless of how near or far it is from the camera lens. The depth of field range extends to one third in front of your subject and two thirds behind it, so a third of sharp focus is often wasted in the foreground. The best kind of results are achieved when a focus point is carefully selected at one third of the distance from the intended foreground to background. In principle this sounds impossibly complex, but better SLR cameras have a depth of field preview button, which gives a preview of the likely result before shooting commences anyway.

Lenses and maximum apertures If you’re thinking about buying a digital SLR, then spend some time researching the choice of lenses to go with it. Cheaper macro zoom lenses are convenient but often have a variable maximum aperture described as f3.3/4.5. This means that the maximum aperture is different at the wide-angle end to the telephoto end of the lens. For special shallow depth of field background effects, a maximum aperture of f4.5 won’t blur things out as much as a lens with a wider maximum aperture such as f2.8 lens will. Both prime and zoom lenses which open up to f2.8 throughout their entire range are

much more expensive, but will afford greater creative freedom and enable you to shoot in lower light conditions in the long run. Prime lenses, such as the specialist macro or micro, are an excellent choice for shooting close-up flora and fauna. If you can push the boat out, opt for an f2.8 mid-range zoom lens which holds its aperture value throughout the entire range.

Flash close-up In addition to its contrast-reducing properties, your camera’s fill-flash can also be used to increase the colour saturation of nearby subjects shot in macro mode. Fillflash photography will add some much needed sparkle to colours that would otherwise look washed out in dreary natural light. When shooting smaller subjects close up, be watchful for the appearance of dark shadows that can obscure details and spoil your creative ideas. Shadows and poor lighting due to restrictions on your shooting position can easily be blasted away with a tiny pop of fill flash. On better digital cameras, a further fill flash setting is also available called the flash compensation dial. Just like the standard exposure compensation dial, the flash compensation dial offers you the chance to fire the flash unit at specific power such as half power, quarter power or even less. With each reduction in power, flash will gradually become much less noticeable, but still reduce domineering shadows. These settings can be used to reduce the visual impact of stark flash illumination when mixed with daylight and if used cautiously, will remove traces of flash use altogether.

Alternatives to macro lenses Close-up crops of larger image files can still be made using your image-editing program. If your camera doesn’t enable you to shoot at ultra close range, you can always cut away unwanted areas of your image using the Cropping tool until a close-up effect is achieved. With this technique, you’ll have to accept a decrease in the maximum potential print out size, as a good deal of

pixels will have been discarded in the cropping process. After editing in this way, ensure that your remaining smaller image is enhanced by the use of the Unsharp Mask filter and not over-enlarged or resampled if you want to retain a degree of sharpness and quality.

Scanner capture A novel way to capture subjects at close range is to bypass a camera altogether and use a flatbed scanner. Remarkably, flatbeds can scan the underneath of most flattish objects and generate a super high-resolution file far in excess of the maximum file size achieved by a digital camera. Most images need careful editing in order to restore lost colour and contrast. Just like depth of field, a scanner can create sharp focus on objects which lie within a plane of about two inches, meaning you can create a sense of three dimensions rather than a flat squashed object. Very high-resolution images can be made this way, provided you have time to clean up your scans before assembling a final montage. Just like big budget advertising shoots, similar techniques are used for a scan and assemble project, where the biggest task is to make sure all separate elements of the production look as if they were captured at the same time. Best objects to scan are those with natural textures, like leaves and flowers, which can be used in a range of montage projects.

* WEB LINKS TESSA TRAEGER One of the best known advertising photographers has carved out her own close-up style. www.tessatraeger.com/

KODAK The Kodak guide to close-up photography. Read up on the advanced theories of shooting in macro mode. www.kodak.com/global/en/ consumer/pictureTaking/ closeUps/closUpsMain.shtml

NEW YORK INSTITUTE OF PHOTOGRAPHY Tips on shooting better flower photographs from the New York Institute of Photography. www.nyip.com/tips/topic_ flowers0400.html

Patterns of nature Best shot in the great gardens and horticultural collections open to the public, natural subjects can be as fascinating as an undiscovered world. Search for intricately structured tropical specimens, or delicate and ephemeral flowers, and choose only the most perfect example to photograph. Plants can be architectural with complex interlocking structures waiting to be investigated or they can be part of a more complex overall pattern. If rules allow, don’t be afraid to organise and arrange slightly imperfect situations for the camera, or carry a range of handy props with you.

@ SEND ’EM IN! Try out the techniques in this article then send us your photos. We’ll print the best each month. Email us at the following address:

@

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PHOTO HELP Q&A YOUR GUIDE AIDAN O’ROURKE Aidan O’Rourke is a freelance photographer who’s worked with digital imaging and photography since 1994. He created ‘Eyewitness in Manchester’ (part of Manchester Online, the Manchester Evening News website), the largest online source of photo and info about Manchester. See the URL opposite for more details on Aidan’s digital photography seminars around the country

[email protected] (camera queries only)

WEBSITE www.aidan.co.uk/seminars

All your camera questions answered Send all your technical questions to Aidan at [email protected] and he’ll do his best to help…

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QUESTIONS ANSWERED

CAMERA USE DOWNLOADING PHOTOS EXPOSURE COMPENSATION DIFFUSION EFFECTS FLASHGUNS CAMERA TO TV PORTRAIT PHOTOS IMAGE EDITING PAINT SHOP PRO 5 EMAILING FILES RESAMPLING PHOTOS PRINTERS PRINTER PROBLEMS INKJET OR LASER? MEDIA WEBSITE BOOK

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MAKING CD COPIES

2 EXPOSURE CONTROL The following pictures need exposure compensation. We show you how…

IMAGE MANAGEMENT

■■ INTERMEDIATE I am using an HP Pavilion 877 with Windows Me. I am downloading images from my FujiFilm FinePix 2400 Zoom and Kodak DC280 Zoom via a card reader to my PC and then burning the photos on to CD-R. This works OK but I have to transfer each image separately and this is very time-consuming. Can you tell me how to transfer the contents of each compact flash or smart card onto CD-R in one command operation? Secondly, I need some help with Paint Shop Pro 5. Can you please tell me where to find a book or manual? Ralph Holdom

Q

You don’t have to transfer each file separately. CD writing software is configured to enable you to burn files and directories from your PC’s hard drive directly to on to a CD. Study the manual or on-screen help for the software you are using and find out how to transfer directories and their contents to CD. Normally it’s just a question of selecting the folders to be transferred then dragging and dropping – the CD burning software does the rest. Each CD can accommodate around 650MB of data, so to make best use of the space on your CDs you should build

This photo of the M56 was taken just before dusk. The camera has exposed for the mid tones in the centre of the photo, leaving the sky burnt out. Overall the picture is too bright. The exposure was 1/13th second at F2.5.

Adjusting the exposure control to around minus 1.6 has given a darker picture, giving a truer representation of the lighting conditions, with plenty of detail in the clouds. The exposure was 1/43rd second at F2.5.

This capture of the mills in Ancoats Manchester was made at the standard exposure settings and has turned out too light – the sky has burnt out to white – the colour of the brickwork has not been rendered accurately.

Adjusting the EV control to minus 0.7 has given us an exposure of 1/179th of a second at F4.4. The tones are more accurate, but the sky is still a problem – completely white and lacking any detail.

Further adjusting the EV control to minus 1 is now giving us an exposure of 1/173rd of a second at F4.9 – some detail has appeared in the sky, but it is still at the top of the scale and is not clearly visible.

I have ‘cheated’ and added a graduated fill to the previous exposure in Photoshop. The effect is similar to a neutral filter in front of the lens. The sky appears grey and moody – a much more accurate portrayal of the scene.

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8 ONLINE PHOTO RESOURCE REVIEW www.designer-info.com Content Website by Scottish-based Tom Arah, with detailed articles on all aspects of DTP, photo-editing, vector drawing and web design. Useful reviews and tutorials on a wide

up around 600MB of material, then transfer it to CD in one go. As for Paint Shop Pro, I checked at my local bookshop and found plenty of books on Photoshop, but none on Paint Shop Pro. There are some titles available on Amazon.co.uk including an older one on Paint Shop Pro 5.

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CAMERA CONTROLS CAMERA USE

■■ INTERMEDIATE I have a Sony Cyber-shot. Can you tell me what +2/-2EV means and how and when I might want to use this feature? Bill McClean

Q

This is exposure compensation. The camera’s built-in light meter measures the amount of light hitting the camera’s sensor and makes adjustments to shutter speed and aperture – aperture refers to the iris-like device in the lens which opens and closes, increasing or decreasing the amount of light entering the camera. EV is a measurement of brightness. Shutter speed and aperture are balanced against each other – a longer shutter speed requires a smaller aperture – a larger aperture requires a faster shutter speed. Sometimes we need to override the auto-exposure settings and force the camera to allow less or more light into the camera. This is when we use the exposure compensation control. The photographs (left) illustrate some examples of exposure control in action.

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DIFFUSION EFFECTS IMAGE EDITING

■■ INTERMEDIATE How do I get that fuzzy-edged Q romantic look you see in so many wedding shots? Steven Pritchard

That fuzzy-edged look is a diffusion effect traditionally made using a filter attached to the camera lens. In the 17th century the painter Corot used a similar effect in his landscape paintings. In the 1930s movie directors enhanced the appearance of leading ladies by using diffusing filters, smearing gel over a clear filter or tying a stocking over the lens. In the Seventies filmmakers and photographers such as David Hamilton used it to create an impressionistic or nostalgic effect. This effect can be simulated using an image editing program like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. Used carefully on the right type of image this effect can transform a picture into something quite sublime. Experiment with different levels of blur and opacity, but don’t overdo it! See box (right) for further info.

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range of software packages. On the home page you’ll find features on CorelDraw, Photoshop Album, Elements, photo filters and more. A shining example of individual initiative and creativity, www.designer-info.com deserves to be supported and appreciated.

2 IMAGE DIFFUSION Photographers through the ages have used all kinds of methods to create the soft-focussed, romantic “fuzzy effect”…

This silhouette of trees on Alderley Edge in Cheshire provides us with some good subject on which to experiment with image diffusion – the ‘fuzzy’ effect.

First we create a duplicate of the background layer of this image. In the Layers palette, drag the layer to the ‘New Layer’ symbol (indicated by the red arrow).

Now we apply a Gaussian Blur to the upper layer. You can set a wider radius, such as 8.5, or a narrower one – say 3 or 4. The effect is the same as defocusing the lens: the light is spread over neighbouring pixels.

Finally we reduce the opacity of the layer to around 66% – layer opacity control is in the upper right corner of the Layers palette. The resulting picture combines the sharp original image with the defocused one.

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ACCESSORIES CAMERA KIT

■■ INTERMEDIATE Could you advise me which flashgun would be suitable for a FujiFilm FinePix 6900 Zoom? Doug Mills

Q

The FujiFilm FinePix 6900 Zoom has a hotshoe and can be operated using manually set aperture and shutter speed. This means that you can use any flashgun. Just connect the flash to the camera using the hotshoe, or an adaptor. Most flashguns can be set for a certain aperture, say 5.6. The flashgun measures the distance of the subject from the flash and adjusts the intensity so just the right amount of light is discharged. If the subject is closer, the intensity will be reduced. If the subject is further away, the flash will fire at a higher power. As long as the camera is set to the same aperture the light should be about right. If the flash is still too bright, you can manually adjust the aperture

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so it’s slightly smaller, e.g. F8. By the way, the shutter speed should make no difference to the flash as long as it’s not faster than 1/125th of a second. At slower shutter speeds the background will become more visible as more and more available light is allowed to enter the camera.

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TV CONNECTION IMAGE MANAGEMENT

■ BEGINNER

Q

I have just recently bought my first digital camera, the Nikon

CoolPix 775 and just taken my first photos with it. One of the options I was trying out was to display the images captured by the camera on my TV screen after the shoot. I followed the instructions given but nothing appeared on the screen. When I select the play mode on the camera to view previously taken photos without the TV/Video adaptor lead plugged in then it’s fine and I can view the past photos. But as soon as I plug in the lead that connects to the TV it seems that the camera switches off. Does you have any advice on this or am I doing anything wrong? Stephen McGonagle

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EXPLAINED

K IN CMYK K in CMYK – Cyan Magenta Yellow and... K, last letter of blacK. CMYK are the colours of the inks used in printing.

LZW Lempel-Zif-Welch – a form of data compression used in image file formats TIFF and GIF. Developed by J. Ziv and A Lempel around 1977 and later refined by Dave Welch.

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PHOTO HELP Q&A

8 MANUFACTURER SITE www.hewlett-packard.com Content: A vast store of information on the Palo Alto-based technology giant which merged with Compaq in May last year. Info on the Photosmart series of digital cameras is

When it comes to sorting out problems such as this you need to develop the powers of a high-tech Sherlock Holmes. Inference, logic, elimination of possibilities, and a touch of intuition all play a role in solving the problem. Now there is something in the third sentence of your message which arouses my curiosity: “Nothing appeared on the screen”. You then say that the pictures appear on the camera screen with the cable unplugged, but when you plug it in the camera switches itself off. What I believe is happening is that you’ve failed to set the channel on the TV to the AV input. Look on the remote control and find the button which switches the input from normal channels to AV input. I think you’ll find that with a couple of presses of the button the pictures will appear. It’s rather like ‘tuning’ the TV to the camera. When the cable is plugged into the camera, it doesn’t switch itself off. The LCD is turned off to save power while you’re viewing the photos on the TV screen.

about three clicks from the home page. Discover the history of the company founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in 1939, and their first product, an audio oscillator used by Disney. Their first camera was a polaroid-backed oscilloscope camera made in 1962.

as a first time user with Photoshop and colour control and an Epson 875DC printer. A problem I am faced with presently is the banding that occurs, particularly on colour prints. It has appeared on black-and-white prints but not on the last ones I made. I have tried cleaning the nozzles but nothing seems to do the trick. Can you give me a possible explanation for its appearance and persistence? And can you offer a solution? We have also been offered a laser printer, by someone who has no more use for it. Someone has told me that they are expensive to run. Are they an improvement on ink-jet printers? John Norman

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; READ ON PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS FOR DUMMIES Published by Price Written by Buy from

John Wiley & Sons £18.99 Deke mcClelland Waterstones

Verdict You don’t have to be a dummy to benefit from this entertaining and informative book on Photoshop Elements, part of the highly successful ‘For Dummies’ series. Useful explanations avoiding use of jargon, plus tips, tricks and lots more.

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FILE SIZE IMAGE MANAGEMENT

■ BEGINNER I seem to have a block in my understanding of saving a file so it’s small enough to email and doesn’t take all day to send. Could you tell me in simple terms how to place the image into Photoshop and then make it small enough to email without losing the detail? Fiona Bridgland

Q

Image size is one of the most important and most misunderstood concepts in digital photography. Images from today’s digital cameras are generally large in size, and we usually need to scale them down to suit various uses, such as sending via the internet, printing and viewing on-screen.

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This illustration compares a standard size larger image suitable for printing at A4 size with its smaller size equivalent suitable for a web page or for emailing. To create the smaller size image we can use the ‘Resample’ function of image-editing software, or ‘Create web gallery’ in an image

When resizing for the web you must do two things – rewrite the file so it has smaller pixel dimensions, and resave the file using a greater amount of JPEG compression. A typical size for a digital image file is 2,048 x 1,536 pixels – that’s a total of around three million pixels, nine million bytes of information four times the area of a standard computer screen (1,024 x 768). On disk at JPEG max it comes out at around 1MB, needing many minutes to transfer using a 56k modem. For web and email we need to reduce the dimensions so the file will fit inside a standard computer screen or browser window. 500 x 375 is a good size as it takes up roughly a quarter of a standard computer screen, and comes on a small disk. Here’s how to resample a photo in Photoshop or Elements. First we go to Image8Size – find width or height 2048 and change this to 500 – make sure the checkbox ‘Resample’ is checked. Now the file has been rewritten in the new dimensions, some of the picture information has been discarded – it’s about a quarter the size it was. Now go to Save As or Save for Web. Select JPEG high or JPEG

medium. The file size should come out at anything between 40 to 60 k. That’s it – you’re now ready to email the file! But there’s an easier way that’s especially useful if you have lots of files. Simply use the ‘Make web gallery’ feature of your image organisation program. It will make a web gallery consisting of smaller size images and thumbnails, together with the web pages to display them. Select the image size to maximum 500 pixels width or height and create the gallery. The smaller size image files will be in one of the web gallery folders. The image files will all be correctly sized and ready for transfer to the web gallery, but if you want to, you can open up the folder and select one or more of these files for viewing or emailing.

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PRINTER PROBLEMS PRINTER

■■ INTERMEDIATE I recently bought a Nikon Coolpix 5700 and was quite startled by the sharpness of the picture I’m getting on an 8 x 10. However, I’m struggling

Q

Banding, by which you mean the appearance of lines along the direction of print, usually happens on inkjet printers because of clogged nozzles. I have encountered this problem many times and usually the way to solve it is to run the head cleaning utility and then check that all the nozzles are free. Sometimes the nozzles aren’t printing properly because of a broken electrical contact. Use of non-manufacturer print cartridges can result in this effect. Often I find that buying new print cartridges can solve the problem. Perhaps the printer driver software doesn’t match the printer or operating system. In principle, if you have a standard operating system, imaging software, printer driver and a correctly configured and connected printer with fully functioning cartridges, then you should get perfect results. Inkjet printers have been developed to a high degree of sophistication, especially in the printing of photographic images – laser printers just don’t match the quality, detail and colour fidelity of inkjets, so I wouldn’t recommend that option for printing photos. Ultimately it may be more cost-effective to buy a new inkjet printer. They’re extremely good value and are improving all the time.

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FURTHER INFORMATION

Jaggies is the common name for pixels that are visible along diagonal lines. They are caused by lower resolution images being displayed too large, causing the pixels to be visible to the naked eye

EMAIL AIDAN! Send your digital photography queries to Aidan at [email protected] This email address is for technical problems only. See page 03 page for other problems

2 OBLIQUE ANGLE ON...

V TECH FOCUS

Taking professional quality portrait photos Today’s digital cameras are amazing pieces of technology. And yet they’re so compact and unassuming, it’s quite possible to underestimate their capabilities. You may think that a sub-£500 compact digital camera is great for general photography and family snaps, but for serious portrait work you still need something bigger and and more

SUPER CCD SR

powerful, plus a fully equipped portrait studio with flash and backgrounds, preferably in a fashionable part of London. Not so! The very power and versatility of the contemporary digital camera makes it possible to achieve extraordinary results with the most basic of lighting and props. Any shots you take can be instantly previewed

The first set of captures was made outside Stephanie’s home in afternoon light. The camera was mounted on a tripod. Unfortunately the light was too low – and Steph was uncomfortable in the cold temperature – so one look at this set of photos, and we decided to reject them and try shooting indoors

via the LCD or your PC, enabling you to retake images as necessary. This is how I came up with this portrait photograph of actress Stephanie Bishop, taken for her listing in Spotlight, the actor’s directory. The photo is the result of trial and error, improvisation, discussion, and a lot of patience but the end result is very professional. The lighting was the 60

The next set of photos was made in the living room – a more relaxed environment – and warmer! For a background I used my velvety jacket. Spread over the back of the armchair, it makes an area of pure black with no reflections. We held a table lamp with 60W bulb above and to the left of the subject. There was also a ceiling light above and to the right.

watt bulb of a domestic table lamp, plus ambient lighting in the room. The backdrop was my velvety jacket which I’d bought in the sales earlier in the week. I used a FujiFilm FinePix F601, for the shoot with a tripod. The studio was the front room of her house. Take a look at the walkthrough to find out the process we went through to achieve this shot.

The results were good. Looking at the photos displayed in Photoshop’s File Browser we selected the one with the most neutral expression. The camera was orientated horizontally, requiring the image to be closely cropped around the face to give an image in portrait or vertical orientation, aspect ratio 4:3.

Digital sensor development hasn’t concentrated solely on cramming more and more photosensors into a smaller area – Fujifilm is taking CCD development in a new direction. The Fujifilm Fourth Generation Super CCD SR is a new type of sensor. At each of the 3.1 million photosites, you’ll find not one but two photodiodes – a larger one of standard sensitivity (S), and just above it a smaller one of reduced sensitivity (R). It’s a bit like taking two photographs at the same time – one at normal exposure and one underexposed. The two sets of data are then combined to produce an image with much greater detail both in the highlights and the shadows. There are two types of lighting conditions which tend to produce burnt out highlights – bright sunshine (where the difference between bright and dark areas may be too much for the sensor to handle) and when using flash – even set to the camera’s own exposure metering, facial highlights burn out to an unflattering shiny white. This new CCD effectively takes you photos at different exposures and should deliver an image in which the highlights retain their detail and tonal values, but where the mid and darker tones are also correctly exposed. The first two camera to feature the new technology will be the FinePix F700 and FinePix F410 Zoom.

A digital cameras would have difficulty with this. I’ve exposed for the top half by aiming the camera high, pressing the shutter gently then aiming at the centre.

We‘ve made a black and white version by changing the file to greyscale. The resulting photo is the best yet, but we’re still not happy. Steph still doesn’t look relaxed and there’s tension around the mouth. Secondly, as we’ve cropped over half the picture there won’t be enough detail for an A4 size print out.

Third time lucky as we are now onto our third set of captures. For this shoot I’ve oriented the camera vertically, and selected the highest setting of 6 million pixels (2,832 x 2,128). These are the results. Studying the various captures, we selected the first one, in which Steph had a neutral and relaxed expression.

All our work and patience has finally paid off! Steph looks relaxed and natural in this image and the camera has given us some fantastic detail. The auto white balance adjustment, for tungsten light, has given us natural skin tones and the pure black background looks great – you’d never know it was a jacket.

Finally we changed the file to greyscale. This file will print up to A4 size so can be supplied on disk for inclusion on the Spotlight website and in the directory.

Exposed for the foreground, details have again burnt out. The Fuji 4th Generation Super CCD SR, however, would be able to capture both parts of this picture accurately.

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SECTION #04 USING YOUR PC IMAGE FILES TYPES SEE PAGE 90

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YOUR PC

Section highlights… USING YOUR PC IMAGE FILE TYPES Joe Cassels explains how to convert your photos from one file type to another to suit your needs

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ONLINE TUTORIAL FREEWARE IMAGE EDITING Can’t afford Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro? You can still get the basic tools from online shareware

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PRINT TECHNIQUES WATERCOLOUR PAPER Using artist’s paper instead of the usual glossy alternative can lead to interesting results

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PC & internet Using a PC to make the most of your digital photos

Tutorials you can trust!

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Our aim is to bring you creative ideas, expert tips and quick fixes you can use in your own work. Authoritative A leading professional in his/her field writes every tutorial. Value-added We try to include

Contact our Reviews team image files, and full or trial software so you can try the tutorial for yourself, delivering a complete package. Clear Our large page size means we can add extra elements, explanations and detail to each tutorial.

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If you have a comment about our reviews, or a product you would like us to test, please email us at [email protected] Visit our website at www.dcmag.co.uk for reader verdicts

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TUTORIAL USING YOUR PC YOUR GUIDE JOE CASSELS Joe Cassels writes regular tutorials for a wide range of computer magazines. He is an enthusiastic digital photographer with a track record of helping many people get more from their PCs

[email protected]

PORTFOLIO JOE CASSELS

Understanding file types and associations You can save your photos in various file formats. Joe Cassels explains the difference between bitmaps, JPEGS, and TIFFS and how to convert one to another to suit your needs

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ifferent types of picture file have evolved along with the need to store or transport images effectively without harming their quality. Digital cameras often take photos in either bitmap (BMP) form or as JPEGs. Some cameras use a proprietary file system, but they should come with suitable conversion software – otherwise sharing the images would be difficult. Bitmaps are high-quality images of large file size. However, not very many will fit onto your camera’s storage media, which is why many cameras take JPEG files by default. JPEGs are compressed images where some detail is lost in the name of

TUTORIAL

KEY DETAILS

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SKILL LEVEL

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EXPLAINED

producing a more portable image. Other file types offer different variations on the compression versus detail equation, but JPEG and bitmap are the ones you are most likely to encounter.

Compression conundrum It is possible to control the amount of compression in a JPEG, but typically they tend to be a third to a quarter the size of their bitmap counterparts. The less complex the image, the more it can be compressed without losing detail. They produce perfectly adequate photos, but you can see evidence of compression around

PICTURE FILE TYPES

detailed areas at times. Look for the slightly blocky appearance of JPEG artefacts around curved edges. If you’ve tried out various picture-handling programs, you may have noticed that the program that opens picture files by default has changed. This is known as a file association and it’s quite common for new programs to hijack files in this way. It’s straightforward to change them back, and we’ll do so here. Finally, you may want to alter file types yourself if, for example, you want to compress an image to put it on a website. This is really as simple as opening and resaving the picture in the new format.

The same picture of a flower, saved as three different image file types…

GIF IMAGE FILE The Graphics Interchange Format, used by the World Wide Web, CompuServe and many BBSs. GIF supports color and various resolutions and includes data compression but is more effective for scanned images rather than colour photos.

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PNG IMAGE FILE The Portable Network Graphics, (PNG) format was developed as a patent-free answer to the GIF format. An image in a lossless PNG file can be 5%-25% more compressed than a GIF file of the same image. Saving, restoring and re-saving a PNG image will not degrade its quality but unlike GOF PNG does not support animation.

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BITMAP IMAGES

Bitmap files can be created for any kind of image. The file is composed of information for each pixel in the image, describing its individual position and colour. In a photo, this creates a huge amount of data, which is why bitmap photos are huge files.

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JPEG IMAGES

Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) files are compressed. They take up much less memory than bitmaps because detail is lost as the picture is compressed. Higher levels of compression result in less detailed pictures. However, JPEGs usually make acceptable photographs.

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TIFF IMAGES

Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) files can be compressed using a lossless formula. This means that data is not lost when the files are made smaller. This makes TIFF a popular choice for publishing because you get smaller files than bitmaps, but quality is maintained.

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MORE INFORMATION

CHANGING FILE ASSOCIATIONS

Newsgroup microsoft.public.windowsxp.photos Book How to do everything with Windows XP, Curt Simmons, McGraw-Hill Windows version 98/Me/XP

What to do if your files are opening with the wrong program

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EXPERT TIP JOE CASSELS WINDOWS EXPERT

PHOTO ARCHIVING Choose the file type according to the use you will put your photo to. Bitmaps and TIFFs offer very high quality images, but are big files. You might use these for professional images. JPEGs make perfectly acceptable photos for general use, providing the compression isn’t too high.

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FOLDER OPTIONS

02

File associations are quite easy to alter in Windows XP and Me. Either right click a file of the type you want to alter, choose Properties and click Change or select Folder Options from the Tools menu of Windows Explorer. Select the File Types tab.

SELECT THE FILE TYPE

03

If you take the latter option, scroll through the file types and find the one you want to change. Highlight it, click Change and select the program you want to use with this file type by default. (Click Browse to locate the program file).

CONFIRM THE PROGRAM

Click OK to return to the previous dialog and Close to confirm the change. If you ever need to change the association back, return to Folder Options, Choose the File Types tab and click Restore. The original association will then return.

? EXPLAINED LOSSY COMPRESSION Lossy compression is where carefully selected data is lost. For example the JPEG compression standard creates blocks of colour to replace individual pixels. When greatly compressed, pictures show JPEG artefacts, which is where some of these blocks are noticeable in the image. Loss less compression removes no data from the image.

04

WINDOWS 98

05

File associations are a little different in Windows 98. Open My Computer and choose View8Folder Options8File Types. Scroll down the list until you find the file type that you want to change. Highlight it and click Edit.

CHANGE THE ICON

06

Click Change Icon to alter the icon that indicates this file type. Choose an icon from the list provided and click OK. Under Actions, click Open and choose Edit. You can now specify the program that you want to use.

CONVERTING FILES

CHOOSE THE PROGRAM

In the following dialog, click Browse. Locate the program’s executable file and click Open. Click OK twice to confirm this change. Check that the file type and program are correct before clicking OK again. The associations should be changed.

How to use Microsoft Paint to convert pictures from one file type to another

8

8

* WEB LINKS Microsoft www.microsoft.com/windowsxp /default.asp

01

OPEN PAINT

Prior to Windows XP, Paint only supported bitmap files, but the XP version enables you to convert between the most popular image files. Click Start8All Programs8Accessories8 Paint. Choose File8 Open and browse to the photo you want.

02

SAVE IT AGAIN

Highlight the picture you want and click Open. You may need to resize the window to fit it all in. To change the file type, save the image again using the new format. Click File Save As so you can save a new version of the file.

03

CHOOSE THE FILE TYPE

In the Save As dialog, choose the file type from the Save as type drop-down list. Not all picture formats are supported, but TIFFs, GIFs, JPEGs and PNG files are, as well as bitmaps. Click Save to create the new file.

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TUTORIAL USING YOUR PC YOUR GUIDE JOE CASSELS Joe Cassels writes regular tutorials for a wide range of computer magazines. He is an enthusiastic digital photographer with a track record of helping many people get more from their PCs

[email protected]

PORTFOLIO JOE CASSELS

Your digital photo toolkit at your fingertips You don’t have to shell out lots of money to get hold of some decent image-editing tools. Joe Cassels plucks the best freeware and shareware image-managing tools from the web for your convenience TUTORIAL

KEY DETAILS

2

SKILL LEVEL

2

2 2

T

here may be no such thing as a free lunch, but you’ll be surprised what you can get for free when it comes to digital photo software, thanks to the wide availability of freeware and shareware program on the web. Freeware is, as its name suggests, completely free to use, while shareware applications are usually provided on a try now, pay later basis and may have limited functionality or a time limit. Before running any freeware or shareware we suggest you run a virus checker on the program first. Downloadable applications can also contain trojan horses or spyware – types of virus that trigger at a particular

time and can share the contents of your PC with the world. Spyware is sneakier, as it transmits info about your internet habits to its master. However there is plenty of good, healthy freeware to be had and we’ve trawled through the web to put together a toolkit of exciting applications to help you get more from your digital photographs. If you can’t afford Paint Shop Pro, fret not, we’ve included two excellent, yet free image editors in the shape of Futuris Imager and Pixia. Both offer outstanding features for the lowest price around: that is, absolutely nothing. Resizing and converting images from one format to

This free image viewer has features that rival many commercial equivalents. Get your copy at http://download.com

FUTURIS IMAGER

8 01

FIND IMAGES

Install and launch Futuris Imager. Choose File8Open to browse for some picture files. Once you are in a folder of photos, select one of the pictures and click Open. You can alter the type of files to view using the drop down list. Most picture file types are supported.

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another can be a frustrating and slow business. However, CropIt, Stream Action and Mihov Image Resizer can achieve different conversions with multiple files, saving you endless amounts of time. If you have Windows 95/98 or Me and envy XP’s photomanagement, try Photos Manager, which offers similar functions. JPG Cleaner optimises files while Red Eye gets rid of that perennial problem. Finally, try being creative with Centarsia, which turns photos into mosaics. With all this software out there online, you can save yourself a lot of money. Perhaps there is such a thing as a free lunch after all…

02

8 THE MAIN VIEWER

The picture opens in the main viewer. Use the forward and back arrows to scroll through the folder contents. TWAIN capture from cameras and scanners is supported, as are images from web cams. The Go menu offers file management tools, like copy, move, delete and thumbnails.

03

FILTERS AND EFFECTS

The filters button has a tool kit icon. Click it to see a menu of supported filters. Double click a filter to apply it. Options include colour inversion for a negative effect, mirror image, rotate, resize and greyscale. The Restore Original button removes any filters you have used.

NINE KILLER APPLICATIONS

Try these free programs to get the best from your portfolio of pictures

? EXPLAINED SPYWARE Spyware is software that has a useful purpose but includes code designed to snoop on your online practices. Not only does it cause your internet connection to under perform, but there are serious implications for your privacy at stake here.

01

RED EYE REMOVER Name Red Eye Publisher JDM Cox Software

02

Status full and free Info www.jdmcox.com

Remove red eye without creating false eyes or applying colour on top of your photo. Simply select the eye in question and reduce the red hue using a slide control. Then re-save the picture, minus red eye.

04

IMAGE CONVERTOR Name MiHov Image Resizer Publisher Miha’s

Mihov Image Resizer converts files between JPEGs, GIFs and bitmaps and resizes your images quickly into instant thumbnail copies.

Name JPG Cleaner Publisher Rainbow Status

03

full and free Info http://rainbow.ht.st

JPG Cleaner removes excess data from JPEG files that’s often added by photo editing software. Unzip the zip archive and launch JPGCLN95.exe. Click Add files and open the file you want to clean. Click Start.

05

Utilities Status full and free Info http:// freeware.mihov.com

FILE OPTIMISER

BATCH IMAGE CONVERTER/EDITOR Name Stream Action Publisher fCoder Status

Name Pixia Publisher Tacmi Co, Ltd Status full and free Info www.tacmi.co.jp/pixia

A highly impressive image editor, offering multiple undo, multiple layer support and many other features that commercial programs boast. It has a similar feel to Paint Shop Pro so install it and try it out!

06

Free Beta software Info www.fcoder.com

Stream Action converts multiple image files by resizing or re-formatting. Operations are designed to suit common tasks, such as changing files into thumbnails for web pages or optimising for printing.

IMAGE EDITOR

STAMP YOUR IMAGES Name Picture Shark Publisher Picture Shark Status free shareware, registration is strongly

encouraged Info www.picture-shark.com

Want to publish your photos online, but worry about rip-off merchants? Picture Shark lets you stamp all your pictures with your chosen piece of artwork.

0

EXPERT TIP JOE CASSELS PC EXPERT

DOWNLOADING

07

MOSAIC MAKER Name Centarsia Publisher Alhena Design Status Postcard ware Info www.alhena-

08

PICTURE INDEXER Name Photos Manager Publisher Pieter H Henning Status 30-day trial Info

design.com/centarsia

www.showyourphotos.net

To make this picture choose File8 Open Master Image8Commands8Run Mosaic. To use your own choose Tools8Open Queue Manager and add files.

An alternative interface for photo management. Use the folder tree in the left-hand pane to select a folder of pictures then organise your shots.

09

PHOTO RESIZER Name CropIt Publisher Entry-Soft Status full and free Info www.entrysoft.com

Crop it provides a quick and easy way to resize your pictures ready for a print service. It offers you a 3x2 template showing you the aspect ratio that print services use. Move the template and crop the picture.

If you've caught the free software bug, try heading to www.download.com. You can search for different programs by keyword and then narrow the search to show you only freeware. It's a good idea to read some user comments before downloading any program. Remember if you install any of these programs, you do so at your own risk.

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MAKING PRINTS ON WATERCOLOUR PAPER

4

TECHNIQUE

FURTHER INFORMATION

Try WWW.adobe.com/ support/techguides/color/ main.htm for helpful tips

YOUR GUIDE TIM DALY Tim has written several books on photography including The Digital Photography Handbook, The Digital Printing Handbook and The Desktop Photographer, and he continues to write for The British Journal of Photography and AG. His photographs have been exhibited across Europe

[email protected]

PORTFOLIO TIM DALY WEBSITE WWW.PHOTOCOLLEGE.CO.UK

Making prints on watercolour paper If you wish there was more to life than matt and glossy inkjet paper, try artist’s paper instead. Tim Daly takes you on a watercolour challenge

0

EXPERT TIP TIM DALY COLOUR PROFILES

INKJET ART PAPERS Inkjet art media offer a more tactile finish, like traditional artist’s watercolour paper. Best brands to try are Somerset and Lyson, since both have been carefully designed to reproduce fine detail and high colour saturation with an alluring texture. Very heavy weights up to 300 gsm can be used for exhibition printing.

* WEB LINKS

I

t’s essential to realise at the earliest stage that cotton or wood pulp watercolour papers designed for artists’ use will react very differently to glossy inkjet paper. Art papers are much more absorbent than conventional inkjet media and as a consequence, are much less reflective too. After making your initial test prints, you’ll notice that your results will look oddly dark and have a much less saturated range of colours compared to a monitor image. Due to the open weave and texture of many paper materials, high-resolution files with pin-sharp detail will not reproduce well and contrast will be flat and muddy. Bought in a single sheet or as part of a sketchblock, watercolour papers can be unpredictable but produce a wonderful textured result that is a perfect cross over between painting and photograph.

Each kind of art paper has its own base colour ranging from ivory, through to cream and even salmon pinks. Inkjet printers are never equipped with white printing ink, so it’s important to recognise that this base colour of your watercolour paper will become the maximum highlight colour and value in your final print. Most heavyweight art papers are made well beyond a typical inkjet printer’s maximum media thickness limit of around 300 gsm. If you have an Epson Photo printer, move the tension lever (under the printer lid) from ‘0’ to ‘+’, to accommodate thicker material, but check your instruction guide before attempting anything close to the limit. Paper misfeeds are a common problem with art paper but can be prevented by using the printer’s Form Feed command which pull your sheet of paper into position before you print.

VINTAGE PRINTING Just like ancient photographic processes such as platinum and gum bichromate printing, art papers can take digital photography into another era

Many hardware and software manufacturers offer online advice on how to cope with colour management problems as follows:

PAPERCHASE www.paperchase.co.uk Good paper supplies can be sourced at most High Street branches of this famous stationers.

SILVERPRINT An Aladdin’s cave for professional photographers and inkjet printing enthusiasts. Five minutes walk from Waterloo station or mail order from: www.silverprint.co.uk

KATE’S PAPERIE www.katespaperie.com Next time you are in New York, Kate’s Paperie has probably the biggest selection of hand made paper in the world.

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DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

01

FILE PREPARATION

As so much fine detail will be lost in print, it’s not essential to have ultra high-resolution image files to print from. Art papers can’t cope with more than 720 per dots of ink per inch and many look better printed with the draft quality 360 mode. When ink dots hit the paper they spread out like ink on blotting paper, so don’t prepare images above 150ppi resolution – they stand less chance of turning out waterlogged.

02

BRIGHTNESS AND COLOUR

Ignore your monitor and make your image much brighter than normal to counteract merging midtones. Do this in Photoshop by moving the Levels midtone slider to the left. This command should be further increased if you print on cream paper. To save colour saturation, use the Hue/Saturation dialog to bump up the colours and move the Saturation slider by +20.

03

SETTING UP THE PRINTER SOFTWARE

Start testing your paper with a series of test prints, using Plain Paper as your selected media type. Try increasing the printer resolution steadily from 360 to 720 dpi and keep a note of all your settings and save the best combination of resolution, media type and colour balance as a Save Settings file to replay over future prints on the same paper.

04

JUDGING YOUR END RESULTS

It’s most likely that your results will look muddy and dull, but don’t despair! This is easily corrected by returning to Photoshop and making a brighter Levels adjustment. Try printing it again and remember that very thin media such as Conqueror writing papers will only accept a small-scale print before buckling under the weight of the fluid.

On your discs >

Now you have a choice of two CDs or a DVD every month! Here’s what we have lined up…

This April… I

DEMO SOFTWARE Extensis Portfolio 6.0 (PC)

DISC 2 FULL SOFTWARE Breeze Browser 1.4b (PC) iView Media LE (MAC)

issues of the magazine, but I’m keeping my lips firmly sealed for now so you’ll need to check out each issue of the magazine or visit the Digital Camera Magazine website (www.dcmag.co.uk) for more details.

DEMO SOFTWARE iView Media Pro (MAC) Breeze Browser 2.4c (PC) Abacre Photo Editor 1.0 (PC) ACDSee PowerPack 5.0 (PC) ArcSoft Greeting Card 1.0 (PC) CollageMaker 1.3 (PC) Firegraphic XP 5.5 (PC) PHOTOARTMASTER (PC) PhotoBuilder Platinum 3.5 (PC) PhotoFlair 2.0.1 (PC) Photomatte Lab 2.0 (PC) Spline 2.2 (PC)

Jeremy Ford Senior New Media Editor [email protected]

■ Don’t forget issue 7! Miss out and you’ll miss out on getting the full version of Serif PhotoPlus 6.0. It’s a world exclusive, only on Digital Camera Magazine....

VIRTUAL TOURS

FULL SOFTWARE Extensis Portfolio 5.0 Desktop Edition (PC/MAC)

OTHER Virtual Tours Tutorial Files Camera test shots Camera database Manufacturer web links

This month you’ve had the opportunity to pick up either the CD or DVD edition of the magazine, so follow the next few pages to find out what we’ve got for you t’s been a busy month since the last issue, not only have we launched the DVD edition of Digital Camera Magazine but we’ve been very busy looking at the next few issues, too. This is mainly due to the additional space we have available on the DVD, giving us effectively the same space as six CD-ROMS. The DVD has enabled us to feature a host of Mac-only programs and plug-ins, plus the Virtual Tours from previous issues of Digital Camera Magazine are featured. We’ve a host of other exciting ideas, too, that will be introduced over the next few issues. We have some superb well-known full programs lined up for future

DISC 1

Our virtual tour enables you to get a proper feel for the five digital cameras we’ve reviewed this issue

PLUG-INS Glitterato 1.01 (PC) Highlight Control (PC) LunarCell 1.40 (PC) nik Color Efex Pro Classic (PC) Photographic Filters (PC) Shadow Control 1.0 (PC) SilverFast DC 6.0 (PC) Smart Sharpen (PC) SolarCell 1.31 (PC) SuperBladePro 1.06 (PC) FREE SOFTWARE EasyPeg 1.02 (PC) InstaCropper 2.2 (PC)

IrfanView 3.8 (PC) Jalbum 3.1 (PC) MyAlbum 2.2 (PC) Novamatic 2000 2.0 (PC) Power Albums 3.0 (PC) TalaPhoto 1.1 (PC) VCW VicMans Photo Editor 7.2 (PC) Vikar JPEG ReSizer 2.1 (PC)

DVD (All the above plus) FULL SOFTWARE ThumbsPlus 3.3 (PC) DEMO SOFTWARE ThumbsPlus 5.1 (PC) Canvas 8 (MAC) FotoTrimmer (MAC) Paintfx 1.0.5 (MAC) Photo Mechanic 3.2.1 (MAC) PhotoLine 32 9.03 (MAC) Photologist 1.1 (MAC) Photomover 2.1.3 (MAC) Photoshop 7.0 (MAC) Photoshop Elements 2.0 (MAC) PICStation 1.2 (MAC) PLUG-INS FotoPage Platinum (MAC) Glitterato 1.01 (MAC) India Ink 1.71 (MAC) LunarCell 1.4 (MAC) Melancholytron 1.04 (MAC) Mr. Contrast 1.01 (MAC) PhotoKit 1.0.0 (MAC) SolarCell 1.31 (MAC) SuperBladePro 1.07 (MAC) Image Doctor 1.0 (MAC) FREE SOFTWARE Book Image Viewer (MAC) iPhSwitch (MAC) jalbum (MAC) Slide Freebie 2.1 (MAC) TalaPhoto (MAC) DRIVERS Kodak Easyshare OTHER Virtual Tours library

How to run your CD/DVD Place the CD/DVD in your PC’s CD/DVD drive. The interface will run automatically. Read the user agreement carefully – if you accept the terms, click ‘I agree’. Then use the menu bar at the top of the screen to browse your disc’s contents. Enjoy:

Reader support

01

FLY AROUND

Use the pink arrows to the left and right of each camera image to spin the camera around. Rollover the outside arrows to auto-rotate the camera in that direction or click the inside arrows to manually rotate the camera to the position you want.

02

DETAIL SHOTS

We’ve provided nine detailed images of each digital camera so you can have a really thorough look at each of them. Zoom into the required close-up shot by simply clicking the relevant thumbnail image or pressing the number key shown below each one.

03

TEST SHOTS

We’ve taken test shots in four different lighting situations to enable you to view the image quality of the individual cameras. These include a detail picture, a skin shot, plus indoor and outdoor shots. See a large version of each shot by clicking the thumbnail or pressing the number key displayed below each image.

We are careful to thoroughly test each CD/DVD but in the event of a problem, please call our reader support team on 01225 822743. In the event of your disc being physically damaged, please see the back of the disc case for details of how to get a free replacement.

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Extensis Portfolio 5 Whatever the size of your photo collection, it has never been easier to catalogue and search your images

*

SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONS

PUBLISHER PRODUCT STATUS CONTACT INFORMATION AS SOLD FOR APPROX SERIAL NUMBER

EXTENSIS FULL VERSION FOR PC AND MAC WWW.EXTENSIS.CO.UK $199 INTERNET ACCESS REQUIRED

D

eciding how to store and organise your digital photographs can be a difficult choice to make. Many people simply create a folder on their hard drive each time they have finished a new batch of photos, giving the folder a suitable name but doing nothing to make individual pictures easily identifiable. When the time comes that you are looking for a particular image, you will probably find it hard to track down. With Extensis Portfolio 5 Desktop Edition you can organise your photos into galleries which allow you to preview your images. Spend a little time giving your pictures descriptions and keywords and you will be able to conduct comprehensive searches in future – no more frantic scrabbling through folders! Portfolio also lets you stay in sync with other users by sharing your catalogues over networks and across platforms. You can import databases of information into your catalogue, and even export catalogues or specified items as web pages. Portfolio does not just work with photos – you can also catalogue other media files such as sounds, videos and presentations. Another useful feature called Background Cataloging allows Portfolio to check every few minutes for new files added to a folder. And any new files found will automatically be added to your viewing window. When you are searching for images, you can carry your query over as many catalogues as you want, even those stored on a network. To help you protect your images, you can embed a watermark. The program can be configured for multiple users, each of which can be assigned different levels of access rights. For example, you may wish other people to be able to view and search you images, but not allow anyone else to make changes to catalogues. As you can see Extenisis Portfolio is an extremely advanced product. There are many other media managament programs on the market but this is by far the most comprehensive of its type available.

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DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

01

REGISTER THE PROGRAM

04

SET CATALOGUE OPTIONS

07

CUSTOMISE YOUR VIEW

Pay a visit to www.maxpc.co.uk/extensis to obtain your Portfolio serial number. Install the program and click on the Personalize button to enter your code.

You can use the General tab to determine the quality and size of thumbnails as well a specifying how keywords are generated from the image path.

From the View menu, you can select Custom View to set various display options. You can select what additional information should be displayed with images.

02

CREATE A CATALOGUE

05

MORE IMAGE OPTIONS

08

SET DESCRIPTIONS

Launch the program, select the Create A New Portfolio Catalog option and click OK. Choose where your catalogue should be saved, type a name and click save.

Move to the Add tab, to set more options. Some digital cameras automatically generate thumbnails and you can specify whether these should be used in your catalogue.

Right click on any picture and select Properties from the menu. You can enter a description for all of your images. If you move to the Keywords tab, you can add useful keywords.

03

ADD IMAGES TO CATALOGUES

06

VIEW YOUR IMAGES

09

USING KEYWORDS IN SEARCHES

You can add pictures to your catalogue by simply dragging and dropping from another folder. Alternatively, you can click Catalog8 Add Items and navigate to the relevant folder.

Click OK in the Option screen and your images will be added. By default, Thumbnail view is used, but you can also select List or Record view from the View menu.

Click Catalog8Find, to conduct easy searches of your images. Some keywords are automatically generated from an image's path, but your own will be more useful.

10

REPLACE KEYWORDS/ DESCRIPTION TEXT

If you accidentally add an incorrect keyword or description to your images, you can rectify your mistakes in one fell swoop. Click Catalog 8Replace, type in the word to replace and then the replacement before clicking Replace.

13

ADD WATERMARKS TO IMAGES

You can add a Digimarc watermark to your images to help protect them. Select the ones you would like to watermark and click Image8Embed Digimarc ID. Select the options you want to use and press the Embed button.

11

VIEW A SLIDESHOW

You can view all of the image in any given catalogue as a slideshow. Set the option you want to use by clicking Catalog8 Slideshow Options and then start the show by clicking Catalog8Slideshow.

14

PROTECT YOUR IMAGES

If your galleries are accessible by other people you may want to protect them. You can password protect images to provide four different levels of access by clicking Catalog8 Administration and clicking on the Passwords tab.

Upgrade Upgrade to Portfolio 6 Readers of Digital Camera Magazine can upgrade to the latest version of Portfolio for just $99. Version 6 can now automatically synchronise the contents of a catalogue with folders on your hard drive, so if you add more photos to a folder, the catalogue will reflect this. There are now more advanced options for publishing your catalogues – the Export to

12

SAVE GALLERY AS WEB PAGE

Select the images you would like to include on a web page and click File8Export8HTML. You can create a page using the standard layout by clicking Export, or select a template to use by clicking Add.

15

PRINT YOUR IMAGES

While most cataloguing will be conducted in Portfolio itself, it can be useful to have a hard copy of your thumbnails. Click File8Print and make sure you select the Thumbnails In Catalog option before hitting OK.

HTML feature has been updated and you can also distribute images on CD using the free Portfolio browser. You can also email your images from within the program. When you are copying images from your digital camera to your computer, you can automatically rename files on the fly so that they are more recognisable. You can also catalogue images without even having to launch Portfolio! All this and more is available in Portfolio 6. Find out more about this latest version, visit www.extensis.co.uk

BreezeBrowser 1.4 View and sort your digital photographs, create web-based photo albums and view in-depth EXIF information about your images

*

SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONS

PUBLISHER PRODUCT STATUS CONTACT INFORMATION AS SOLD FOR APPROX SERIAL NUMBER

BREEZE SYSTEMS FULL PRODUCT FOR PC 0NLY WWW.BREEZESYS.COM $35 INTERNET ACCESS REQUIRED

EXIF DATA

A popular tool developed especially for digital camera users. Read more and find out about its useful features

W

hen you take a photograph with your digital camera, you would be wrong to think that all that is stored on your memory card is the image itself. Linked to each image you take is a range of additional information such as the model of camera that was used to take the picture, file size, image resolution, camera settings in use and the date and time the picture was shot. All of this information comes courtesy of EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) and many digital camera owners are not aware of it. This information is all well and good, but it is not much use if you cannot actually read it. While there are plenty of programs available to help you view, tweak and organise your photos, few of them have any EXIF related features. This is where BreezeBrowser is different. As well as providing the standard image preview option, it also enables you to rename entire folders of images in one go and also to view the EXIF information about your pictures. The program has been designed for use with Canon cameras, it will work with the vast majority of digital cameras, although you may find that not such detailed EXIF information is available to you. This information can be exported to a text file, copied from image to image or even changed in some cases. If you would like to find out more about EXIF information try having a look at www.exif.org. This sites includes details of the EXIF format, specific information about different cameras and a forum for asking and answering questions relating to the format.

01

REGISTER THE SOFTWARE

04

CHANGE IMAGE VIEW

Connect to the internet and pay a visit to www.breezesys.com/DCMagazine and enter your name and email address. In the program, click Help8About and then press the Register button.

You can view your images one at a time, or view thumbnails of all of them. Switch between these views by clicking the second toolbar button. Change the size of thumbnails by clicking View and selecting a size.

02

SET THE PROGRAM OPTIONS

05

VIEW EXIF INFORMATION

Click File8Preferences to configure the program to your liking. You can indicate how image should be ordered, setup image deletion options and set the options and default location for converting photos.

You need to be using Main View to see EXIF information – double click on a thumbnail to go to this mode. Exif information is displayed to the right, and you can view more by clicking the Full Details button.

Upgrade Upgrade to BreezeBrowser 2.4 Readers of Digital Camera Magazine can upgrade to the latest version of BreezeBrowser at a specially discounted price. BreezeBrowser 2.4 includes a new and improved navigation system to make it even easier to preview your photos. There is also a faster HTML page generation feature with powerful watermark option, and you can print out high quality contact sheets and full size images

03

VIEW YOUR PICTURES

06

EXPORT EXIF TO TEXT FILES

To open a folder of images in BreezeBrowser, click File8Open. Navigate to the folder containing your photographs and click OK. The first of your selected images will be displayed in the program window.

It can be useful to save EXIF information as a separate file from the actual photograph. Click Tools8Export EXIF Data and choose whether to create a text file for each image or just one file for all photos. Now click Export All.

from within the program. The software can be bought for just £23.85 – a saving of 10 per cent off the usual price. Before you make this essential purchase you can try the software by installing the trial version of BreezeBrowser 2.4 from this month’s cover disc. If you would like to take advantage of this special dicount offer, simply visit www.breezesys.com/DCMagazine and you will be able to purchase the software online.

iView Media LE Organise your digital photographs and create a slideshow from your images with iView Media LE – free on your cover CD

*

SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONS

PUBLISHER IVIEW MULTIMEDIA PRODUCT STATUS FULL PRODUCT FOR APPLE MAC ONLY CONTACT INFORMATION WWW.IVIEW-MULTIMEDIA.COM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS MAC 0S 8.6 OR LATER SERIAL NUMBER NONE REQUIRED

GET ORGANISED

Got loads of images, then take a look at how iView Media LE can help you organise your picture collection

W

ith traditional photography you might collect your images together in bulky albums and print collections, with digital photography you have the flexibility to keep your images in digital format before printing the pictures you’re especially proud of. Over time, though, you may find it increasingly difficult to keep track of photographs you have taken. While Mac owners have Apple’s free iPhoto app included in OS X, it only provides basic cataloguing functions. Like iPhoto, iView is designed to make navigating image collections much easier than just browsing files and folders on your computer, but iView Media is a far more comprehensive application. iView supports a wider range of file formats than iPhoto, allowing you to include DV movie clips with your image collections and even audio – this is great for gathering together memories of a special event or a holiday. You can view the images in a number of ways, as a list, as a series of thumbnails or full-screen previews. iView also gives you more detailed information on your files including file size, file creator, image resolution, colour depth and colour profile so you can make sure images are in a format suitable for print or for screen use. Once you have created a catalogue in iView you can entertain (or bore!) your friends with the slideshow function, which enables you to create interactive or linear slideshows with transitions between frames and include an audio commentary.

01

INTRODUCTION

04

SLIDESHOWS

The purpose of iView Media is to make organising your photos much easier. And once you’ve mastered the basics of setting up and using the software you can even include audio and DV video in an iView catalogue.

Slideshows are a great way to show off your photographs. You can create a slideshow from your images by choosing Make8Setup slideshow.

Upgrade Upgrade to iView Media Pro Digital Camera Magazine has teamed up with iView to offer you the chance to upgrade to iView Media Pro for the price of £40 or £45 for the boxed version. IView Media Pro 1.5 includes many professional features for cataloguing and managing your digital media files. You can drag and drop files into the browser window, create more advanced slideshows with up to 16 photos and

02

GET STARTED

05

SLIDESHOW SETTINGS

To create a catalogue of images go to File8Import Media and either choose Files and Folders to use images from your hard drive or choose From Camera to download images straight from a connected digital camera.

In the dialogue you can choose to set the duration of each image, transitions between them, their size and even include a commentary track.

movies on screen at once, easily add detailed labels and annotation to files, search for files with an in-depth Find command, edit contrast, brightness and sharpness of images and convert files into all manner of different formats. You can also take advantage of full AppleScript support. A demo version of iView Media Pro is featured on the disc so you can try out all the extra features for yourself. To order this software and save £20 pay a visit to www.iviewmultimedia.com/DCMagazine.

03

THUMBNAILS

06

SIT BACK AND WATCH

Have a look at the tabs at the top of the main window. These enable you to view your catalogue in various ways, content is a list view, thumbnail shows individual thumbnails and media.

You can then choose Make8Run slideshow and your slideshow will begin. You can control the playback with the controller window.

ThumbsPlus 3.3

! EXCLUSIVE

Organise, locate and preview all of the graphics files on your hard drive as well as printing and converting from one format to another

*

SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONS

PUBLISHER PRODUCT STATUS CONTACT INFORMATION AS SOLD FOR APPROX SERIAL NUMBER

CERIOUS FULL PRODUCT FOR PC ONLY WWW.CERIOUS.COM £45 SERIAL NUMBER NOT REQUIRED

MULTI-FEATURED

It’s like a Swiss Army Knife for your images. ThumbsPlus can do a variety of useful operations from image conversion to printing

T

humbsPlus is a program that can be used to do as much or as little as you want. At its most basic, the program is an extremely useful image cataloguing tool which enables you to scan your hard drive for pictures and view thumbnail previews of them. The built-in image viewer means that by double clicking on an image, you can view the full sized picture. A useful feature is the option to print image catalogues. You can define the size that each thumbnail should be printed at to ensure that all of your images will fit on a single page. This can be of use if you print out digital photographs and would like to have a handy reference page to help you track down a particular photo you are looking for. Finding images on your computer is made much simpler by ThumbsPlus as well. You can add a description and a series of keywords to files so that in future it will be possible to conduct extensive searches of the contents of your hard drive. ThumbsPlus also features a number of image editing options ranging from simple rotations and resizing, to histogram adjustment and effect filters. You can also convert images from one format to another, and there is support for a huge range of graphic formats. You can also email pictures from within the program, change your desktop wallpaper, and even create web pages from your pictures. This program is a must for anyone who works with pictures regularly, providing an essential suite of tools for your digital camera shots.

01

IMAGE FOLDER SELECTION

04

IMAGE EFFECTS

To view thumbnails of the images contained in a folder, use the tree structure to the left of the screen to navigate to the relevant directory. Now click on Update All (second toolbar button).

As well as the basic image-editing tools available via the toolbar, there are additional functions accessible from the menu. Special effects can be applied by clicking Image8Filter and selecting an effect.

02

IMAGE DATABASE

05

WEB GALLERY BUILDER

To help you find images in the future, you can add a description and keywords to individual files. Right click on an image and select Annotate and enter details on the Database and Keyword tabs.

Whether you are working with original images or those you have made adjustments to, you can create a website to display them. Click Thumbnail8Web Page Wizard and follow the on screen instructions.

Upgrade Upgrade to ThumbsPlus 5 The Thompson Partnership is offering a special upgrade price of £45.30 (including VAT and £3 shipping), a saving of over £15. To order, open ThumbsPlus 3.3 and press [Ctrl] + [F1]. Enter ‘order’ into the search box and then select Order Form United Kingdom. Enter your details and print the order form out before sending it to the address given.

03

IMAGE VIEWER

06

BATCH IMAGE CONVERSION

If you double click on a thumbnail, you can view images full screen. You can display the editing toolbar by clicking View8Toolbar or by pressing 'T'.

he batch conversion option is useful if you need to resize a number of images or convert an entire folder from one format to another. Click Picture8Convert/Batch Edit to get started.

As always there is an evaluation version of the ThumbspLus 5 included on the disc so you can try before you buy. What you will find in the latest version is finetuned and enhanced features that you’ll already be familiar with, from version 3.3. Most obviously is an overhaul on the main interface that now enables you to customise the interface with the tools you use most regualry and even alter the appearnce of the toolbar buttons. Find out more by visiting the developers web site at www.cerious.com

SECTION #05 RETAILERS 5 steps to safe shopping To prevent or handle the unlikely event of receiving faulty or damaged goods, why not follow our checklist below – you’ll reduce whatever slight chance there is of problems:

1 2

CHOOSE YOUR SITE OR RETAILER

3

NEVER PAY IN CASH

4

KEEP A RECORD

5

DON’T USE A DEBIT CARD

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

Overleaf, you’ll find pages of camera retailers who offer competing prices and levels of service. Give them a look.

USE A CREDIT CARD If you are buying goods worth more than £100 in total, use a credit card. This is because in the event of any problems, you are entitled to claim against the credit card company as well as the seller (you won’t get your money back twice but the company is there to claim against if the seller has gone bust.) You might also get extra insurance, so check with your credit firm.

If you can’t pay by credit card, use a cheque or postal order instead. Don’t send cash through the mail, even by registered post. Apart from the risk of theft, you can’t stop payment if you need to, and it’s impossible to prove how much you sent.

Keep records if you’re paying by credit card over the phone. Print off web pages after you have entered your details on them. Keep notes of exact times and the name of the person who took your order, if you’re paying by phone. Always keep your receipts.

Many debit cards don’t have the protection or insurance options afforded to credit cards, so avoid using one.

Dealerbank 18 pages of the UK’s camera retailers

Contact our team

#

We can’t make guarantees on quality of service from our advertisers, but if you do have problem – or have had praiseworthy service – we’d like to know. Email us at [email protected]

To advertise in our Dealerbank section contact our sales team on 01225 442244 or email [email protected]

™

THE UK’s No1 INKJET COMPANY

Web. www.mx2.com Tel. 01481 740200 Fax. 01481 740300 Email. [email protected]

EPSON 18L0032 18L0042 10N0016 10N0026 17G0060 17G0050 13619HC 13400HC 12A1970 12A1975 12A1980 12A1990 15M0120

BC01 BC02 BC05 BC06 BC10 BC-20 BC-21 BC-22 BC-23 BCI-3 BCI-3 BCI-5 BCI-5 BCI-5 BCI-6 BCI-6 BCI-6 BC-30 BC-31 BC-32 BC-60 BC-61 BC-62 BCI-10B BCI-11B BCI-11C BCI-21B BCI-21C BCI-24B BCI-24C BCI-61 BCI-62 BJI-201B BJI-201

BLK .............£17.99 CLR.............£25.85 BLK .............£17.90 CLR.............£22.00 CLR.............£17.99 BLK .............£17.90 CLR.............£23.90 BLK .............£17.99 BLK .............£17.99 BLK .............£28.90 CLR.............£25.90 PHOTO .......£27.99 CLR.............£26.45

LEXMARK COMPATIBLE C-12A1970 C-12A1980 C-13619HC C-13400HC C-17G0050 C-17G0060 C-15M0120

BLK..............£13.90 CLR..............£14.75 CLR..............£15.50 BLK..............£14.75 BLK..............£14.65 CLR..............£14.65 PHOTO ........£15.90

INKJET PAPERS MX2’s comprehensive and best selling range of compatible inkjet papers, provides high quality output and ultimate value for the enthusiast.

NEW MX2 PAPERS The UK’s No 1 choice for the digital enthusiast introduces a professional range of bright white Glossy, Satin & Matte inkjet papers for top Quality Photo printing and the ultimate value.

M270G M270S M220GM M200G M200S M150G M220M M180MM M130MM

A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4

Pro Photo Glossy 270g (40).......£12.99 Pro Photo Satin 270g (40)..........£12.99 Pro Photo Glossy/Matte 220g (50)..£9.99 Pro Photo Glossy 200g (50).........£9.99 Pro Photo Satin 200g (50)............£9.99 Pro Photo Glossy 150g (50).........£8.99 Pro Photo Matte 220g (100)........£8.90 Pro Photo Matte/Matte 180g (150)£9.90 Pro Photo Matte/Matte 130g (200).£9.90

Photo Glossy Papers CP274 A4 ICI Photo Glossy 2 sided 270g (20).......£13.99 CPR0A3 A3 ICI Photo Glossy Paper 260g (20).........£17.75 CPR050 A4 ICI Photo Glossy Paper 260g (50).........£16.99 CPR020 A4 ICI Photo Glossy Paper 260g (20)...........£8.50 CPRO64 6x4” ICI Photo Glossy Paper 260g (20)........£5.50 CS26A3 A3 ICI Photo Satin Paper 260g (20)............£17.75 CS2650 A4 ICI Photo Satin Paper 260g (50)............£16.99 CS2620 A4 ICI Photo Satin Paper 260g (20).............£8.50 CP22-3P A3+ Photo Glossy/Photo Matte 220g (20)..£17.99 CP22-A3 A3 Photo Glossy/Photo Matte 220g (20)...£15.99 CARDS A5 Glossy Greeting Cards 220g (20)............£7.99 CP22-A5 A5 Photo Glossy/Photo Matte 220g (20).....£4.75 CP1750 A4 ICI Photo Glossy Paper 170g (50)..........£9.99 CP1720 A4 ICI Photo Glossy Paper 170g (20)..........£4.99 CS50 A4 ICI Photo Satin Paper 170g (50).............£9.99 CS20 A4 ICI Photo Satin Paper 170g (20).............£5.99

Photo Matte Papers CA240 A4 Artist Watercolour Paper 240g (10)........£6.99 CM234 A4 ICI Photo Matte 230g (50)............................£9.99 CM1750 A4 ICI Photo Matte 2 sided 170g (50)..............£9.99 CM17100 A4 ICI Photo Matte 2 sided 170g (100)..........£12.99 CANA3 A3 Canvas Photo Paper 140g (20).............£13.50 CANA4 A4 Canvas Photo Paper 140g (20)...............£5.99 CM120 A4 ICI Photo Matte 120g (100)..........................£7.99

Specialist Products CMETAL A4 Silver Metallic Film (10)...........................£6.99 CHOLO A4 Silver Holographic Film...........................£7.95 CTFR A4 Transfers for T - Shirts etc. (10).............£7.99 CLING A4 Cling Film 720 Dpi (10)............................ £7.50 CMAG A4 Magnetic Photo Sheets (5)..................... £7.90 CLEAR A4 Transparencies for Projectors (20)........ £7.50 CLAM A4+ DIY Laminate for Menus etc. (10)........£6.99 CBUS DIY Laminate for Business Cards (50)........£5.99 CDKIT CD & Zip Kit (50) Free CD Software..........£11.99 CDM2 Photo Matt CD Labels 2 per A4 (2x10)........£5.99 CD2 Photo Glossy CD Labels 2 per A4 (2x10)....£6.50 CD3 Photo Glossy CD Labels 3 per A4 (3x10)....£6.50 CBC Glossy Business Cards 220g (10x10).......... £5.75 CAD20 Address Labels (adh) 10 per A4 (10x10)......£5.99 CMOUSE DIY Mousemat Kit (2)....................................£5.90

PP101A4 PP101 MP101 PR-101 GP-301 HR101 HR101 TR201

BLK.....................£13.90 BLK.....................£13.75 CLR ....................£15.90 PHOTO...............£13.99 BLK.....................£23.50 BLK ...................£16.90 Print Head..........£29.99 PHOTO ..............£15.90 BLK.....................£17.99 BLK.......................£7.90 C/M/Y .........each £5.90 BLK.......................£6.99 C/M/Y each..........£6.90 PM/PCeach .........£6.90 BLK.......................£6.90 C/M/Y each..........£6.50 PM/PCeach .........£6.50 BLK.....................£22.90 CLR ....................£23.99 Photo..................£24.99 BLK.....................£17.99 CLR ....................£17.90 PHOTO ...............£29.99 BLK x3 .................£9.50 BLK x3 .................£6.99 CLR x3 ...............£11.00 BLK.......................£4.99 CLR ......................£9.90 BLK.......................£5.90 CLR ......................£9.90 CLR ....................£12.99 PHOTO ...............£17.90 BLK.......................£5.80 C/M/Y .........each £5.50

A4 Photo Paper Plus Glossy (20)........£TBA 6x4 Photo Paper Plus Glossy (20) ......£3.90 A4 Photo Matte Paper (50)................£6.90 A4 Glossy Photo Paper (15)...............£8.90 A4 Glossy Photo Paper 165g (20).....£6.90 A4 Photo Matte Paper 90g (200).....£16.50 A4 Photo Matte Paper 90g (50).........£4.99 A4 T-Shirt Transfers (10)....................£8.50

CANON COMPATIBLE C-BC01 C-BC02 C-BCI-5B C-BCI-5 C-BCI-10B C-BCI-11B C-BCI-11C C-BCI-21B C-BCI-21C C-BCI-61C C-BCI 62 C-BJI201B C-BJI201M C-BJI201C C-BJI201Y

EACH DISCOUNT BLK ........................£9.95........2 PK £17.50 BLK ........................£9.90........2 PK £17.80 BLK ........................£3.99 C/M/Y ....................£3.99 BLK (x3).................£4.99 .......2 PK £8.99 BLK (x3).................£5.99........2 PK £11.00 CLR (x3).................£7.50........2 PK £13.98 BLK ........................£2.75 .......3 PK £7.50 CLR........................£3.99........3 PK £11.00 CLR........................£7.99........2 PK £15.00 PHOTO ..................£8.99........2 PK £17.00 BLK ........................£1.99 .......3 PK £5.50 Mag.........................£2.50 Cyn.........................£2.50 Ylw .........................£2.50

STORAGE MEDIA MEMOREX CDR 80/700MB 48 Speed.each 65p/10 PK £5.99 80/700MB.............50 Pack Spindle £16.50 CDR Audio 80min..99p each /10 Pk £9.45 CDRW 700/74....99p each /10 Pack £8.99 Hewlett Packard CDR 80min/650MB.......79p each /10 Pack £7.50 MEMOREX MINIDISCS 80min 5 Pack...........................................£6.75 IOMEGA ZIP 100MB PC or MAC............each £6.99 ZIP 250MB PC or MAC............each £9.75 Maxell LS-120 120MB Super Disc ...£6.75 IMATION 3.5” DISKS Black IBM 1.44Mb 10 Pack.................£2.99 Neon IBM 1.44Mb 10 Pack.................£3.50 MEMOREX DVD STORAGE DVD-R 4.7Gb...........................................£5.90 DVD-RW 4.7Gb....................................... £9.49 DVD+RW 4.7Gb...................................... £9.99 TDK 5.2Gb DVD RAM ......................£12.99

DIGITAL VIDEO FOOD

©

SONY DVM 60min Premium (no chip)......£4.90 SONY DVM 60min IC Excellence(with chip) £7.90 Panasonic AY-DVM 60min EK (no chip)...£4.90 FUJI Hi8 P5-90 Heavy Metal Particle....... £4.99 FUJI 8mm P5-60 Metal Particle (2 PK).....£4.20 FUJI 8mm P5-90 Metal Particle (2 PK).....£5.95

NEW T042440 Yellow ........£9.90 NEW T042340 Magenta ...£9.90 NEW T042240 Cyan..........£9.90 NEW T041040 CLR .........£16.90 NEW T040140 BLK .........£17.90 NEW T037040 CLR .........£13.50 NEW T036140 BLK ...........£9.99 NEW T033640 Photo Mag..£8.70 NEW T033540 PhotoCyan£8.70 NEW T033440 Yellow .......£8.90 NEW T033340 Magenta ...£8.90 NEW T033240 Cyan..........£8.90 NEW T033140 BLK ...........£8.70 NEW T032440 Yellow .......£9.50 NEW T032340 Magenta ...£9.50 NEW T032240 Cyan..........£9.50 NEW T032140 BLK .........£17.90 T029401 CLR .........£15.90 T028401 BLK .........£17.99 T027401 PHOTO ...£12.50 T026401 BLK .........£14.90 T020401 CLR .........£14.50 T019401 BLK .........£16.50 T018401 CLR .........£13.99 T017401 BLK .........£16.90 T009401 PHOTO ...£13.90 T008401 PHOTO ...£10.70 T007401 BLK .........£12.50 T005011 CLR .........£17.90 T003011 BLK .........£15.99 T001011 PHOTO ...£15.50 20193 PHOTO ...£10.99 20191 CLR .........£14.90 20189 BLK .........£13.99 20187 BLK .........£12.90 20138 CLR .........£10.90 20110 PHOTO ...£10.90 See website for full 20093 BLK .........£12.50 range of Inks 20089 CLR .........£14.90

MX2 is the UK’s largest seller of EPSON Inks & Photo papers.

41620 41622 41624 41328 41316 41143 41264 41334 41315 41261 41142 41125 41330 41071 41332 41287 41140 41126 41560 41342 41256 41106 41061 41154 41176 41122 41121 41148 41134 41144 41054 41147

A4 Photo Glossy Paper x50 .....................£12.00 A4 Photo Paper x50..................................£12.50 A4 Premium Photo Glossy Paper x50........£17.50 A3+ Premium Semi-Gloss x20.................£33.95 A3+ Premium Photo Paper 255g x20......£29.50 A3+ Photo Paper 190g x20 ......................£17.99 A3+ Photo Matte 167g x50.......................£27.99 A3 Premium Semi Gloss x20 ...................£27.95 A3 Premium Photo Paper 255g x20 ........£25.00 A3 Photo Matte 167g x50.........................£17.99 A3 Photo Paper 190g x20.........................£17.50 A3 Photo Paper 120g x20.........................£14.90 Premium Semi Gloss Photo Roll .............£10.90 A4 Photo Glossy Film x15 ........................£17.90 A4 Premium Semi Gloss 251g x20 ............£9.50 A4 Premium Photo Paper 255g x20 ..........£8.99 A4 Photo Paper 190g x20...........................£6.90 A4 Photo Glossy 120g x20 .........................£5.99 A4 ColourLife Photo Paper 245g x20......£11.50 A4 Matte Archival Paper 192g x50 ............£9.50 A4 Photo Matte 160g x50...........................£7.90 A4 Photo Matte Adhesive x10 ...................£7.90 A4 Photo Matte Paper 90g x100................£7.90 A4 Iron-on Transfers x10............................£8.90 Photo Stickers 5x4 .....................................£3.99 10"x8" Photo Card x30 ...............................£9.99 8"x5" Photo Card x30 .................................£4.90 8"x5" Cards + Envelopes x10 ....................£5.90 6"x4" Photo Paper 190g x20 .........................£4.99 A6 Photo Stickers (5x16)............................£3.90 A6 Photo Card x50......................................£5.99 A6 Cards + Envelopes x20 .........................£5.90 See website for full range of Papers

NEW 6656A BLK............£17.95 NEW 6657A TRI -CLR ...£17.99 NEW 6658A PHOTO ......£16.90 NEW 8727A BLK............£13.50 NEW 8728A TRI -CLR ...£15.50 6615D BLK............£17.99 6578D CLR............£23.90 6578A CLR............£38.83 6614D BLK............£17.90 1823D CLR 30ml ..£23.50 1816A PHOTO ......£22.99 51649A CLR............£17.99 51645A BLK............£17.99 51641A CLR............£23.50 51633M BLK............£17.90 51629A BLK............£17.99 51626A BLK............£17.99 51625A CLR............£23.50 Hewlett Packard Paper 6818 A4 Brochure & Flyer Gloss 160g (50)...£8.99 6984 A4 Photo Quality Paper 160g (25)........£6.90 6832 A4 Premium Photo Glossy 230g (20)...£9.50 6951 A4 Premium Photo Matte 230g (20).....£9.50 6040 A4 Premium Photo Paper 220g (15).....£5.99 1847 A4 Photo Glossy Paper 160g (20)........£5.99 51634Z A4 Premium LX 95g (200)...................£10.95 1853 A4 Photo Matte 2 sided 135g (100)...£10.50 6050 A4 Iron-on Transfers (10)......................£9.99 6042 Greeting Cards + Env. (20)................... £5.49 3832 A4 Transparency Film (20)..................£12.00

H.P. COMPATIBLE QUALITY RECONDITIONED HP CARTRIDGES FROM ALPHAJET & IT IMAGE

C-1823D C-51625A C-51626A C-51629A C-51633M C-51645A C-51649A C-6614D C-6615D C-6578A

©

DIGITAL CAMERA FOOD COMPACTFLASH CARDS

16MB .........................£9.99 32MB .......................£11.50 64MB .......................£16.90 128MB .......................£39.00 256MB .......................£69.99 512MB .....................£149.00

SMARTMEDIA CARDS

16MB 3.3V .................£6.90 32MB 3.3V .................£8.90 64MB 3.3V ...............£15.90 128MB 3.3V ...............£37.90

SECURE DATA CARDS

32MB........................£16.90 64MB........................£35.00 128MB......................£57.00

MULTIMEDIA CARDS 16MB ......................£11.90 32MB .......................£13.90 64MB .......................£29.90

EPSON COMPATIBLE

NEW XD PICTURE CARDS

SAVE UP TO 70% ON EPSON INK MX2 is the UK’s largest seller of EPSON Compatible Inks & Print-Rite Ink Products are our Best Performing Brand. EACH DISCOUNT NEW C-T032440 YELLOW..............£5.50......3 PK £14.85 NEW C-T032340 MAGENTA ...........£5.50......3 PK £14.85 NEW C-T032240 CYAN ...................£5.50......3 PK £14.85 NEW C-T032140 BLK......................£6.50......3 PK £17.97 C-T029401 CLR......................£6.50......3 PK £17.97 C-T028401 BLK......................£6.50......3 PK £17.97 C-T027401 PHOTO ................£6.50......3 PK £17.97 C-T026401 BLK......................£6.50......3 PK £17.97 C-T020401 CLR......................£3.99......3 PK £11.50 C-T019401 BLK......................£2.50......3 PK £6.99 C-T018401 CLR......................£6.50......3 PK £17.97 C-T017401 BLK......................£6.50......3 PK £17.97 C-T014401 CLR......................£3.99......3 PK £11.50 C-T013401 BLK......................£2.50......3 PK £6.99 C-T009401 PHOTO ................£6.50......3 PK £17.97 C-T008401 PHOTO ................£6.50......3 PK £17.97 C-T007401 BLK......................£6.50......3 PK £17.97 C-T005011 CLR......................£3.99......3 PK £11.50 C-T003011 BLK......................£2.50......3 PK £6.99 C-T001011 PHOTO ................£3.99......3 PK £11.50 C-20193 PHOTO ................£3.99......3 PK £11.50 C-20191 CLR......................£3.99......3 PK £11.50 C-20189 BLK......................£2.50......3 PK £6.99 C-20187 BLK......................£2.50......3 PK £6.99 C-20138 CLR......................£3.99......3 PK £11.50 C-20110 PHOTO ................£3.99......3 PK £11.50 C-20093 BLK......................£2.50......3 PK £6.99 C-20089 CLR......................£3.99......3 PK £11.50

CLR......................£13.30 CLR......................£12.99 BLK........................£9.99 BLK......................£11.90 BLK........................£9.99 BLK......................£11.50 CLR......................£14.99 BLK......................£11.90 BLK......................£11.90 CLR......................£15.99

32MB........................£11.90 64MB........................£17.90 128MB......................£44.90 Memory Stick for all SONY equipment 32MB Memory Stick........................£16.90 64MB Memory Stick........................£32.00 128MB Memory Stick......................£52.00

DIGITAL ACCESSORIES Compact flash & Smart Media accessories...

6-in-1 Reader/Writer...............................................£17.99 Dual Compact/Smart Reader/Writer.................... £15.90 Smart Media PCMCIA Adaptor............................. £16.90 Compact Flash PCMCIA Adaptor..........................£5.90

Great Prices from MX2 – THE Place to Buy On or Off-Line Your DVD’S, MUSIC CD’S, GAMES & BOOKS...

Vectorjet Refill Kits & Inks Refill your empty cartridges & SAVE £££s Black Refill Kit (50ml)....£4.90 (100ml)..£6.99 Colour Refill Kit (75ml)....£7.90 (150ml)..£9.99 Black & Clr Refill Kit (125ml).....................£9.95 Photo Refill Kit (150ml).............................. £9.99 Black Ink (250ml)...£5.90 (500ml)£16.90 C/M/Y Inks Each(250ml)..£6.90 (500ml).£16.99 Photo Inks C/M/Y(250ml).£9.90 (500ml)£17.90 Cleaning Fluid (125ml).£3.99 (250ml)..£4.90 Ink Jector Kit (Kit without ink).............£2.90

CHART MUSIC CD’S STARTING FROM £7.99. LATEST DVD RELEASES FROM £14.50 TOP NEW XBOX, PS2, CUBE & PC GAMES.

P&P ONLY £1.95 PER ORDER. DELIVERY 3 - 7 WORKING DAYS. MX2 Computers Limited supplies to Home Users Only (sorry we do not supply Business to Business). Prices shown include any VAT & duties where applicable and are Accurate at time of going to Press E&OE. MX2 Reserves the Right to Change Prices. Please check our Website or Phone Us for up-to-the-minute Prices. The above Trademarks are recognised and used for illustrative purposes only.

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FUJI Finepix S304 £298

KONICA KD400 £338

FUJI Finepix A202 £128

FUJI Finepix F401 £298

CANON Powershot A40 £208

FUJI Finepix 2800 £238

NIKON Coolpix 2000 £158

OLYMPUS C220 Zoom £178

D I G I TA L C A M E R A S MAKE & MODEL

CAMERA

Canon Digital Ixus 330.................. £298 Canon Digital Ixus V3 .................. £338 Canon Powershot A100 ................. £98 Canon Powershot A200 ............... £148 Canon Powershot A40 ................. £208 Canon Powershot G2 ................... £428 Canon Powershot G3 ................... £598 Canon Powershot S40 .................. £438 Canon Powershot S45 .................. £468 Casio Exilim S2 ............................. £218 Casio GV20 .................................. £248 Casio QV2900ux .......................... £308 Casio QV4000 .............................. £368 Casio QVR 3 ................................. £248 Casio QVR 4 ................................. £328 Fuji Finepix 2800 .......................... £238 Fuji Finepix 6800 .......................... £328 Fuji Finepix A202 ......................... £128 Fuji Finepix A203 ......................... £188 Fuji Finepix A204 ......................... £168 Fuji Finepix A303 ......................... £238 Fuji Finepix F401 .......................... £298 Fuji Finepix F601 .......................... £398 Fuji Finepix S304 .......................... £298 Fuji Finepix S602 .......................... £538 Fuji Finepix M603 ......................... £508 Kodak CX4210 ............................. £118 Kodak CX4230 ............................. £158 Kodak DX4330 ............................. £218

+32MB CARD

+64MB CARD

£314 £354 see website £164 £224 £444 £614 £454 £484 see website see website £324 £384 see website see website £259 £339 £142 £202 £182 £252 £309 £409 £312 £549 £519 see website see website see website

£321 £361 see website £171 £231 £451 £621 £461 £491 see website see website £331 £391 see website see website £260 £350 £153 £213 £193 £263 £320 £420 £323 £560 £530 see website see website see website

READERS AND ADAPTERS Fuji ZIO USB Smartmedia reader/writer............................................. £29 Expert USB Compact Flash reader .................................................... £24 Sandisk Compact Flash adapter ....................................................... £15 SMART MEDIA Fuji 16MB ........................................................................................... £9 Fuji 32MB ......................................................................................... £14 Fuji 64MB ......................................................................................... £26 Fuji 128MB ....................................................................................... £48 Sandisk 16MB .................................................................................... £9 Sandisk 32MB .................................................................................. £15 Sandisk 64MB .................................................................................. £28 Sandisk 128MB ................................................................................ £52 Toshiba 128MB ................................................................................ £50 C O M PA C T F L A S H ( T Y P E I & I I ) Fuji 16MB ......................................................................................... £15 Fuji 32MB ......................................................................................... £18

MAKE & MODEL

CAMERA

Kodak LS443 ................................ £298 Konica KD 3000 ........................... £238 Konica KD100 ................................ £88 Konica KD220 .............................. £138 Konica KD300Z ............................. £358 Konica KD400 .............................. £338 Kyocera Finecam S3L .................... £278 Kyocera Finecam S4 ..................... £349 Kyocera Finecam S5 ..................... £418 Minolta Dimage 7Hi ..................... £958 Minolta Dimage 7i ....................... £678 Minolta Dimage F100 .................. £308 Minolta Dimage S304 .................. £258 Minolta Dimage X ........................ £238 Minolta Dimage Xi .........................£298 Nikon Coolpix 2000 ..................... £158 Nikon Coolpix 2500 ..................... £248 Nikon 3500 .................................. £308 Nikon Coolpix 4300 ..................... £398 Nikon Coolpix 4500 ..................... £518 Nikon Coolpix 5000 ..................... £698 Nikon Coolpix 5700 ..................... £868 Nikon Coolpix 775 ....................... £218 Nikon Coolpix 885 ....................... £278 Olympus C1 (c-you) Zoom ............ £168 Olympus C220 zoom .................... £178 Olympus C300z ............................ £258 Olympus C3020 ............................ £338 Olympus c4000z ........................... £378

+32MB CARD

+64MB CARD

see website £254 see website see website see website see website see website see website see website £974 £674 see website see website see website see website £174 £264 see website £414 £534 £714 £884 £234 £294 £179 £189 £269 £349 £389

see website £261 see website see website see website see website see website see website see website £981 £681 see website see website see website see website £181 £291 see website £421 £541 £721 £891 £241 £301 £190 £200 £280 £360 £400

Fuji 64MB ......................................................................................... £26 Fuji 128MB ....................................................................................... £48 IBM 340MB microdrive .................................................................. £110 IBM 1GB microdrive ....................................................................... £238 Sandisk 16MB .................................................................................. £15 Sandisk 32MB .................................................................................. £20 Sandisk 64MB .................................................................................. £28 Sandisk 128MB ................................................................................ £50 Sandisk 256MB ................................................................................ £98 M U LT I M E D I A C A R D S Sandisk 16MB .................................................................................. £19 Sandisk 32MB .................................................................................. £24 Sandisk 64MB .................................................................................. £44 S E C U R E D I G I TA L Sandisk 16MB .................................................................................. £22 Sandisk 32MB .................................................................................. £30 Sandisk 64MB .................................................................................. £46

MAKE & MODEL

CAMERA

Olympus C50zoom ....................... £418 Olympus C5050zoom ................... £588 Olympus C700 .............................. £378 Olympus C730 .............................. £428 Olympus camedia c120 ................ £148 Olympus E20 ............................. £1,098 Oregon Scientific Dshot III .............. £58 Pentax Optio 330GS ..................... £248 Pentax Optio 330RS ..................... £298 Pentax Optio 430 ......................... £418 Pentax Optio 430RS ..................... £428 Ricoh Caplio RR10 ....................... £218 Ricoh RR30 .................................. £228 Samsung Digimax 230 ................. £168 Samsung Digimax 350SE ............. £288 Samsung Digimax 410 ................. £328 Sony Cybershot DSC-P2 ............... £298 Sony Cybershot DSC-P7 ............... £358 Sony Cybershot DSC-P9 ............... £398 Sony Cybershot DSCS75 ............... £468 Sony Cybershot DSC-707 ............. £788 Sony Cybershot DSC-31 ............... £178 Sony Cybershot DSC-P5 ............... £398 Sony Cybershot DSC-51 ............... £188 Sony Cybershot DSC-71 ............... £278 Sony Cybershot U-10 ................... £185 Sony Cybershot U-20 ................... £228 Sony Mavica CD400 ..................... £628 Sony Mavica MVC FD200 ............. £358

+32MB CARD

+64MB CARD

£432 £602 £389 £442 £159 £1114 £89 £264 £314 £434 £444 see website see website £184 £304 £344 see website see website see website see website see website see website see website see website see website see website see website see website see website

£443 £613 £400 £453 £170 £1121 £80 £271 £321 £441 £451 see website see website £191 £311 £351 see website see website see website see website see website see website see website see website see website see website see website see website see website

XD PICTURE CARDS Fuji 16MB ........................................................................................... £9 Fuji 32MB ......................................................................................... £16 Fuji 64MB ......................................................................................... £29 Fuji 128MB ....................................................................................... £50 B AT T E R I E S A N D C H A R G E R S 4 X 1200 mAh ............................................................................... £6.50 4 x 1800 mAh .............................................................................. £11.50 4 x 1200 mAh & mains charger ................................................... £16.50 4 x 1800 mAh & mains charger ................................................... £20.50

www.

.co.uk FOR ALL THESE GREAT DEALS AND MORE VISIT OUR WEBSITE

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EXTENDED WARRANTIES AVAILABLE FROM £20

FREE JASC AFTER-SHOT SOFTWARE WITH EVERY PURCHASE COME AND MEET OUR

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MINI TRIPOD WORTH £8 WITH EVERY CAMERA

MEMORY STICKS Sony 16MB ....................................................................................... £29 Sony 32MB ....................................................................................... £42 Sony 64MB ....................................................................................... £62 Sony 128MB ..................................................................................... £98

All prices include vat (and delivery for orders over £100). Prices subject to change

or fax

FREE 20 DIGITAL PRINTS WITH ALL CAMERAS

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01484 845 947 or e-mail [email protected] *Secure on-line ordering at internetcamerasdirect.co.uk we use a 128 bit model to encrypt your credit card details within the browser on your PC. The details are not decrypted until downloaded onto our server. This is the most secure model. InternetCamerasDirect.co.uk, Unit 14, New Mill, Brougham Road, Marsden, Huddersfield HD7 6BJ

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PLEASE PHONE FOR OUR FREEPOST ADDRESS. NEW PhotoGlossy.com Ultra White high quality Photo paper range all for under a Tenner !

EPSON

PHOTOGLOSSY PS265 PG265 PS215 PG215 PG150 PM225 PM175 PM125

A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4

265 gsm Photo Silk x40.....£9.95 265 gsm Photo Glossy x40.....£9.95 215 gsm Photo Silk x50.....£9.95 215 gsm Photo Glossy x50.....£9.95 150 gsm Photo Glossy x50.....£7.95 225 gsm Photo Matte x100.. ..£8.95 175 gsm Photo Matte x150.. ..£8.95 125 gsm Photo Matte x200.. ..£8.95

DIGITAL EPSON

NEW T042440 CANON COMPATIBLE NEW T042340 BC01 BLK............................£13.75.............................£9.95 NEW T042240 BC02 BLK............................£13.95.............................£9.95 NEW T041040 NEW T040140 BC05 CLR ..........................£15.75 NEW T037040 BC06 PHOTO ......................£13.95 NEW T036140 BC10 BLK............................£23.50 BC-20 BLK ..........................£16.75...........................£11.00 NEW T033640 NEW T033540 BC-21e Print Head ................£29.95 NEW T033440 BC-22e PHOTO ....................£15.95 NEW T033340 BC-23 BLK............................£17.95 NEW T033240 BCI-3 BLK..............................£7.75 NEW T033140 BCI-3 C/M/Y ................each £5.95 BCI-5 BLK..............................£6.95.............................£3.95 NEW T032440 NEW T032340 BCI-6 BLK..................................£6.95 NEW T032240 BCI-6 C/M/Y ....................each £6.35 NEW T032140 BCI-6 PM/PC ..................each £6.50 T029401 BC-60 BLK............................£17.95 T028401 BC-61 CLR ..........................£17.95 T027401 BC-62 PHOTO ......................£29.95 T026401 BCI-10B BLK x3 ........................£9.75.............................£4.50 T018401 BCI-11B BLK x3 ........................£6.95.............................£4.50 T017401 BCI-11C CLR x3.......................£11.50.............................£4.95 T014401 BCI-24B BLK..............................£5.95 T013401 BCI-24C CLR ............................£9.95 T009401 BCI-21B BLK..............................£4.95.............................£2.50 T008401 BCI-21C CLR ............................£9.95.............................£3.95 T007401 T005011 CANON PAPER T003011 PP101A4 A4 Photo Paper Plus Glossy x20..............£TBA T001011 PP101 6x4 Photo Paper Plus Glossy x20..............£3.95 20193 20191 MP101 A4 Photo Matte Paper x50 ........................£6.95 20189 PR101 A4 Professional Photo Glossy Paper x15 ...£8.75 20187 GP301 A4 Glossy Photo Paper 165g x20 ............£6.95 20110 HR50 A4 Photo Matte Paper 90g x50 ................£4.95 20093 20089

Yellow . . . . .£9.95 Magenta . . . .£9.95 Cyan . . . . . .£9.95 CLR . . . . . .£16.95 BLK . . . . . .£17.95 CLR . . . . . .£13.75 BLK . . . . . . . £9.95 Photo Mag . .£8.75 Photo Cyan .£8.75 Yellow . . . . .£8.75 Magenta . . . .£8.75 Cyan . . . . . .£8.75 BLK . . . . . . .£8.75 Yellow . . . . .£9.75 Magenta . . . .£9.75 Cyan . . . . . .£9.75 BLK . . . . . .£17.95 CLR . . . . . .£15.95 BLK . . . . . .£17.95 PHOTO. . . . £12.75 BLK . . . . . . £14.75 CLR . . . . . . £13.95 BLK . . . . . . £16.75 CLR . . . . . . £12.75 BLK . . . . . . . £9.75 PHOTO . . . .£13.95 PHOTO . . . .£10.75 BLK . . . . . .£12.50 CLR . . . . . .£17.95 BLK . . . . . .£15.95 PHOTO . . . .£15.75 PHOTO . . . .£10.95 CLR . . . . . .£14.75 BLK . . . . . .£14.25 BLK . . . . . .£12.95 PHOTO . . . .£10.95 BLK . . . . . .£12.75 CLR . . . . . .£14.75

COMPATIBLE Each 3 Pack

COMPUCOLOR PHOTO PAPERS A3P260 A3260 A4260 A3P200 A3200 A4120 C4T CANVAS A4BC

A3+ 260 gsm Heavy Photo Glossy Paper x40 .........£37.75 A3 260 gsm Heavy Photo Glossy Paper x40 .........£29.25 A4 260 gsm Heavy Photo Glossy Paper x40 .........£13.99 A3+ 200 gsm Ultra Photo Glossy Paper x50............£29.95 A3 200 gsm Ultra Photo Glossy Paper x50............£23.50 A4 120 gsm Photo Matte 2 sided x200 ....................£9.95 A4 T-Shirt Transfer Paper x15 .................................£8.99 A4 175 gsm Photo Canvas Card x10 .......................£4.99 A4 230 gsm Business Cards x100 ...........................£3.99

FOLEX SPECIALIST INKJET PRODUCTS

CAMERA COMPUTER . . . . . . . .£5.95 . . . . . . . .£5.95 . . . . . . . .£5.95 . . . . . . . .£6.95 . . . . . . . .£6.95 . . . . . . . .£4.95 . . . . . . . .£6.95 . . . . . . . .£5.95 . . . . . . . .£7.95 . . . . . . . .£8.25 . . . . . . . .£3.75 . . . . . . . .£2.50 . . . . . . . .£8.95 . . . . . . . .£6,95 . . . . . . . .£6.95 . . . . . . . .£3.75 . . . . . . . .£2.50 . . . . . . . .£3.75 . . . . . . . .£3.75 . . . . . . . .£3.75 . . . . . . . .£2.50 . . . . . . . .£2.50 . . . . . . . .£3.75 . . . . . . . .£2.50 . . . . . . . .£3.75

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FC300 FC150 FBLK FG FT FGLO FSLV FADW FADC FADS FCLING FPAD FTO FMI FMO FPZ

A4 True Artists Canvas 300 gsm x3 ...............£4.99 A4 Canvas Paper 150 gsm x10 ......................£4.99 A4 Iron on Transfers for black material x5 .....£7.50 A5 Greeting Cards & Envelopes x10 ..............£5.95 A4 Iron on Transfers x10 .................................£7.99 A4 Fluorescent Iron on Transfers x3 ..............£8.99 A4 Silver Reflective Film x5 ............................£4.50 A4 Glossy White Adhesive x5.........................£4.50 A4 Clear Permanent Adhesive x5...................£4.50 A4 Silver Permanent Adhesive x5 ..................£5.50 A4 Clear Repositionable Film x5 ....................£5.95 DIY Mousemat Kit x1 ........................................£4.99 A4 Inkjet Tattoos x3........................................ £6.99 A4 Magnetic Stickers (Indoor) 1xA4, 2xA5 ....£4.95 A4 Magnetic Stickers (Outdoor) x2 A4...........£7.99 A4 DIY Puzzle Jet Kit x1 .................................£7.99

Low Low Media Prices!

MEMOREX CDRs from 33p CDR 80/700 50 on a Spindle............only £16.50 CDR 80 min 700MB .....69p each/£5.95 10 pack CDRW 74 min 700MB .£1.20 each/£8.95 10 pack Iomega Zip 100MB PC or Mac .........£6.99 each Iomega Zip 250MB PC or Mac .........£9.75 each Maxell LS-120 120MB Super Disc .............£6.99 Maxell DVD Ram 5.2Gb............................£12.99 Memorex DVD-R 4.7Gb..............................£5.75 Memorex DVD-RW 4.7Gb ..........................£9.75 Memorex DVD+RW 4.7Gb..........................£9.95 Imation 3.5” Black Diskettes 10 Pack .......£2.95 Imation 3.5” Neon Diskettes 10 Pack........£3.75

FILM See website for full range of inks

Amazing EPSON Paper Prices...

C6656A C6657A C8727A C8728A C6578A C6578D C6614D C6615D C1823D C1816A 51649A 51645A 51641A 51633M 51629A 51626A 51625A

H.P. COMPATIBLE BLK ...................................£17.95 Tri-CLR ..............................£17.95 BLK ...................................£13.75 Tri-CLR ..............................£15.55 CLR ...................................£38.95 ..............£16.95 CLR ...................................£23.95 BLK ...................................£17.95...................£11.95 BLK ...................................£17.95...................£12.95 CLR 30ml ..........................£23.50 PHOTO ..............................£23.50 CLR ...................................£17.95...................£14.95 BLK ...................................£17.95...................£11.50 CLR ...................................£23.50 BLK ...................................£17.50.....................£9.95 BLK ...................................£17.95...................£12.00 BLK ...................................£17.95.....................£9.95 CLR ...................................£23.50...................£12.95

}

41377 41379 41620 41622 41624 41330 41328 41316 41264 41143 41334 41315 41261 41142 41332 41287 41140 41126 41560 41342 41256 41106 41061 41154 41121 41134 41176 41054 41147

A4 A4 A4

A3+ A3+ A3+ A3+ A3 A3 A3 A3 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 8x5" 6x4" A6 A6 A6

Premium Glossy Photo Paper Roll 210mmx10m ..£28.99 Premium Glossy Photo Paper Roll 329mmx10m ..£36.26 Photo Glossy Paper x50............................£12.50 Photo Paper x50 ........................................£12.75 Premium Photo Glossy Paper x50...........£17.75 Premium Semi Gloss Photo Roll Paper 100mmx8m £10.95 Premium Semi Gloss Photo Paper x20 ...£33.95 Premium Photo Paper 255g x20 ..............£29.50 Photo Matte Paper 167g x50....................£27.95 Photo Paper 190g x20..............................£17.95 Premium Semi Gloss Photo Paper x20 ...£26.95 Premium Photo Paper x20........................£24.95 Photo Matte Paper 167g x50....................£17.95 Photo Paper 190g x20..............................£17.95 Premium Semi Gloss Photo Paper x20 .....£9.50 Premium Photo Paper 255g x20 ................£8.95 Photo Paper 190g x20................................£6.95 Photo Glossy 90g x20 ................................£5.95 ColourLife Photo Paper 245g x20............£11.50 Matte Archival Paper 192g x50 ..................£9.75 Photo Matte 167g x50 ................................£7.95 Photo Matte Adhesive x10.........................£7.95 Photo Matte Paper 90g x100.....................£7.95 Iron-on Transfers x10..................................£8.75 Photo Card x30 ...........................................£4.95 Photo Paper x20 .........................................£4.95 Photo Stickers x5x4....................................£3.95 Photo Card x50 ...........................................£5.95 Cards + Envelopes x20 ..............................£5.95

Smart Media

NEW LOWER PRICES

Compact Flash

NEW LOWER PRICES

16MB 3.3V .....................................£6.96 32MB 3.3V .....................................£8.95 64MB 3.3V ...................................£15.95 128MB 3.3V .................................£38.50

16MB formatted............................£9.95 32MB formatted..........................£11.50 64MB formatted..........................£16.75 128MB formatted ........................£39.50 256MB formatted........................£69.50 512MB formatted......................£149.50

Secure Data Cards

PHOTOPAPER HEWLETT PACKARD PAPER 6818A 6984A 6832A 6951A 6040A 1847A 51634Z 1853A 6050A 6042A 3832A

A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4

Brochure & Flyer Gloss 160g x50...........£8.50 Photo Quality Paper 160g x25 ...............£6.95 Premium Photo Glossy 230g x20...........£9.50 Premium Photo Matte 230g x20 ............£9.50 Premium Photo Paper 220g x15 ............£6.75 Photo Glossy Paper 160g x20................£5.95 Premium LX 95g x200............................£10.95 Photo Matte 2 sided 135g x100 ...........£10.75 Iron-on Transfers x10..............................£9.95 Greeting Cards + Envelopes x20 ...........£5.75 A4 Transparency Film x20..........................£12.00

See website for full range of papers

32MB ...................................... ...........£16.75 64MB ...................................... ...........£37.50 128MB .................................... ...........£55.00

MultiMedia Cards

16MB ...................................... ...........£11.95 32MB ...................................... ...........£13.95 64MB ...................................... ...........£29.95

DIGITAL COMPUTER New Inkjet Refill Kit & Inks Refill your empty cartridges & SAVE £££s

Black Refill Kit (50ml) ............£4.95....(100ml) £6.95 Colour Refill Kit (75ml) ..........£7.95....(150ml) £9.95 Black Ink (125ml) ..................£4.95....(250ml) £5.95 Colour Inks C/M/Y (125ml)....£5.95....(250ml) £6.95 Cleaning Fluid (125ml) ...................................£3.95 Ink Jector Kit ...................................................£2.95

New photo inks available – please call for details

XD Picture Cards

18L0042 CLR..............£25.89 18L0032 BLK..............£17.95 10N0026 CLR ............£22.50 10N0016 BLK ............£17.95 17G0060 CLR ............£17.95 17G0050 BLK ............£17.95 13619HC CLR ............£23.50 13400HC BLK ............£17.95 12A1990 PHOTO ........£28.95 12A1980 CLR..............£25.95 12A1970 BLK..............£17.95 12A1975 BLK..............£28.95 15M0120 CLR ............£26.45

COMPATIBLE

32MB ...................................... ...........£11.95 64MB ...................................... ...........£17.95 128MB .................................... ...........£44.95

Memory Sticks for Sony

..............£14.70 ..............£14.70 ..............£14.70 ..............£15.75 ..............£15.95 ..............£14.95 ..............£15.95

32MB ...................................... ...........£16.95 64MB ...................................... ...........£32.50 128MB .................................... ...........£52.50

Digital Video

SONY DVM 60min Premium (no chip).................£4.75 SONY DVM 60min IC Excellence (with chip)......£7.95 Panasonic AY-DVM 60min EK (no chip)........... .. £4.95

P&P ONLY 99P PER ORDER DELIVERY 3-7 WORKING DAYS.

PhotoGlossy.com sells exclusively to Home Users (Sorry, we do not supply Business to Business). All Prices include any VAT & Duties where applicable and are accurate at the time of going to Press E&OE. PhotoGlossy.com reserves the right to change prices. Please check our website or phone us for up to the minute prices. The above trademarks are recognised and are used for illustrative purposes only.

DCR-PC101

C-50 ZOOM MJU 300 DIGITAL 3.2 Million Effective pixels 2048x1536 Max Res 3X Optical Zoom (35-105mm) TruePic, Digital ESP

User friendly MDV Camcorder 10x optical Carl Zeiss lens, 120x digital zoom 2.5" touch panel LCD screen Super SteadyShot (digital) image stabilization

£877

MARVELLOUS MDV MODEL WITH SUPERB RANGE OF USER FRIENDLY FEATURES

NEW!

£WEB

GR-DVP7 Vertical Ultra compact MDV 10x optical zoom, 200x digital zoom 1.02 Megapixel Wide CCD with 1280x960 res

£LOW

THIS WEATHER PROOF WONDER IS A METAL BODIED PICTURE PERFORMER!

Web cam, stills and e-mail movies MARVELLOUS MINIATURE MDV MACHINE

POWERSHOT G3

COOLPIX 5700 5.24 Megapixel CCD, 2560x1920 res 8x Optical Zoom-Nikkor lens (35-280mm equiv) Ultra High-speed Continuous shooting up to 30 fps Compact Flash card type I or II

4.0 Megapixel CCD, 2272x1704 res 4x optical zoom (35-140mm equiv) EOS-based Shooting Modes and FlexiZone AF/AE USB High speed interface

SUPERB SHARP SHOOTER WITH ITS OPTICAL ZOOM

SOLIDY BUILT AND PACKED WITH PHOTOGRAPHIC FEATURES

£849

£569

C-5050 ZOOM

£559

DCR-IP55

ULTRA-BRIGHT LENS PROVIDES PERFECT DIGITAL PHOTOS!

£LOW

A MEGAPIXEL MULTI-MEDIA MASTERPIECE!

Ultra compact MicroMV 10x optical Carl Zeiss Lens, 120x digital zoom USB Streaming Video Mail, Web Browser w/Bluetooth

£1094

UNIQUELY STYLED HANDY MICRO MV MODEL!

DSC-U20

C50 ZOOM

NEW! DSC-P72

5.0 million effective pixels, 2560x1920 res

£WEB

3 Megapixel New Scene Selection modes Memory Stick Pro compatible

Super sharp 3x optical zoom (38-114mm equiv) TruPic image optimisation Inc. 32Mb xD card, battery and charger

POCKET SIZED DIGI-CAM WITH OPTIONAL 1GB CAPACITY

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PERFECTLY PROPORTIONED POCKET-SIZED PICTURE TAKER!

£385

GREAT VALUE MDV MODEL WITH EXCELLENT SELCTION OF FEATURES!

£1016 Megapixel MDV Camcorder 10x optical 200x digital zoom 2.5” LCD, SD card compatible Wide array of digital effects TRULY TOP QUALITY MOVIE MAKING MODEL

NEW! DCR-TRV80 530 lines horizontal resolution 1600x1200 Digital Stills Carl Zeiss T* lens Bluetooth, 3.5” LCD screen

£919

STUNNING IMAGE QUALITY FROM THIS FEATURE PACKED MDV CAMCORDER!

NV-GX7 10X Optical, 100X Digital Zoom 1.2 Mega Pixel still images Bluetooth

£680

GREAT QUALITY MDV CAMCORDER WITH CAPABLE STILLS SHOOTING TOO!

£WEB 3MP, 2016x1512 resolution 3x Optical zoom (37-111mm) Including brilliant “Coolstation” dock VERSATILE SWIVEL LENSED CAMERA WITH GREAT ACCESSORY BUNDLE!

36 Super CCD 2832 x 2128 output VGA Movie Mode 2x Optical Zoom (38-76mm) High speed continuous shooting

800K Pixel CCD with Superimage Stabiliser 10x Optical, 500x Digital Zoom Colour Nightview Zoom Microphone & Smart Windcut

NEW! COOLPIX SQ

FinePix M603

5.0 Effective MP, 2560x1920 res 3x optical zoom (35-105mm equiv) Accepts xD-Picture Card, SmartMedia, CF and Microdrive (1GB)

MVX2i

NV-GS1

2.0 Megapixel, 1600x1200 res LCD acts as Viewfinder Blue, Silver or Black

£LOW

THIS LITTLE BEAUTY IS THE IDEAL POCKET COMPANION!

ASK 248 TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD, LONDON NEW MAIL ORDER HOTLINE: 020 7307 8321 LINES OPEN MON-SAT FROM 9:00am TILL 6:00pm

DIGITAL STILLS CANON EOS D1S ..........................................£CALL IXUS V3 ............................................£LOW POWERSHOT A200 ............................£139 POWERSHOT A40 ..............................£198 POWERSHOT G3 ................................£569 POWERSHOT S45 ..............................£439 POWERSHOT S50 .............................£WEB FUJI FINEPIX A202 ...................................£129 FINEPIX A203 ...................................£189 FINEPIX A204 ...................................£169 FINEPIX A303 ...................................£244 FINEPIX F401 ....................................£314 FINEPIX F601 ....................................£399 FINEPIX M603 .................................£LOW FINEPIX S304 ...................................£309 FINEPIX S602....................................£519 FINEPIX S602 Pro..............................£644 FINEPIX S2 Pro.................................£CALL MINOLTA DIMAGE 7Hi ....................................£949 DIMAGE 7i .......................................£649 DIMAGE Xi ......................................£WEB NIKON COOLPIX SQ - NEW! ........................£WEB COOLPIX 2100 - NEW! ....................£WEB COOLPIX 3100 - NEW! ....................£WEB COOLPIX 3500 ................................£WEB COOLPIX 4500 .................................£499 COOLPIX 5700 .................................£849 OLYMPUS C-220 Zoom .....................................£169 C-300 Zoom ....................................£239 C-730 Zoom ...................................£399 C-50 Zoom.......................................£LOW C-5050 Zoom .................................£LOW E-20P ..............................................£LOW MJU 300 DIGITAL - NEW!................£WEB MJU 400 DIGITAL - NEW!................£WEB SONY DSC-P7.............................................£317 DSC-P9.............................................£395 DSC-P32 - NEW! .............................£WEB DSC-P52 - NEW! ............................£WEB DSC-P72 - NEW! ............................£WEB DSC-U20 - Blue,Black or Silver .....£LOW DSC-F77 ..........................................£329 DSC-FX77 .......................................£369 DSC-F717 .......................................£LOW

DIGITAL CAMCORDERS CANON MV5 .................................................£609 MV5iMC ...........................................£699 MV600 - NEW! .................................£WEB MV600i - NEW! ................................£WEB MV650i - NEW! ................................£WEB MVX2i ............................................£1016 XM2 ................................................£1549 XL1S .................................................£LOW JVC GR-DVP7 ...........................................£689 GR-DVP9 - NEW!...............................£WEB GR-DV700 - NEW! ............................£WEB GR-DV4000 - NEW! ..........................£WEB GR-DVX25 - NEW!.............................£WEB GR-DVX95 - NEW!.............................£WEB GR-D70 - NEW! ................................£WEB GR-D50 - NEW! ................................£WEB GR-D20 - NEW! ................................£WEB GR-SX25 - NEW!...............................£WEB GR-SXM49 - NEW!............................£WEB GR-FX15 - NEW! ...............................£WEB GR-FXM39 - NEW! ............................£WEB GR-HD1 - NEW! ................................£WEB PANASONIC NV-GS1 .............................................£385 NV-GS3 .............................................£459 NV-GS4 ............................................£499 NV-GS5 ............................................£549 NV-GX7..............................................£680 SONY DCR-PC120 ......................................£994 CCD-TRV218 - NEW!.........................£WEB DCR-TRV14 - NEW!...........................£WEB DCR-TRV19 - NEW!...........................£WEB DCR-TRV22 - NEW!...........................£WEB DCR-TRV33 - NEW!...........................£WEB DCR-TRV38 - NEW!...........................£WEB DCR-TRV39 - NEW!...........................£WEB DCR-TRV60 - NEW!...........................£WEB DCR-TRV80 - NEW!..........................£WEB DCR-TRV145 - NEW!.........................£WEB DCR-TRV245 - NEW!.........................£WEB DCR-TRV250 - NEW!.........................£WEB DCR-TRV350 - NEW!.........................£WEB DCR-TRV355 - NEW!.........................£WEB DCR-TRV950 ...................................£1499 DCR-VX2000...................................£2079 DCR-DVD100 - NEW!........................£WEB DCR-DVD200 - NEW!........................£WEB

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£

Buyers’ Guide

Buyers’ Guide Your comprehensive database of best buys and prices – from the reviews pages of Digital Camera Magazine

CAMERAS BELOW £150 Make/model

Price

Megapixels

Description

Make/model

Price

Megapixels

Description

SiPix Stylecam Blink

£40

0.31

A small, neat, novelty product

Digital Dream l’Espion

£39

0.3

Fine as a fun toy, but picture quality is lacking

FujiFilm @xia Slimshot

£80

0.31

Slimline, light, easy to use – good for children

Jessops Fashioncam FC130

£70

1.2

Cheap ‘n’ cheerful with AVI movie mode and webcam

Mustek Gsmart Mini2

£80

1.3

A reasonable price, although slightly fussy

Nisis QuickPix 2

£40

0.3

PC webcam with digital stills and AVI movie mode

Creative PC Cam 300

£85

64 x 480

A good, fun, cheap product at a low price

Jenoptik JD-C1300

£60

1.3

Can store 60 pics on its built-in 16MB memory. Cheap

Konica KD100

£100

1.3

A neat, well made product for an average price

Digital Dream Enigma

£80

1.3

CMOS image sensor, SmartMedia storage, average pics

Creative PC Cam 750

£110

1,024 x 768

Standard reproduction with a large internal memory

Casio wrist watch camera

£120

0.02

Novelty product that rapidly outstays its welcome. Avoid

Samsung Digimax 130

£130

1.3

A well made, standard product – very user friendly

Konica Revio C2

£120

1.2

Ultra-compact with decent picture quality and features

Fujifilm FinePx A101

£140

1.3

Basic, easy to use and accurate

Jenoptik JDC 1.3 LCD

£80

1.2

Entry level camera with LCD display, SD memory storage

HP Photosmart 320

£150

2.14

Sharp, focused and clear images – good value for money

Samsung Digimax 101

£100

1.2

User-friendly with decent image quality. Ideal for beginners

£150 PLUS OLYMPUS CAMEDIA C-120 £170 |2 megapixels www.olympus.co.uk

£200 | 1.3 megapixels www.sony.co.uk

Robust design and a quick, easy to use, likeable camera, although poor image quality results in a disappointing finish Sensor 2.0-megapixel 1/3.2 inch CCD Image size 1,600 x 1,200, 1,024 x 768, 640 x 480 Lens Olympus 4.5 Focus auto, macro Exposure modes Programmed AE Metering Digital ESP, spot AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.5EV increments Flash auto, red-eye, off, fill in, slow sync, slow sync with red eye Video output n/a Movie recording up to 15 secs at 320 x 240 pixels. up to 60 secs at 160 x 120 Image storage SmartMedia Batteries 2x lithium batteries/4x AA AC adaptor optional Weight 190g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 123mm(w) x 65mm(h) x 44.5mm(d) Transfer USB interface Software CAMEDIA Master OS Windows 98, 98 SE, 2000, Me, XP. Mac OS

80

Features 60

Images

80

Build Value

120

55

SONY CYBER-SHOT DSC-U10

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

75

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

Not so slim-line as its competitors, yet still compact and easy to carry. Images are sharp and well defined Sensor 1.26-megapixel CCD Image size 1,600 x 1,200 Lens Sony single focal length 5.0mm Focus auto Exposure modes Programmed AE, auto Metering centre-weighted Monitor 1.0-inch 64,000 pixels TFT reflective LCD AE compensation n/a Flash auto, auto red-eye, forced flash, no flash Video output n/a Movie recording 160 x 112 in 15 second clips, no audio Image storage Memory Stick Batteries 2x AAA NiMH AC adaptor n/a Weight 118g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 85mm(w) x 29mm(h) x 40mm(d) Transfer USB Software Pixela ImageMixer, Sony SPVD-008, USB driver OS Windows 98, Me, XP

Features Images Build Value

71 80 90 83

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

85

RICOH CAPLIO RR-30

CANON POWERSHOT A40

NIKON COOLPIX 2500

£225 | 3.2 megapixels www.ricoh-cameras.co.uk

£230 | 2 megapixels www.canon.co.uk

£260 | 2 megapixels www.nikon.co.uk

With so many good cameras at or around the Ricoh’s price point, it could do with a bit more appeal. A camera you’ll buy on price alone Sensor 3.2-megapixel, 1/2.7-inch 3.34MP CCD Lens Ricoh f/2.6-4.7 3x zoom Focus auto, macro Exposure modes Programmed AE, scene modes Metering multi-segment, centre-weighted, spot Monitor 1.6-inch 80,000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, on, off, slow, red-eye Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording 320 x 240 at 15fps without sound Storage 8MB internal memory, SD card slot Batteries 2x AA AC adaptor no Weight 160g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 114mm(w) x 54.5mm(h) x 32.5mm(d) Transfer USB Software Ricoh Gate, DU-10 image browser & editor OS Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS 8.6-9.2.2, OS X 10.1.2 or later

Features

73 82

Images Build Value

70 82

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

77

Not a great looking camera with dull, grey styling and underpowered CCD, but excellent manual features and colour reproduction Sensor 2.1 megapixel CCD Image size 1600 x 1200 Lens 35-105mm equiv, f/2.8 optical zoom lens, 2x digital zoom Focus auto, macro Exposure modes auto, program, manual, stitich assist, movie Metering evaluation and spot Monitor 1.5 inch TFT colour LCD approx. 120,000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, red-eye auto, forced on, red-eye on, forced off, slow sync Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording 20fps - 320 x 240 10 secs or 160 x 120 30 secs Other features optional wide angle, telephoto and closeup lenses Image storage CompactFlash Batteries 4x AA alkaline/4x NiMH batteries Weight 250g AC Adaptor optional Dimensions 110mm (w) x 71mm (h) x 38mm (d) Transfer USB Software RemoteCapture OS Windows 98 SE, 2000, XP. Mac OS 88

Features

90

Images Build Value

75 90

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

85

To fit a well-featured 3x zoom digital camera into such a small, sexy package is a real achievement. Tiny flash can produce uneven results Sensor 2.11-megapixel 1/2.7-inch CCD Image size 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480 Lens 3x zoom Nikkon f/2.7-4.5 Focus auto, macro Exposure modes Program AE, scene Monitor 1.5inch TFT color monitor AE compensation n/a Flash auto, fill, slow sync, red-eye Video output Movie recording 15fps (QVGA frames) for up to 15 secs Image storage CompactFlash Batteries lithium-ion AC adaptor optional Weight 165g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 114mm(w) x 59.5mm(h) x 31.5mm(d) Transfer USB Software NikonView 5 , Arcsoft PhotoImpression, Arcsoft Panorama Maker 2000 OS Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS 9.09.2, OS X 10.1.2 or higher

72

Features Images

67 72

Build Value

69

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

70

£150 PLUS PANASONIC LUMIX DMC-F7-S

£280 |2 megapixels www.panasonic.co.uk

Although image quality can be weak, this is a great camera for portability and style. A good buy as a second camera Sensor 2.0-megapixel 1/2.7 inch CCD Image size 1,600 x 1,200 Lens Leica DC Vario Emarit 2x zoom f/2.8-4.0 Focus auto, macro Exposure modes Program AE, night scene, landscape Metering Evaluation, spot rec Monitor 1.5 inch TFT LCD 60,000 pixels AE compensation +2/-2EV, 0.25EV increments Flash built-in, slow sync Video output PAL Movie recording Motion JPEG Image storage SD, MMC Batteries lithium-ion AC adaptor optional Weight 150g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 104mm(w) x 50.9mm(h) x 31.6mm(d) Transfer USB Software ArcSoft Editing Suite, ArcSoft Photoimpression OS Windows 98, 2000, Me, XP Mac OS

Features Images

70 61 85

Build Value

65

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

74

HP PHOTOSMART 720 £300 | 3.3 megapixels www.hp.com/uk/create

FUJIFILM FINEPIX A303 £280 | 3.2 megapixels www.fujifilm.co.uk

£300 | 3.1 megapixels www.kodak.co.uk

Underneath its modest, slim exterior is an extremely capable and likeable camera that produces fine results Sensor 3.3-megapixel 1/2.7-inch CCD Image size 2,048 x 1,536 Lens Fujinon f/2.8-4.8 3x zoom Focus auto, macro Exposure modes Program AE Metering 64-zone TTL Monitor 1.5-inch 60,000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.5EV increments Flash auto, on, off, red-eye, slow sync Video output No Movie recording 320 x 240 at 10fps without sound Other features Can be connected to computer for use as webcam Image storage x-D Picture Card Batteries 2x AA AC adaptor not supplied Weight 145g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 97.0mm(w) x 63.9mm(h) x 34.3mm(w) Transfer USB OS Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS 8.6-9.2.2, OS X 10.0.4

Features Images Build

70 85 80 90

Value

KODAK EASYSHARE DX4330

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

87

OLYMPUS CAMEDIA C-300 ZOOM

£300 | 3 megapixels www.olympus.co.uk

Poor LCD performance and erratic metering aside, this is a decent digital camera for a firsttime user Sensor 3.3-megapixel CCD Image size 2,160 x 1,440 Lens Kodak Retinar 3x optical, 38-114mm equiv, f/2.8-5.1 Focus auto, macro Exposure modes Program AE with scene modes Metering multipattern TTL Monitor 1.8-inch indoor, outdoor type AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.5EV increments Flash builtin auto, fill, off, red-eye Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording yes, with sound Other features on-camera tagging for email, printing, favourtes Image storage 8MB internal, SD card slot Batteries CRV3 lithium-ion, 2x AA AC Adaptor not supplied Weight 210g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 110.5mm(w) x 66mm(h) x 39mm(d) Transfer USB Software Kodak Easyshare OS Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, Mac OS X

Features Images Build Value

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

55

63

63 62 70

SONY CYBER-SHOT DSC-P71

Although bulky in appearance, this is a relaible, accuarte camera – if somewhat basic. Performance is fine and the mono LCD is a nice touch Sensor 3.3-megapixel 1 1/8 inch CCD Image size 11x14 inches Lens 3x optical Focus auto Exposure modes auto, auto exposure, auto with red-eye , manual strobe (forced on/off) Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording 320 x 240 pixels at 20fps - 30 secs max Monitor 1.6 inch 110,000 pixel AE compensation -1.5/+1.5EV, 0.5EV increments Image storage SD card slot Batteries 4x AA AC adaptor optional Weight 0.59lb (without batteries or card) Dimensions 4.7(w) x 2.9(h) x 2.1inches(d) Transfer USB or HP Photosmart 8881 Software HP Photo and Imaging software, Greeting card creator OS Windows 98, Me, XP, 2000, Mac OS 9.1 and OS X 10.1.2 or higher

Features Images Build Value

71 76 66 70

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

71

It’s a real pleasure to use a camera that has had so much thought gone into it. Excellent features and sharp, colourful images. Recommended Sensor 3.0-megapixel 1/2.5-inch CCD Image size 1,984 x 1,488, 1,600 x 1,200, 1,280 x 960, 1,024 x 768, 640 x 480 Lens Olympus lens f/2.9-4.4, 2.8x optical zoom Focus auto, manual, macro Exposure modes Programmed AE, compensation, night scene Metering Digital ESP, spot Monitor 1.8-inch 61,000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.5EV increments Flash auto, red-eye, fill-in, off, night scene Video output PAL Image storage SmartMedia Batteries 4x AA NiMH, 2x lithium AC adaptor optional Weight 240g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 117.5mm(w) x 66.0mm(h) x 49.5mm(d) Transfer USB OS TBA

Features Images

90 80

Build

90

Value

89

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

90

The limited specs make the F402 look dear compared similar products. Great appearance and average image results Sensor 2.1-megapixel, 1/2.7-inch colour CCD Image size 1,600 x 1,200 pixels Lens 8-76mm 2x optical zoom lens. f/2.8-4 Focus auto, macro Exposure modes auto Metering TTL Monitor 1.5-inch colour TFT LCD 118,000 pixels AE Compensation n/a Flash Built-in auto, red-eye Video output n/a Movie recording n/a Other features Exif V2.2 Image storage SD Batteries lithium-ion AC adaptor supplied Software USB driver, ACDSee Weight 170g (without batteries or SD card) Dimensions 54(w) x 108(h) x 29.5(d)mm Transfer USB OS Windows 98, 2000, Me, XP. Mac OS 9.0 or higher

Features Images

75 70 85

Build Value

70

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

73

FUJIFILM FINEPIX F402

£300 | 3.2 megapixels | www.sony.co.uk

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

TOSHIBA PDR-T20 £300 | 2.1 megapixels www.home-entertainment.toshiba.co.uk

£300 | 2.1 megapixels www.fujifilm.co.uk

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

Easy of use, top components, good value and performance, this is a very safe investment for a first-time digital buyer Sensor 3.2-megapixel 1/1.8-inch 3.3 MS HAD CCD Image size 2,048 x 1,536 - 320 x 240 Lens 3x optical zoom Focus auto, auto macro Exposure modes Programmed AE, scene modes Metering auto, with indication as to ‘wide’ or ‘centre weighted’ Monitor 1.5-inch 123,000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, fill in (forced on), flash off, red-eye Image storage Memory Stick Batteries 2x AA NiMH rechargeable AC adaptor optional Weight 284g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 124.9mm(w) x 58mm(h) x 43.6mm(d) Transfer USB OS Windows 98, ME, 2000. Mac OS 8.6-9.01, OS X

Features Images

85 87

Build

90

Value

90

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

90

This small, neat model produces excellent images – thus managing to both look very good and work very well Sensor 2.1-megapixel 1/2.7-inch 2.1MP SuperCCD Image size 2,048 x 1,536 Lens Fujinon f/3.2 fixed focal length lens Focus auto, macro Exposure modes Programmed AE Metering 64-zone Monitor 1.5-inch 117,000 pixels AE compensation +1.5/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, on, off, slow, red-eye Video output n/a Movie recording 320 x 240 at 10fps with sound Other features Docking cradle, soft case Image storage xD-Picture Card Batteries lithium-ion rechargeable, NP-40 AC adaptor supplied Software FinePix Viewer, ImageMixer VCD Weight 125g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 77mm(w) x 69mm(h) x 22mm(d) Transfer USB OS Windows 98/Me, 2000 or XP. Mac OS8.6-9.2.2, OSX 10.0.4 or higher

Features Images

70 86

Build

93

Value

90

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

85

Don't invest till you've put it to test. Our digital buyers’ guide shows you how… Forget movie modes, pretty histograms and cameras that turn onto the sound of the national anthem, we’re talking about cameras that produce images good enough to put on your wall. And, unfortunately, not all models will – there are a number of features and functions that really are must-haves for the discerning creative photographer. Top on the list then has to be full exposure control, through aperture-priority, shutter priority and manual modes. A good range of aperture settings (eg f/4.5-f/22) and shutter speeds (eg 1/1000sec to 10 seconds) are vital too. The serially lazy, or those on a tight budget, might make do with program modes such as night, portrait and landscape but these are only going to take you so far, and full automation really will take you nowhere beyond the realms of the happy snapper. But it’s also no good making creative use of apertures if you can only print postage stamp size images – go for a resolution of at least 3-megapixels if you want decent size prints – as big as six if you want to print A4. When considering lens choice, remember that standard lenses are about 3x in size (forget digital zoom), but go all the way up to 8x. The longer the better, really, as you can’t change the lens once you’ve bought your camera, unless you’re investing in a digital SLR – the enthusiasts’ choice. Metering modes are another important factor – spot metering will give you much more scope for manoeuvre when you’ve mastered the basics of exposure and lighting. Exposure compensation and exposure bracketing are two more vital options for avoiding the perils of under and overexposure. Burst mode is useful for those who want to capture moving subjects, and careful consideration should also be given to a camera’s power up time, shutter lag, and recovery time. Other important features include rechargeable battery compatibility; the type of rechargeables used (NiMH are better than NiCd); the inclusion of a hotshoe for external flash; custom white balance settings; and the type of memory cards used (Compact Flash give the biggest options for storage capacity, but are generally found only on high-end models).

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

121

£

Buyers’ Guide

£300 PLUS CANON DIGITAL IXUS 2

FUJIFILM FINEPIX F401

KONICA KD-400Z

MINOLTA DIMAGE F100

TOSHIBA PDR-3310

£329 | 2.1 megapixels www.canon.co.uk

£400 | 2.1 megapixels www.fujifilm.co.uk

£400 | 4.1 megapixels www.konica.co.uk

£400 | 3.95 megapixels www.minolta.co.uk

£400 | 2.2 megapixels www.home-entertainment.toshiba.co.uk

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

Other makers produce excellent all-metal subminiature models, but this latest incarnation of the Digital Ixus is a beautifully-made classic Sensor 2-megapixel 1/2.7-inch 2.1MP CCD Lens Canon, f2.8-4, 2x optical zoom Focus auto, macro Exposure modes Program AE Metering Evaluative, spot Monitor 1.5-inch 120,000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, on, off, slow sync, red-eye Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording AVI Other features PC connected shooting, Stitch Assist panoramic mode Image storage CompactFlash Batteries lithium-ion NB-1LH 3.7V AC adaptor Supplied Weight 180g (without batteries or card card) Dimensions 87mm(w) x 57mm(h) x 26.7mm(d) Transfer USB Software RAW Image Converter, ZoomBrowserEX, PhotoStitch, RemoteCapture OS Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS 8.6-9.2, OS X 10.1

Features

78

Images

80 95

Build Value

70

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

75

HP PHOTOSMART 850 £400 | 4 megapixels www.hp.com/uk/create

This Finepix is an excellent 2-megapixel ultracompact camera. It offers lots of style and high image quality to back it up Sensor 2.1-megapixel, 1/2.7-inch Super CCD Image size 1,600 x 1,200 Lens Super EBC Fujinon 38-114mm 3x optical zoom Focus Auto, macro Exposure Auto, Programmed AE Metering 64-zone TTL Monitor 1.5inch colour TFT LCD 114,000 pixels AE Compensation +1.5/-2.1EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, red-eye, slow sync Video output n/a Movie recording up to 480 seconds with sound Other features DPOF, Exif 2.2 Image storage SmartMedia Batteries lithium-ion AC adaptor supplied Software DP Editor, FinePix Viewer, VideoImpression Weight 185g (excluding batteries) Dimensions 85.0(w) x 69.4(h) x 27.5(d)mm Transfer USB Software FinePix Viewer, DP Editor, Apple QuickTime 5.0, VideoImpression OS Windows 98, 2000, Me, XP. Mac OS 8.6 or higher

Features Images

80 85 90

Build Value

85

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

84

SONY CYBER-SHOT DSC-P9

£430 | 4 megapixels www.sony.co.uk

The KD-400 is a remarkable camera. The size, build, quality, results and price – all in a package – are really quite hard to fault Sensor 4.13-megapixel CCD Image size 2,304 x 1,704 Lens Hexanon 3x optical zoom, 39-117mm equivalent, f2.8-4.9 Focus auto, macro Exposure modes Programmed AE Metering Centre-weighted, spot Monitor 1.5-inch TFT AE compensation +2/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, red-eye, night portrait, off Video output n/a Movie recording with sound Other features In-camera picture re-sizing, voice annotations Image storage SD card, Memory Stick Batteries lithium-ion AC adaptor charger supplied Weight 198g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 94(w) x 29.5(h) x 56(d)mm Transfer USB Software basic manuals and drivers OS Windows 98, Me, 2000 or XP. Mac OS 9.0 or higher

Features

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 90 1 97 1

78

90

Images Build Value

90

The DiMAGE 7100 has packed virtually every feature a serious photographer will need into this very portable, squared-off metal case Sensor 3.95-megapixel 1/1.8-type CCD Image size 2,568 x 1,928 Lens Minolta GT 28-200mm, 7x zoom Focus Auto, single shot, full time, manual Exposure modes Programmed AE, aperture priority, shutter priority, manual, scene modes Metering Multisegment, spot Monitor 1.5 inch TFT colour 110, 000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, red-eye, fill flash, cancel Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording 35 secs at 15 fps Other features Interval recording Image storage SD, MMC Batteries 4x AA AC adaptor sold separately Weight 185g Dimensions 111(w) x 52.3(h) x 32.0(d)mm Transfer USB Software USB driver and DiMAGE Viewer OS Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, Mac OS 8.6 or higher

95

Features Images

90

Build

85

Value

85

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

86

Despite the first- class feature list and build quality, Toshiba might be asking slightly too high a price for what are very average images Sensor 2.2-megapixel 1/1.8 inch CCD Image size 2,048 x 1536 Lens 3x optical, Focus auto, macro, manual Exposure modes Program AE Metering Evaluation, centre-weighted, spot Monitor 1.5 inch 110,000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash Auto, red-eye, fill in, flash off Image storage SD, MMC Batteries 4x AA alkaline AC adaptor n/a Weight 175g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 91(w) x 57(h) x 31.5(d) mm Transfer USB Software USB driver and DiMAGE Viewer OS Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, Mac OS 8.6 or higher

86

Features Images

68 90

Build Value

70

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

74

OLYMPUS CAMEDIA C-730

OLYMPUS C-4000 ZOOM

PENTAX OPTIO 430RS

£445 | 3.2 megapixels www.olympus.co.uk

£449 | 4.1 megapixels www.olympus.co.uk

£450 | 4 megapixels www.pentax.co.uk

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

The limited specs make the F402 look dear compared to other entry-level snapshot cameras, but there’s so much more to it than that Sensor 4.1-megapixel 1/1.8 inch CCD Lens 8x optical f2.8-3.1 Focus auto, macro mode Exposure modes Program AE, Aperture priority, shutter priority Metering TTL Monitor 2-inch AE Compensation +3/3EV, 0.5EV increments Flash auto, red-eye, off, on Movie recording 288 x 216 at 15 fps with sound Other features instant share, optional camera dock Image storage SD Batteries 4x AA AC adaptor n/a supplied Weight 388g Dimensions 120mm(w) x 120mm(h) x 85mm(d) Transfer USB Software HP Photo and Imaging software, HP memories disk creator OS Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS 9.1, OS X 10.1.2 or higher

Features

72

Images

78

Build Value

122

59 80

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

72

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

Sony’s flagship 4-megapixel model is a real class act, with great performance going hand in hand with smooth ease of use Sensor 4.1-megapixel 1/1.8-inch CCD Image size 2,272 x 1,704 – 320 x 240 Lens Sony 3x optical zoom f2.8-5.6 Focus auto, macro Exposure modes Program AE, scene modes Metering auto with indication to ‘wide’ or ‘centre weighted’ Monitor 1.5-inch 123,000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, red eye, fill in (forced on), flash off Movie recording full screen playback – 16fps – length determined by media capacity Image storage Memory Stick Batteries 4x AA AC adaptor included Weight 206g (without batteries) Dimensions 114mm(w) x 51.5mm(h) x 35.8mm(d) Transfer USB Software Pixela Image Mixer, USB driver OS Windows 98 rev 2, Me, 2000, XP. MacOS 8.6-9.01, OS X or higher

Features

82 88

Images

90

Build Value

80

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

86

Not the cheapest 3-megapixel camera , but extremely versatile. Compact, practical and good for both the beginner and more advanced user Sensor 3.34-megapixel 1/2.7-inch CCD Lens Olympus Multivator f2.8-3.5, 10x optical zoom Focus auto, Super-macro Exposure modes Program AE, shutter priority, aperture priority, manual, scene modes Metering Digital ESP, spot, multi-spot Monitor 1.5-inch 114,000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, on, off, slow sync, slow sync with red-eye, second curtain sync Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording 320 x 240 at 15fps without sound Other features twin media slots Image storage SmartMedia, x-D Picture Card Batteries 4x AA AC adaptor optional Weight 310g (without batteries) Dimensions 107.5mm(w) x 76.0mm(h) x 77.5mm(d) Transfer USB Software USB driver, CAMEDIA Master OS Windows 98, 2000, NT, XP. Mac OS 9, OS X or higher Features

90

Images

90

Build Value

83 89

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

88

A great range of photographic features, making this suitable for beginners – with great innovative features for the intermediate photographer, too Sensor 4.13 million pixels 1/1.8-inch CCD Image size 3,200 x 2,400 (in Print enlarge mode) Lens Olympus 3x multivariator zoom lens Focus TTL system iESP auto 0.2m–infinity Exposure modes Programmed auto exposure, Aperture priority auto, Shutter priority Metering spot, multi-spot Monitor 1.8-inch colour TFT LCD AE Compensation +2/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, red-eye, off, fill-in slow sync Movie recording QuickTime Motion JPEG Other features AF area selection system Image storage SmartMedia Batteries lithium-ion AC adaptor not supplied Weight 290g Dimensions 110 (w) x 76 (h) x 70 (d) mm Transfer USB Software USB driver, CAMEDIA Master OS Windows 98, 2000, NT, XP. Mac OS 9, OS X or higher

Features

90

Images

90

Build

90

Value

90

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

90

The Optio 430RS feels like a classy camera, both in terms of its build quality and the feel of its controls. It crams in lots of features, too Sensor 3.24-megapixel CCD Image size 2,304 x 1,712 Lens Pentax power zoom 37.5-112.5mm equiv, f/2.6-4.8 Focus auto, manual, macro Exposure modes Programmed AE, manual Metering Multi-segment, centre-weighted, spot Monitor 1.6-inch TFT AE compensation +2/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, on, off, red-eye Video output n/a Movie recording up to 30 secs – no sound Other features stereoscopic shooting mode Image storage 11MB Internal, CompactFlash Batteries lithium-ion AC adaptor optional Weight 200g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 92mm(w) x 59mm(h) x 32mm(d) Transfer USB Software ACDSee image cataloguing & editing package OS Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS 8.6 or higher 88

Features Images

72 91

Build Value

79

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

79

£300 PLUS NIKON COOLPIX 4300 £450 | 4 megapixels www.nikon.co.uk

; GLOSSARY PANASONIC LUMIX DMC-L40

£470 | 4 megapixels www.panasonic.co.uk

FUJIFILM FINEPIX F601

MINOLTA DIMAGE F300

£490 | 3.1 megapixels www.fujifilm.co.uk

£500 | 5 megapixels www..minolta.co.uk

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

Overall, this delivers terrifically sharp results combined with great exposure control and photographic options Sensor 4.13-megapixel 1/1.8-inch CCD Lens Nikkor, f2.8-4.9, 3x optical zoom Focus auto, macro Exposure modes Programmed AE, scene modes, manual Metering 256-segment matrix, centre-weighted, spot, AF spot Monitor 1.5-inch 110,000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, on, off, slow sync, red-eye Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording QVGA 15fps Other features 12 scene modes Image storage CompactFlash Batteries lithium-ion EN-EL1, 7.4v AC adaptor Weight 230g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 95mm(w) x 69mm(h) x 52mm(d) Transfer USB Software NikonView 5 OS Windows 98SE/Me, 2000 or XP, Mac OS 9.0-9.2, OS X 10.1.2

90

Features

95

Images Build

70

Value

72

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

82

A good, fast lens and excellent results for a good price. Sadly, the picture-taking experience is dulled, by poor, bulky design Sensor 4-megapixel 1/1.8-inch CCD Lens Leica DC Vario Summicron, f2-2.5, 3x optical zoom Focus auto, macrov Exposure modes Programmed AE, aperture priority, shutter priority Metering Multi-pattern, spot Monitor 1.8-inch 110,000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.25EV increments Flash auto, on, off, slow sync, red-eye Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording QuickTime Motion JPEG Other features Voice annotations Image storage SD card slot Batteries Lithium-ion CGR-S602E, 7.2v AC adaptor Weight 400g (with battery and card) Dimensions 105mm(w) x 77mm(h) x 65.6mm(d) Transfer USB Software SD Viewer for DSC, ArcSoft PhotoBase, ArcSoft PhotoImpression, ArcSoft Panorama Maker, USB driver OS Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, Mac OS 9, OS X 88

Features

85

Images Build Value

72 83

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

82

OLYMPUS CAMEDIA C-50

NIKON COOLPIX 4500

£550 | 5 megapixels www.olympus.co.uk

£550 | 4 megapixels www.nikon.co.uk

Good range of features and excellent images. The only drawbacks are barrel distortion and the size of the SM card when shooting in 6MP mode Sensor 3.1-megapixel 1/1.7-inch SuperCCD Image size 2,048 x 1,536 Lens Super EBC Fujinon 36108mm, 3x optical zoom Focus auto, macro Exposure modes Programmed AE, shutter priority, aperture priority, manual Metering 64-zone TTL, spot, average Monitor 1.5inch colour TFT LCD 110,000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, red-eye, slow sync Video output PAL Movie recording 544 seconds with sound Other features DPOF Image storage SmartMedia Batteries lithium-ion AC adaptor supplied Weight 220g (without battery) Dimensions 72.0mm(w) x 93.0mm(h) x 34.0mm(d) Transfer USB Software DP Editor, FinePix Viewer, VideoImp, Adobe PhotoDeluxe OS Windows98, Me, 2000, Me, XP. Mac OS 8.6 or higher Features

90

Images

90 95

Build 85

Value

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

90

PANASONIC LUMIX DMC-LC5

£600 | 4 megapixels www.panasonic.co.uk

A good revamp of an excellent camera – great value too, especially with the bundled 64MB SD card. Advanced controls can be slightly fiddly Sensor 5.3-megapixel 1/1.8-inch CCD Lens Minolta GT f2.8-4.7, 3x optical zoom Focus auto, manual, macro Exposure modes Programmed AE, shutter priority, aperture priority, manual Metering 256 multi-segment, centre-weighted, spot Monitor 1.5inch 110,000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, red-eye, slow, on, off Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording 320 x 240 at 15 fps with sound Other features automatic digital subject program selection Image storage SD Batteries 2x AA AC adaptor not supplied Weight 185g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 110mm(w) x 52.5mm(h) x 32.5mm(d) Transfer USB Software Minolta DiMAGE viewer OS Windows98, Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS8.6-9.2.2, OS X 10.1.3 or higher

Features

90

Images

90

Build

81

Value

88

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

87

CASIO QV-5700 £600 | 5 megapixels www.casio.co.uk

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

You might expect a pocketable compact camera to sacrifice features and image quality, but the C-50 makes few concessions in either direction Sensor 5.4-megapixel 1/1.8-inch CCD Image size 2,560 x 1,920 Lens Olympus f2.8-4.8 3x optical zoom Focus auto Exposure modes Programmed AE, shutter priority, aperture priority, manual, scene modes Metering Digital ESP, spot Monitor 1.5-inch 134,0000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, on, off, red-eye, slow sync, slow sync with red-eye Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording 320 x 240 15fps QuickTime Other features TruePic image processing and Pixel Mapping Image storage x-D Picture Card Batteries lithium-ion LI-10B AC adaptor supplied Weight 194g (without batteries) Dimensions 99.5mm(w) x 58.5mm(h) x 41.5mm(d) Transfer USB Software Windows 98, 2000, NT, XP. Mac OS9 or higher

Features

90

Images

90

Build Value

83 89

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

88

Nikon’s done a brilliant job with the image quality, build and finish. First class images are guaranteed Sensor 4.13-megapixel 1/1.8-inch CCD Lens Nikkor f2.6-5.1, 4x optical zoom Focus auto, manual, macro Exposure modes Programmed AE, shutter priority, aperture priority, manual, scene modes Metering matrix, centre-weighted, spot, AF spot Monitor 1.5inch 110,000 pixels AE compensation +/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, on, off, slow, red-eye Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording 320 x 240 at 15fps with sound Other features Swivelling body Image storage CompactFlash Batteries lithium-ion, EN-EL1 AC adaptor n/a Weight 360g (without battery or card) Dimensions 130mm(w) x 73mm(h) x 50mm(d) Transfer USB Software Nikon View 5, Photoshop Elements 1.0, FotoStation Easy OS Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS 9.0-9.2, OS X 10.1.2 or higher Features

95

Images

93 94

Build Value

83

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

91

The DMC-LC5 is easy to handle and comes with an oversized 2.5-inch LCD. Picture quality is superb for its detail, saturation, contrast and tonal range Sensor 4.0-megapixel 1/1.76-inch CCD Lens f2.0 2.5, 2x optical zoom Focus auto, manual, Exposure modes Auto, Program AE, shutter priority, aperture priority, manual Metering Multi, centre-weighted, spot, averaging Monitor 2.5-inch 205,000 pixels AE compensation +2/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, on, off, red-eye, slow sync, hot shoe with contacts for external flash units Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording up to 160 seconds 320 x 240 QuickTime Motion JPEG Image storage SD Batteries lithium-ion AC adaptor supplied Weight 360g (excluding batteries) Dimensions 127.5mm(w) x 82mm(h) x 63.4mm(d) Transfer USB OS Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000, XP, Mac OS 9.0, OS X or higher

Features Images

70 65 85

Build Value

65

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

89

The Casio’s well made, well designed and handles well. But it’s marred by some quirky design points and unpredictability, which is a real shame Sensor 5.36-megapixel, 1/1.8-inch CCD Lens Canon, f2-2.5, 3x optical zoom Focus auto, manual, infinity, macro Exposure modes Programmed AE, shutter priority, aperture priority, manual, Best Shot modes Metering Multi-pattern, centre-weighted, spot Monitor 1.8-inch 122,100 pixels AE compensation +2/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, on, off, red-eye Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording 320 x 240 AVI format with sound Other features 100+ Best Shot settings transferable from CD Image storage CompactFlash Batteries 4x AA AC adaptor supplied Weight 335g (excluding batteries) Dimensions 118mm(w) x 74.5mm(h) x 64.5mm(d) Transfer USB Software Photo Loader, Photohands OS Windows 98/Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS 8.6-9.0, OS X 10.1 or higher

Features

92

Images

87

Build

86

Value

90

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

84

Aperture Opening in a camera’s lens that controls the amount of light that’s let through to the image sensor. Measured in F-stops, wide aperture settings like f2.8 let in a lot of light, but give you a limited depth of field. Narrower apertures like f22 let in less light, but deliver a greater depth of field. Aperture Priority Exposure mode setting that enables you to select the desired aperture, while the necessary shutter speed for correct exposure is calculated by the camera. Autoexposure Lock Enables exposure readings to be taken from a particular subject or scene, and the frame then recomposed with the original reading intact. Useful for dealing with problematic lighting conditions. Autofocus Lock Enables you to focus the lens on a specific point in the frame and recompose the shot while keeping the original focal point. Achieved in most cameras by half-pressing the shutter button, before the shutter is finally fired. Burst Mode Sometimes called continuous mode. Enables several shots to be taken in quick succession at a faster rate than single-frame mode. Achieved by writing to memory after all shots have been taken, avoiding recovery delay. The speed at which this can be done and the number of frames that can be exposed in a single burst varies between cameras. Camera Meter Measures the amount of light reflected from a scene through-the-lens so the correct exposure is set. Some cameras offer several metering modes – centre-weighted concentrates on the central portion of a subject; centre-partial and spot isolate a specific area, while full-frame evaluative mode uses the whole frame area for greater accuracy. CCD Sensor used to convert light into image data. CCD sensors used in digital cameras are made up of a number of CCDs arranged together. CMOS Another type of image sensor. Cheaper to produce than CCDs, but often considered less efficient and inferior in quality, though this is not always the case. Compression Enables image files to be reduced in size. Useful for saving storage space, or reducing the time required to send a file over the internet. Compression can be lossy, which involves discarding image information (e.g. JPEG), or lossless, which compresses at a lesser rate but maintains the same amount of information (e.g. TIFF LZW). Depthof-Field Distance in front and behind the point of focus that remains sharp. Relational to aperture, focal length and proximity to an in-focus subject. Short focal length lenses, small apertures, and large distances to the point of focus give the greatest depth-of-field, while long focal lengths, wide apertures, and close proximity to the point of focus give the least depth-of-field. Digital Zoom Isolates a specific area of an image and enlarges it, resulting in a loss of image information. Some cameras use interpolation to maintain file size, but with some loss of quality. Most software packages do a better job of cropping and interpolation. dpi Used to describe the number of dots a printer is capable of producing in a single inch, with bigger DPI resolutions indicating higher quality. Effective Pixels Number of pixels that can be said to play a part in the image. The effective pixel size gives the only accurate clue to the amount of information a camera can record. Exposure The amount of light that falls on to an image sensor between shutter opening and closing; varied through the size of the lens aperture and duration the shutter is kept open. If less light is received than the image sensor requires to render a scene correctly, then underexposure occurs. If more light than required is received, then an image will be overexposed. Exposure Compensation Enables you to override the camera meter and expose by a number of stops more or less than the designated amount. Often used when meters misdiagnose exposure; e.g. with overly light or dark scenes, or backlit subjects. F-stop Measurement relating to aperture choice. Fill-in Flash Method of using a flashgun to neutralise harsh shadows cast by direct sunlight. The flash is normally set to half or quarter power to ensure that natural light is still the ‘key’ light in the shot. Flash output compensation Similar to exposure compensation, offering adjustment of flash power to alter the meter’s chosen exposure. Useful for fill-in flash.

1

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£

Buyers’ Guide

£600 PLUS RICOH RDC-I500

CANON POWERSHOT G3

FUJIFILM FINEPIX M603

£610 | 3.2 megapixels www.ricoh-cameras.co.uk

£700 | 4 megapixels www.canon.co.uk

£700 | 3 megapixels www.fujifilm.co.uk

OLYMPUS CAMEDIA C-5050

£650 | 5 megapixels www.olympus.co.uk

FUJIFILM FINEPIX S602 PRO £700 | 3.1 megapixels www..fujifilm.co.uk

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

Over-priced and the the i500’s connectivity tools are complex and expensive. Underneath though, is a pretty fascinating and capable camera Sensor 3.34-megapixel, 1/1.8-inch CCD Lens Ricoh, f2.6-3.4, 3x zoom Focus auto, manual, macro Exposure modes Programmed AE Metering multipattern, centre-weighted, spot Monitor 2.0-inch 200,000 pixels AE compensation +2/-2EV, 0.25EV increments Flash Auto, flash off, forced flash, Slow sync, red-eye Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording AVI Other features voice memos, email and image upload capability Image storage CompactFlash Batteries lithium-ion DB-20L 3.7V AC adaptor supplied Weight 295g (excluding battery) Dimensions 141.9mm(w) x 78.2mm(h) x 30.3mm(d) Transfer USB Software Internet Explorer plug-in for Windows, RDC-I mounter for Mac OS Windows 98, Me, 2000. Mac OS 8.6-9.0

73

81

Images

80

Build Value

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

75

Features

57

MINOLTA DIMAGE 7I £799 | 5.24 megapixels www.minolta.co.uk

The PowerShot G3 has many new features, but it’s fiddlier and fussier than the old G2. At this price, it has also got some serious 5-megapixel rivals Sensor 4.1 megapixel 1/1.8-inch CCD Lens Canon f2.0-3.0, 4x optical zoom Focus auto, manual, macro Exposure modes Programmed AE, aperture priority, shutter priorityshutter-priority, manual, scene modes Metering evaluative, centre-weighted, spot, AF spot Monitor 1.8-inch TFT AE compensation +2/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, on, off, slow, second curtain, red-eye Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording 320 x 240 at 15fps with sound Image storage CompactFlash Batteries lithium-ion, BP-511 AC adaptor supplied Weight 410g (without batteries or card) Dimensions 121mm(w) x 73.9mm(h) x 69.9mm(d) Transfer USB Software ZoomBrowser EX, PhotoRecord, PhotoStitch, RAW image converter, Photoshop 5.0LE OS Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS8.6-9.2, OSX 10.1 or higher Features

90

Images

91

Build

72

Value

73

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

81

SONY CYBER-SHOT DSCF717

£850 | 5.0 megapixels www.sony.co.uk

The M603 is far too expensive for what it does as a still camera, so you have to really want that movie mode to make it worth buying Sensor 3.3-megapixel 1/1.7-inch SuperCCD Lens Super EBC Fujinon f3.2, 2x optical zoom Focus auto, 20cm in macro mode Exposure modes Program AE Metering 64-zone Monitor 2.5-inch 118,000 pixels AE compensation +1.5/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, on, off, slow, red-eye Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording 640 x 480 at 30fps Other features LCD cover/shade, docking cradle, soft case, MicroDrive slot Image storage x-D Picture Card, MicroDrive Batteries lithium-ion, NP-60 AC adaptor supplied Weight 210g (without battery or card) Dimensions 64.5mm(w) x 93.3mm(h) x 31.6mm(d) Transfer USB Software FinePix Viewer, ImageMixer VCD OS Windows 98, Me, 2000 or XP. Mac OS8.6-9.2.2, OS X 10.0.4 or higher

Features

80

Images

82

78

81

Build Value

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

70

A classic Olympus shape with excellent finish, layout and design coupled with first rate results make the C-5050 the best in its class Sensor 5.3-megapixel 1/1.8-inch CCD Lens Olympus f1.8-2.6 3x optical Focus auto, manual, macro, supermacro Exposure modes Programmed AE, aperture priority, shutter priority, manual, scene modes Metering digital ESP, spot, multi-spot Monitor 1.8-inch 114,000 pixels AE compensation +2/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash Auto, on, off, slow, slow 2nd curtain, red-eye Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording 320 x 240 at 15fps Other features multiple memory card slots Image storage x-D Picture Card, SmartMedia, CompactFlash Batteries 4x AA AC adaptor supplied Weight 125g (without battery or card) Dimensions 77mm(w) x 69mm(h) x 22mm(d) Transfer USB Software Olympus CAMEDIA Master OS Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS 8.6-9.2.2, OS X 10.0.4 or higher

Features

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 98 1 95 1

93

96

Images Build Value

96

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

A great camera – in particularly for professionals who will embrace the studio flash capability and increased storage capacity Sensor 3.3-megapixel 1/1.7-inch SuperCCD Lens Super EBC Fujinon f2.8-3.1 6x optical zoom Focus auto, manual, macro, super-macro Exposure modes Programmed AE, aperture priority, shutter priority, manual, scene modes Metering 64-zone, multipattern, spot, average Monitor 1.8-inch 110,000 pixels AE compensation +2/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, on, off, slow, red-eye, slow with red eye Video output PAL Movie recording 640 x 480 at 30 fps with sound Other features dual media slots, external flash sync Image storage CompactFlash, SmartMedia, MicroDrive Batteries 4x AA AC adaptor supplied Weight 150g (without battery or card) Dimensions 121mm(w) x 81.5mm(h) x 97mm(d) Transfer USB Software FinePix Viewer, DP Editor, VideoImpression OS Win98, Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS 8.69.2, OS X 95

Features Images

81 89

Build

95

Value

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

90

NIKON COOLPIX 5700

MINOLTA DIMAGE 7HI

SIGMA SD9 DIGITAL SLR

£1000 | 5.0 megapixels www.nikon.co.uk

£1000 | 5.0 megapixels www.minolta.co.uk

£1640 | 3.4 megapixels www.sigmaphoto.com.

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

A very good, versatile, quick camera. Let down slightly by noise levels at the higher ISO settings and occasionally slow focusing Sensor 5.24-megazpixel 2-3 type CCD Image size 2,568 x 1,928 Lens Minolta GT 28-200mm, 7x optical zoom Focus auto, continous, manual, macro Exposure modes Programmed, aperture priority, shutter priority, manual Metering multisegment, centre-weighted, spot Monitor 1.8 inch AE compensation +2/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash Pop-up ADI with red-eye and pre-flash TTL Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording 60 seconds with sound Other features Interval recording Image storage CompactFlash Batteries 4x AA AC adaptor n/a Weight 525g Dimensions 117mm(w) x 90.5mm(h) x 112.5mm(d) Transfer USB Software USB driver, DiMAGE Viewer OS Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS 8.6 or higher 95

Features Images

90

Build

85

Value

85

124

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

89

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

Easy-to-use features, friendly layout of controls and a first-class lens. Let down by sloppy software and slightly sluggish operation Sensor 5.24-megapixel 2/3-inch CCD Lens Carl Zeiss, f/2-2.4, 10x zoom Focus auto, manual Exposure modes Programmed AE, shutter priority, aperture priority, full manual, scene and movie. Sony exclusive NightShot and NightFrame modes Metering multipattern, centre-weighted averaging, spot Monitor 1.8inch 560 x220 pixels TFT colour AE compensation +2/2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, forced, off Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording MPEG EX/HQX Other features MPEG video recording, hologram AF system, manual white balance, spot metering Image storage Memory Stick Batteries NP-FM50 7.2v Info Lithium AC adaptor supplied Weight 696g with battery and Memory Stick Dimensions 127.5(w) x 82(h) x 63.4(d)mm Transfer USB, USB2.0 OS Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS 8.6 Features

80 95

Images

90

Build Value

80

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

84

Brilliantly well made, designed and so great to use. Sadly, image quality does not reflect otherwise excellent results Sensor 5.24-megapixel, 2/3-inch CCD Lens Nikkor f2.8-4.2 8x optical zoom Focus auto, manual, macro mode Exposure modes Programed AE, aperture priority, shutter priority, manual Metering 256segment matrix, centre-weighted, spot, spot AF Monitor 1.5-inch 110,000 pixels AE compensation +2/-2EV. 0.3EV increments Flash auto, on, off, slow synch (Night Portrait), red-eye Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording QVGA 15fps with sound Other features Flexible Program mode, autobracketing with 3 or 5 shots, electronic SLR-style viewfinder Image storage CompactFlash Batteries lithium-ion EN-EL1 7.4v AC adaptor Supplied Weight 480g (without battery) Dimensions 108mm(w) x 76mm(h) x 102mm(d) Transfer USB Software Nikon View 5 OS Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS 9.09.2, OS X 10.1.2 or higher 95

Features Images

79 96

Build Value

80

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

88

The DiMAGE 7 did not just introduce new levels of resolution, it brought truly intelligent, practical, brilliant design too. A wonderful camera Sensor 5.2-megapixel, 2/3-inch CCD Lens Minolta GT f2.8-3.5, 7x optical zoom Focus auto, manual, macro Exposure modes Programmed AE, shutter priority, aperture priority, manual, scene modes Metering multi-segment, centre-weighted, spot Monitor 1.8inch 118,000 pixels AE compensation +2/-2EV, 0.3EV increments Flash auto, on, off, fill-flash, red-eye, rearsync Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording 320 x 240 at 15fps with sound Other features flash sync socket for use with studio lighting systems Image storage CompactFlash Batteries 4x AA AC adaptor supplied Weight 530g (without batteries) Dimensions 117mm(w) x 90.5mm(h) x 112.5mm(d) Transfer USB Software DiMAGE Viewer OS Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP. Mac OS 8.6-9.2.2, OS X 10.1.5 or higher 98

Features

93

Images

92

Build Value

86

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

90

The image technology has clear potential and it’s clear what the Faveon chip is capable of but users may be disappointed with image quality Sensor 3.5-megapixel Foveon X3 CMOS chip Lens not supplied Focus n/a Exposure modes Programed AE, shutter priority, aperture priority, manual Metering 8 zone evaluative, centre-weighted, centre Monitor 1.8-inch 130,000 pixels AE compensation +3/-3EV, 0.5EV increments Flash not supplied Video output PAL/NTSC Movie recording n/a Other features interchangeable lenses Image storage Compact Flash, MicroDrive Batteries 4x AA, 2x CR123A for camera functions AC adaptor supplied Weight 580g (without batteries or lens) Dimensions 152mm(w) x 120mm(h) x 79mm(d) Transfer USB and FireWire Software Sigma Photo Pro OS Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000, XP. Mac 9.2.1, OSX 10.1.1 or higher

81

Features Images Build Value

65 77 94

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

79

; GLOSSARY

A4 INKJET/DIRECT PRINTERS

1 Focal Length The distance between a camera’s

CANON S530D

CANON BUBBLEJET S820

CANON S900

£250 www.canon.co.uk

£219 www.canon.co.uk

£329 www.canon.co.uk

£220 www.epson.co.uk

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

Print technology bubblejet & separate print head Maximum vertical resolution 2,400dpi Inks cyan, magenta, yellow, black Direct printing crop, zoom, enhance image Maximum print width 216 mm Borderless printing yes Extra ports digital camera LCD mono Dimensions 430mm(w) x 301mm(h) x 188mm (d) Software ZoomBrowser, PhotoRecord, Image Browser, PhotoStitch, EasyPhotoPrint

Features Images

61 75 90

print speed Value

71

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

72

EPSON STYLUS PHOTO 950

£379 www.epson.co.uk

Print technology Micro Piezo Maximum vertical resolution 2,400dpi Inks Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Photo Cyan, Photo Magenta Direct printing n/a Maximum print speed (mono) 8.8ppm Maximujm print speed (colour) 8.5ppm Maximum print width A4 Borderless printing yes Extra ports USB, bi-directional parallel interface LCD none Dimensions 515mm(w) x 333mm(h) x 209mm(d) Software PhotoQuicker 3.1

90

Features Images

85

print speed

85

Value

87

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

88

Print technology bubblejet Maximum vertical resolution 2,400dpi Inks Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Photo Cyan, Photo Magenta Direct printing n/a Maximum print speed (mono) 4ppm Maximum print speed (colour) 4ppm Maximum print width A4 Borderless printing yes Extra ports USB + parallel LCD n/a Dimensions 430mm(w) x 294mm(h) x 177mm (d) Software PhotoRecord, ZoomBrowser, PhotoStitch ImageBrowser

Features

90

Images

95

print speed

90

Value

90

1 FINAL SCORE 1 % 1 1

95

EPSON STYLUS PHOTO 925

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

Print technology bubblejet Maximum vertical resolution 2,400dpi Inks Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Photo Cyan, Photo Magenta Direct printing n/a Maximum print speed (mono) 7ppm Maximum print speed (col) 7ppm Maximum print width A4 Borderless printing yes Extra ports USB LCD none Dimensions 443mm(w) x 319mm (h) x 185mm (d) Software ZoomBrowser

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Print technology Micropiezo Inkjet Maximum vertical resolution 5,760dpi Inks Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Photo Cyan, Photo Magenta Direct printing crop, zoom, enhance image, add effects Maximum print width 216mm Borderless printing yes Extra ports USB LCD mono Dimensions 492mm(w) x 290mm (h) x 228mm (d) Software PhotoQuicker, ImageFramer, preview monitor

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HP DESKJET 5550

HP PHOTOSMART 7350

LEXMARK Z65P

£149 www.hp.com

£200 www.hp.com

£150 www.lexmark.co.uk

Print technology Thermal inkjet Maximum vertical resolution 4,800dpi Inks Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Photo Direct printing n/a Maximum print speed (mono) 17ppm Maximujm print speed (colour) 9ppm Maximum print width A4 Borderless printing only 4 x 6 Extra ports USB 2.0 LCD none Dimensions 456mm(w) x 385mm (h) x 156mm (d) Software n/a

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Print technology Inkjet with PhotoRET IV max vertical resolution 4,800dpi Inks Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Photo Cyan, Photo Magenta Direct printing crop, zoom, enhance image, add effects Maximum print width 216mm Borderless printing yes Extra ports USB LCD mono Dimensions 475mm(w) x 390mm(h) x 160mm (d) Software Album printing, Photo Director

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Print technology Inkjet Maximum vertical resolution 4,800dpi Inks Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black Direct printing n/a Maximum print width 216mm Borderless printing no Extra ports none LCD none Dimensions 445mm(w) x 533mm (h) x 331mm (d) Software Adobe Photoshop Elements, Fotoscale

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image sensor and the optical centre of a lens. The greater the focal length, the larger a given subject will appear in the lens. Longer focal lengths also mean a reduced angle-of-view. Image Quality Setting Enables you to vary the quality of image capture, and thus the file size. Most cameras have Basic, Normal, Fine and High settings, with the former offering the smallest file size and the latter offering the largest. Reductions in size are achieved by either compression or a reduction in resolution. Lower settings are ideal for web images, but the best quality should be used for printing. Interchangeable Lenses Lenses that can be removed from a camera. Most commonly found in digital SLRs, giving you the ability to choose lenses of varying focal length and speed. Interpolation The act of increasing or reducing the number of pixels in an image through computer calculation, which involves making estimates from the known values of existing pixels in the image. Interpolating up involves an inevitable loss of quality. ISO The sensitivity setting of a camera’s image sensor to light. Smaller ISO settings such as ISO100 offer the least sensitivity but the greatest quality, while higher ISO settings, such as ISO 1600 offer a greater sensitivity to light but poorer quality, often in the form of noise. Greater sensitivity allows you to achieve faster shutter speed times, or smaller aperture settings, in low-light situations. JPEG A popular image file format that uses compression. Megapixel Term given to describe one million pixels. Memory Card Storage medium or ‘film’ of digital cameras. Come in a number of formats, with the most popular being SmartMedia and CompactFlash. Card apacities range from 1MB to 1GB in size. Noise Undesirable image artefacts introduced through software processes such as interpolation and compression. Common to higher ISO settings of digital cameras. Optical Zoom Type of lens that varies focal length through the position of lens elements which, unlike with the digital type, results in no loss of image resolution or quality. Pixel Smallest part of a digital image. ppi Number of pixels per inch in an image. ppi resolution can be altered for any image, no matter how great the total number of pixels. Changing the ppi of an image, say from 72ppi to 300ppi, doesn’t alter the number of total pixels in the image, but it does alter the output size. 300ppi is considered the usual resolution for high-quality prints. RAW Highquality uncompressed file format used with in digital cameras. Resolution Total amount of information in an image in pixels. A four megapixel camera is capable of producing an image of 4 million pixels in size. Sharpness Setting Varies the sharpness of an image in-camera. Shutter Mechanical device inside a camera that controls the duration that light is allowed to fall onto the image sensor. Shutter Speed Time that the camera’s shutter is held open for a single exposure. High-end cameras usually offer settings of 1/2000sec to 30secs. Longer shutter speeds are required for lower light levels at a given aperture. Shutter Priority Exposure mode setting that enables you to select the shutter speed, while the necessary aperture for correct exposure is calculated by the camera. SLR Type of camera that reflects, via a mirror, the image formed in a lens directly into a camera viewfinder. Enables the photographer to see the exact image that will be transmitted to the image sensor once the shutter is fired. Most SLR cameras also have interchangeable lenses. TIFF High-quality image file format that usually works without compression (though lossless compression is possible). Superior to JPEGs but produces bigger file sizes. White Balance Designed to correct colour casts created by differing colour temperatures. e.g overcast weather tends to cause a blue colour cast, indoor tungsten lighting an orange cast. Some cameras handle this automatically, while the more sophisticated models give you the option of manual control for different light sources.

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DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE CLASSIFIED TO ADVERTISE HERE please email [email protected]

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NEXT STEPS NEXT ISSUE On sale everywhere 10th April

It’s a dog’s life

Future Publishing, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, BA1 2BW Customer services [t] 01458 271 100 [w] www.digitalcameramagazine.co.uk

When design writer Jerome Turner set up a website for his friends, little did he know how inexplicably popular his shots of dogs in cars would be…

EDITORIAL & ART Nick Merritt Managing Editor [e] [email protected] Rob Mead Acting Editor [e] [email protected] Paul Tysall Acting Art Editor [e] [email protected] Kai Wood Deputy Art Editor [e] [email protected] Elizabeth Raderecht Operations Editor Vicky West Sub-editor

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hen it comes to finding answers to life’s unanswerable questions, “where’s that dog going?” is hardly likely to the phrase on most people’s lips. Unless you happen to be Jerome Turner, that is. A freelance design writer for Digital Camera Magazine’s sister title, Computer Arts, Jerome found himself asking this question and started taking pictures of dogs in cars which, in turn, became a website posted for the amusement of his friends. Only then the rest of the world caught onto it and the site became an inexplicable hit, with Jerome eventually guesting on V Graham Norton, the online version of BBC’s Newsround and having his site written up in the arts and culture section of the San Francisco Examiner. The site, at www.dogsincars.co.uk, now receives thousands of hits a day from the USA to Finland, Russia to Italy, and Jerome finds his inbox stuffed every morning with yet more pictures of pooches in Peugoets, Pontiacs and Primeras. He’s even started getting hate mail (the sure sign of a site’s popularity), and is thinking of turning the project into a book. Which only goes to show what one man’s slightly quirky hobby can do when you make the pictures of it available to the citizens of the world wide web. Who said the internet was dead?

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS Joe Apice, Steve Bavister, Mat Broomfield, Joe Cassels, Tim Daly, Ed Davis, Stuart Dredge, Mark Harris, Matt Henry, Derek Lea, Pete Martin, Aidan O’Rourke

©WWW.DOGSINCARS.CO.UK 2003

PHOTOGRAPHIC CONTRIBUTORS (Where not credited inside) Future Network Photo Studio, Getty Images UK, Rex Features UK

ADVERTISING [t] 020 7317 2600 Michelle Blackwell Ad Manager [e] [email protected] Ben Shoesmith Sales Executive [e] [email protected] [t] 020 7317 0259

NEW MEDIA

Next month – on sale 10th April ■ 100 ways to improve any photo

From composing your shots to making the most of available light – we reveal the top techniques that pros use to get the best out of their cameras. PLUS: creating reflections in Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop tips

■ All-in-one printers on test

Your printer can do more than just output photos – the right one can be used as a scanner and fax machine too. Six of latest models on test

■ Free photo supplement

Your 20-page guide to making the most of your digital camera

■ Serif PhotoPlus 6.0 – free!

This amazing image-editing app would cost you £69 in the shops, but it’s yours free next issue ■ Don’t forget to reserve a copy of Digital Camera Magazine at your newsagent, or subscribe (see page 76 for full details)

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DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE

2-CD or DVD versions!

Plus 8 pages of great ideas and events for you to GetUp&Go to!

James Brown Group New Media Manager [e] [email protected] Jeremy Ford Senior Disc Editor [e] [email protected] James Guest New Media Development [e] [email protected] Steve Pashley Online Editor [e] [email protected]

CIRCULATION AND MARKETING Clare Tovey Production Manager Diane Ross Production Coordinator Mike Thorne Team Buyer Jamie Malley Circulation Manager Fiona Tully Marketing Manager Marie Spicer Subscriptions Executive

SENIOR MANAGEMENT Dave Taylor Group Publisher John Weir Publishing Director Colin Morrison Managing Director Greg Ingham CEO Printed in England © Future Publishing Ltd 2003

Disclaimer Getup&go section, tear-out factsheets and gatefold covers are published in UK editions of the magazine only. All contributions to Digital Camera Magazine are accepted on the basis of a non-exclusive worldwide licence to publish or license others to do so, unless otherwise agreed in advance in writing. We reserve the right to edit letters. We cannot accept liability for mistakes or misprints, or any damage to equipment or possessions arising from use of this publication, its discs or software ■ Due to unforeseen circumstances, it may sometimes be necessary to make last-minute changes to advertised content, for mag and discs.

FREE 20-PAGE SUPPLEMENT! IDEAS, HELP, TIPS & ADVICE

PART

01 PART

02 PART

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NEW USERS GEE!T STARTED HER

w digital camera How to choose the right ne – we reveal how Taking your first digital photo w to fix them Common mistakes and ho gon explained All the key concepts and jar

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PLUS! DISCOVER HOW YOUR DIGITAL CAMERA HELPS YOU TAKE BETTER PICTURES BUYING A NEW CAMERA We reveal what photographic features you should expect for your money

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YOUR CAMERA EXPLAINED How it works and when to use the right settings at the right moments

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IMAGE EDITING FIRST STEPS How to get started with PC image-editing software – and improve your images

WELCOME DIGITAL CAMERA FIRST STEPS

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BEGINHERE

Today’s digital cameras are convenient, powerful, flexible and affordable. Why would anyone want to buy an old-fashioned film-based model now?

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FAMILY SNAPS Saving precious memories is easy with a digital camera

hen it comes to choosing a new camera, digital offers some clear advantages: You don’t have to drop off your snaps at the chemist, you don’t have to wait while your pictures are processed

to see how well they’ve turned out, and you don’t have to spend a fortune on film buying and processing costs. Thanks to the camera’s built-in memory, your images are stored instantly and can be reviewed on location via the built-in LCD, giving you the opportunity to try and take the shot again. The latest five and six megapixel cameras deliver comparable image quality to many an analogue snapper too, and you can easily output the pictures you want using a suitable photo printer hooked up to your PC. Best of all since your images are digitised you can edit them to your heart’s content: too much sky in the picture? Use a cropping tool to get rid of the unwanted portion. You can correct colour imbalances, lighting, even add special effects to your shots and when you’re done, can easily email them to friends, post them onto a website or create a slideshow burned onto CD-ROM. Digital Camera First Steps will show you how to do all this and turn taking taking digital pictures into a hobby that will last a lifetime.

Nick Merritt, Managing Editor [email protected]

STEP BY STEP WHY GO DIGITAL? Your introduction to the exciting world of digital photography and how it compares to the filmbased cameras we’re all so familiar with

From choosing and using a camera to making the most of your pictures, First Steps will show you how. Here’s our guide to your free magazine highlights

JARGON If you’re confused about a technical term, don’t worry – you’ll find one of these handy helpers at the top of every page

CHOOSING YOUR CAMERA Your guide to the essential features you should look for in a new camera, plus our picks of the current crop – no matter what your budget

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INFO BOX These handy boxes give you more detail about a particular aspect of digital photography, from camera technology to imageediting software

FIRST SHOTS Everything you need to know about taking your first digital pictures, from image composition to your camera’s settings

TOP TIPS Your at a glance guide to making the most of your digital images

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GET YOUR PICS ON TO A PC!

For essential advice on copying, printing and editing your pictures, turn to the Digital Darkroom on page 16

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINEFIRST STEPS |03

CLOSE-UP DIGITAL VERSUS TRADITIONAL

JARGON:

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35MM EQUIVALENCE The zoom range of a digital camera’s lens is often quoted as the equivalent value to a 35mm camera, so a typical wide angle to short telephoto 3X zoom lens would be 35-105

The digital difference

So you want high quality as well as speed and ease of use? Then it’s time to take a fresh look at digital photography...

ot so long ago, serious photographers wouldn’t give a

photography as a method of bridging the gap (and selling more kit),

sideways glance at a digital camera – and with good

reason. In their infancy, digital cameras could only provide small, low-resolution photos of dubious quality. With weighty price

until digital photography became firmly established. We’ve now reached the point where the whole industry is going digital. One of the main reasons for change is the way we’re now using

tags, these gadgets also represented poor value for money compared

photographs. Of course, there’ll always be a place for gathering

with conventional cameras. But times have changed both quickly and radically. Future Publishing’s own professional photo studio now shoots the majority of its shots on digital, and all the photos of

round and boring your family and friends with all your holiday snaps, but nowadays we want to send photos around the office or

cameras in this magazine were taken digitally. As with so much in the digital realm, prices have fallen while quality has improved out of all recognition. You can get hold

multimedia capabilities of modern PCs also make them ideal for showing photos in all their glory, from simple individual shots to complete slideshows, maybe even with music and narration to

of a brand-new digital camera that will provide excellent results for under £300. And, digital photography has numerous benefits compared with using film. For starters, a single roll of quality

provide a soundtrack. And, let’s face it, scanning photos into your PC is a timeconsuming chore compared with the speed of digital downloading.

film, coupled with processing costs, will set you back around £10 a time. A digital camera running on rechargeable batteries, on the

On top of that, the quality of scanned photos (called reflective scanning) is never the best. Contrast and colour are normally leeched out of photos, with flat, dull images being produced in

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other hand, has running costs of next to nothing. You’re saving money with every picture you take.

The way of the future It’s a little known fact that, because conventional massmarket photography was nearing the end of its lifecycle, manufacturers brought in APS

04 | DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINEFIRST STEPS

across the world with the ease of email attachments. The

comparison to the originals. That’s why professional designers insist on scanning transparencies, not prints. Photos produced on a camera don’t suffer from unwanted scanning attributes, but digital cameras themselves vary greatly in terms of quality and features provided. So what should you look for when making a purchase?

ELECTRONIC VIEWFINDER (EVF) These are typically found on more expensive digital cameras, and are a smaller version of the LCD back panel. Low refresh rates can cause problems when panning to follow moving objects

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You can get hold of a brand-new digital camera that will provide excellent results for under £300. And digital photography has numerous benefits… Image-editing software can take your flawed original and make it sparkle

Unless you’re spending a few grand, digital cameras don’t have removable lenses, so you’re stuck with what’s on the camera. It’s therefore vital to make sure the zoom lens offers a good range, from wide-angle to medium telephoto in focal length. What you’re after here is the ‘optical zoom’ range of the camera. It’s normally quoted as a multiplication factor, say 2x or 3x. To avoid confusion, the focal length itself is quoted as an equivalent figure to what the lens would offer if it was mounted on a 35mm film camera. For example, a typical 3x zoom lens might offer a range of 35-105mm. This gives a good wide-angle ability, and a medium telephoto setting, which is ideal for portraiture. The optical zoom range of a digital camera is often enhanced with a digital zoom feature. If a camera has a 3x zoom lens with a maximum focal length equivalence of 105mm, a 2x digital zoom facility will take that up to 210mm. It’s not all good news, however: the camera is having to make a best guess of what’s between the pixels it can actually see, working in much the same way as

* FORMATS PHOTO FORMATS There seems to be no limit to how you can transform your photos once you have transferred them to your PC. Carry out subtle retouching to boost contrast or remove slight flaws, or go for it and add special effects to make a new kind of reality. The best images come from the best source material. To capture the highest-quality images, choose the High or Fine setting on your camera. This will capture an image in TIFF or RAW formats, which preserve detail well. Lower-quality settings typically use the JPEG format: this may capture the same number of pixels as superior settings, but the detail retained is not as accurate.

interpolation software on a scanner. The results are definitely second-best and often lead to unwanted pixellation (a blocky appearance) of the image.

Bigger is better One figure you’ll always see quoted on a digital camera’s specifications is the number of megapixels it has. It pays to go large, even though it’ll cost more. A megapixel is basically a million pixels, and these are the dots that make up the big picture. As a rough guide, a 2-megapixel camera gives a maximum resolution of around 1,600 x 1,200 pixels, which is a safe minimum for sharp 10 x 8-inch prints. Go for a 3-megapixel camera or above if you want to print full A4 photos and get the best quality. At the other end of the scale, photos for sending via email or posting on a website need to be much smaller to keep the file size down, so if you’re not interested in printing to paper, a singlemegapixel camera will suffice. Naturally, multi-pixel cameras have

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Zoom lenses

Once you’ve transferred your photos onto your computer, you can edit, resize and add effects to them using image-editing programs like Adobe Photoshop Elements

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINEFIRST STEPS |05

CLOSE-UP DIGITAL VERSUS TRADITIONAL

JARGON:

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SCENE MODES Many digital cameras have Scene Modes such as portrait, sport and landscape. These adjust the exposure for greater depth of field, faster shutter speeds and so on. They’re are ideal for beginners who want to capture the moment without racking their brains working out the optimum exposure settings

REMOVABLE STORAGE MEDIA With digital cameras, the image is captured by the image sensor and then stored elsewhere.… With traditional cameras, the film is used to both record and store the image. Older digital cameras and those at the very bottom of the market only have built-in fixed storage that can’t be removed or increased. This means that you can only capture about 12 pictures at a time before you need to download them to your PC’s hard disk.

low-resolution options, so you can cut down on the size and fit more photos onto your memory card before each download to the PC.

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Monitoring results

Budget cameras often use AA cells, but can run out of power quickly

Only the cheapest digital cameras come with no LCD panel. This little colour screen on the back of the camera might drain the batteries at a rate of knots, but does give you the option of reviewing shots as you take them, and reshooting if necessary. It also provides a quick and easy way of navigating the camera’s features and options, such as changing the picture size and quality settings. LCD panels aren’t all created equal. The LCD panel can be quite dim, especially on budget cameras, which is fine if you’re indoors or out on a cloudy day, but in bright sunlight they can be almost impossible to view. A good tip for preserving battery life is to use the optical viewfinder for composing shots: turn the LCD off until you really need to use it.

However, almost all new digital cameras come with some form of removable storage, usually in the form of flash memory cards. These use solid state chips to store your images. Unfortunately there is no agreed standard, so each manufacturer is free to choose its own. The most popular formats at present are CompactFlash and SmartMedia, although Secure Digital (SD), Memory Stick and xD-Picture cards are all fast gaining ground with capacities ranging from 1MB to 1GB. As far as performance goes, there is nothing really to choose between them, so the main thing is to check that the digital camera you buy will support one even if there isn’t one included in the package. To be honest, even if your camera comes with an 8MB card, you will probably want to buy at least a 64MB card or higher for a 3-megapixel camera. You should also ensure that the format you choose is compatible with other devices you already own or plan to buy in future. SD and Memory

being the most popular. All memory card formats are available in a wide range of capacities from 1MB up to 1GB, although most cameras come with cards of between 8MB and 32MB as standard. Some cameras also give you the ability to use more than one kind of card. Cameras with SD slots, for example, often also accept MultiMediaCard (MMC) cards, while some CompactFlash cameras can handle Hitachi’s 1-inch Microdrive hard disk as well. Unlike film, you can reuse memory cards as often as you like, erasing them each time you’ve downloaded your photos to your PC and then filling them up again with pictures. With prices dropping rapidly, we reckon it makes sense to stock up with a couple of cards if you’re taking your camera on holiday or extended photo-shoots. A pair of decent capacity 128MB SD cards, for example, can be yours for less than £100 if you shop around, saving you the hassle of scurrying back to the PC to offload your pics.

What’s on the menu? Power up Some digital cameras eat batteries for breakfast, lunch and tea. If you’re not careful, you’ll be shelling out the money you save on film

A good menu system is vital for adjusting camera settings without faffing around. If it takes too long to make adjustments, you risk missing the photo opportunity. Try the camera before buying, if

and developing on Duracells. Rechargeable options are best, but cheap NiCad cells are a pain, as you have to drain them completely before recharging, otherwise they run out sooner each time you use

possible, to see how logical you find its menu interface. For example, if you need to switch to manual to adjust the depth of field or motion-blur for panning shots, it helps to do this quickly.

them. NiMH or lithium-ion batteries are a better option, and worth

Upmarket digital cameras make the most of their buttons and LCD panel to provide a complete operating interface that should be both quick and easy to use. All too often, though,

investigating even if your chosen camera doesn’t come with one. Size not only matters but varies when it comes to batteries. Many cameras at the lower end of the price scale run on standard AA-size batteries (normally four). They may be quite bulky, but they do have the advantage that you can easily pick up a fresh set if you run low on power when you’re out and about.

essential features end up being tucked away somewhere that is not only difficult to access, but means that you’ve probably forgotten where they are when you want to use them. A good interface can mean the difference between getting the shot you want and missing the moment.

Improve your memory While conventional cameras store their images on film, digital cameras stash their photos on removable memory cards. Some cameras also have built-in flash memory, but even most of these take optional memory cards as well. There’s a wide variety of memory card formats, with Secure Digital (SD), CompactFlash and Memory Stick

06 | DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINEFIRST STEPS

Getting flash Budget digital cameras have only rudimentary flash facilities – on or off. Some don’t have a flash unit at all, making night-time or indoor shooting a non-starter. As you move up the price range, you should find that more flash settings become available to you. A popular flash option in most digital cameras is red-eye

DIGITAL ZOOM This is very much the poor relation of optical zoom, and only used as a last resort to boost the zoom offered by the lens. Similar to ‘interpolation’ on scanners, digital zoom tries to guess what lies between the pixels that the camera can actually see, and fill in the missing dots. Jagged edges and lack of sharpness are the usual results

How many photos? The number of photos you can fit on, say, an 8MB card depends on the file size of the images; and the file size of the images depends on a number of factors such as resolution, compression, colours, your camera model, and the shooting conditions. For example, on the Minolta DiMAGE X, a 1.9-megapixel camera, you will get seven bestquality shots on the 8MB SD card supplied. On the Nikon CoolPix 4500, a 4-megapixel camera, you will only get one shot on its 16MB CompactFlash card if you go for full size and resolution.

From card to PC To transfer images that are stored on your flash card to your PC, most cameras have a USB or serial sockets. However, it’s time-consuming to transfer images and can exhaust your camera’s batteries. For quick access to your images, buy a card reader that plugs into your PC. You can transfer images from memory card to your PC quickly and easily using a card reader

Getting your photos out of the camera and onto the PC should

features that image-editing software can offer. Let’s say you’ve got a telephone wire running across that beautiful blue sky in your favourite holiday snap. With conventional film photography, you’d be stuffed. In the digital realm, you can pick up the cloning tool in your image editor and paint over the wires with the adjacent strip of sky. With a little practice, the results will be perfect: the same goes for painting over spots and blemishes on the faces of your loved ones. There will always be times when you want to have prints. Topquality photo printers like the Epson Stylus Photo 915 or Canon S830D cost between £150 and £200, but you can get good results from more affordable printers like Lexmark’s £100 Z65. To get the best results, use proper glossy photo paper – preferably made by the company that manufactured your printer. Bear this in mind and you’ll get the best of both worlds: the versatility digital photography offers

be speedy, so beware of old digital cameras with a serial connection.

and stunning prints.

Making connections Apart from compatibility problems with Windows XP, downloads will be slow enough to make conventional film developing an attractive option. USB is the way to go, offering downloads of

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reduction. This flash mode fires off small pre-flash strobes to narrow the pupils of your subject and decrease the effects of red-eye. Let’s not forget that easy photo-manipulation is a huge bonus of digital photography, though: with a software package like Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop, you can quickly edit out red-eye after the event. Another good flash mode to have up your sleeve is slow-sync flash. This is great for night scenes where you want to keep background detail while highlighting your main subject. It’s also excellent for capturing night-time lights in cityscapes while accentuating the foreground. Most manufacturers have extensive websites, normally listing each of their cameras’ specifications. Check what flash modes a camera has while you’re deciding what to buy.

Image compression formats like JPEG can reduce file sizes tenfold, enabling you to carry more images on your card, but with some loss in quality.

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Stick slots, for example, can increasingly be found in camcorders, PDAs, and even phones, enabling you to share your cards – and therefore your images – with other devices. The other crucial factor is price. At £30, 64MB cards are relatively cheap, but larger capacity cards can cost up to £800.

Check the capture resolution before choosing your camera. The maximum resolution is the maximum image size that the camera can capture, measured in pixels

seconds rather than minutes. Some of the newest cameras have USB 2.0 ports to make transfers even quicker, but you’ll need a USB 2.0 card to take advantage. Another option is to invest in a USB card reader, so you can simply insert your card into the reader. They’re easy to use and won’t drain your camera’s batteries during the transfer. Readers are readily available for all memory card formats, including CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Secure Digital (SD) and Memory Stick for around £20.

Making more of photos With digital photography, taking photos is only the start. While it’s impractical to install your own conventional film darkroom in the home, all you need for creating dazzling special effects with digital photos is a humble PC. There are some great photo-editing software packages on the market, most well under £100. You might also get some good software supplied with your camera. Apart from sharpening up images, adjusting the brightness, contrast and colour balance, and so on, there are plenty of useful

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINEFIRST STEPS |07

CLOSE-UP USING YOUR CAMERA

Anatomy of a camera The inside track on the most critical components of a digital camera t’s easy to let technology get the better of you but, taken one at a time, the high-tech components that make up a modern digital camera are surprisingly easy to come to terms with. While prices and feature-sets can vary tremendously, with models costing anything from £100 to £10,000, the basics remain the same across the board. Many of the components are similar, if not identical to those in conventional film cameras, while others are modified or completely different. But once you’ve got a grounding in what the salient parts are for and how they work, the bigger picture is clear to see.

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ZOOM LENS Most digital camera zoom lenses provide a 2x or 3x optical zoom range, with a typical 35mmcamera-equivalent focal length of around 35-70mm or 35-105mm, respectively. The zoom lens is almost always motorised, so you can adjust its setting with the simple use of a pair of buttons. The optical range of the lens is usually enhanced by a (not such high-quality) digital zoom feature.

BATTERIES Even the most efficient digital cameras need a lot of power, which is why most models now come with Lithium-Ion rechargeable cells. Some budget cameras still stick to single-use AA alkaline batteries, which is convenient, but can prove expensive if you use the LCD to frame to frame your shots.

08 | DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINEFIRST STEPS

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MODE DIAL While all digital cameras have automatic program modes for adjusting shutter speed and lens aperture settings, more advanced models also have aperture-priority, shutter-priority and metered manual-exposure modes. The mode dial enables you to switch between modes quickly and easily.

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BUILT-IN FLASH Built-in flash units on digital cameras aren’t that powerful, but are usually adequate for shooting at distances of up to around five metres in the dark, or for providing fill-in flash for backlit subjects. A common flash mode includes red-eye reduction, which is important when the flash unit is mounted close to the lens.

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You can find out more about latest camera technologies, hardware and prices at our website, as well as helpful advice on how you can make the most of your photos. Simply point your browser at www.digitalcameramagazine.co.uk

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OPTICAL VIEWFINDERS Just like a viewfinder on a compact camera, this gives you an approximate view of what will fit into the composition of your photo. It reacts correspondingly to adjustment of the zoom lens but, there will be small changes in perspective when you’re right up close, due to the offset between the viewfinder and the actual lens. In this case, switch to viewing the subject through the LCD back panel.

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PC CONNECTION Most cameras now come with a USB connector for rapid image transfer between the memory card and your computer. A few models also offer the even quicker USB 2.0 standard, but both methods will rapidly drain your camera’s batteries. A separate memory card reader (around £20) is your best bet for data transfer.

2 Price Resolution Lens Memory Battery life Contact

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VIDEO CONNECTION Want to show off your photos on the telly, or record a slideshow to your VCR? The video output featured on many digital cameras enables you to connect it to a range of video equipment.

CANON POWERSHOT G3

LCD BACK PANEL Many people like to use the LCD back panel for composing shots, but it takes a heavy toll on battery life, so it’s best to reserve its use for reviewing shots after you’ve taken them, and for navigating the camera’s set-up menu system. Cheaper cameras tend to have relatively dim panels that aren’t easy to see on sunny days.

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THE CCD The Charge Coupled Device is the imaging unit, where the camera changes picture information into a digital code for storing on the memory card. The CCD is similar to those used in camcorders and some photo scanners.

TOP LCD PANELS The top panel commonly provides basic camera information, like what quality setting or flash mode is in use, as well as how many shots are available before the memory card becomes full. It’s also a good place to keep an eye on battery life.

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MEMORY CARD SLOT Digital cameras store photos on removable memory cards instead of conventional film. There are a wide range of formats and capacities, so choose the one that best meets your needs and budget. Prices are falling rapidly so you can snap up 64MB cards for as little as £20, although larger capacity cards are more convenient when it comes to taking photos on holiday or at extended photo shoots.

£700 4 megapixels f2.0-3.0 4x zoom 32MB Compact Flash 450/1,050 shots (monitor on/off) www.canon.co.uk

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINEFIRST STEPS |09

CLOSE-UP CAMERA BASICS

JARGON:

3 IN DETAIL WHERE TO BUY

While there’s always a lot to be said for buying something in a shop and walking away with it under your arm, you can make great savings on the net. As a case in point, we set off in search of the Canon PowerShot G3, which has an RRP of £699. The best price we found on the high street was at Jessops, who was selling the G3 at £599. Online, however, we saved a further £49 at www.camerasdirect.co.uk, while at www.empiredirect.co.uk it was on sale for only £549 (plus it also offers online finance from £24.48 per month). Other good places to try online include www.1stcameras.com, www.pixmania.co.uk and www.unbeatable.co.uk. Also, don’t forget to check out the ad pages in Digital Camera Magazine for some of the best deals around.

* WEB LINKS

MEGAPIXEL

Small focal length lenses produce a wide-angle effect, capturing a greater portion of a scene, while long focal length lenses (telephoto) have a more telescopic effect. Focal lengths for digital cameras are normally quoted the equivalent for a 35mm conventional film camera

Digital photos are made up from arrays of dots, or pixels, each with their own colour and brightness. A 1-megapixel image contains one million dots, and a 1,600 x 1,200 pixel image would be just under 2 megapixels

What camera? There’s a wealth of camera styles on the market, with feature sets and price tags to suit every need and budget. Which one’s right for you?

Y

ou can pick up a digital camera for under £50, or spend over £5,000. With the wide spread of prices comes an

equally diverse range of options, but choosing the right camera for you needn’t be a technological assault course. Let’s start simple and work our way up.

Point and click For the happy snapper, a £50 camera offers the ultimate in ease of use – just point and shoot. There are no exposure settings to worry about, no focusing required and no fancy settings to get to grip with. Everything’s automatic. Almost as much a fashion accessory as a digital camera, one example of this breed – the 0.1 megapixel Digital Dream L’espion – even doubles as a key ring. While sub-£50 are as cheerful as they are cheap, there’s precious little to be had in terms of versatility and the usual maximum resolution of 0.3 megapixels (640 x 480) is only really high enough for emailing snaps to friends, rather than printing quality photos. Most cameras in this price bracket only have a fairly small amount of internal memory for storing shots, and can’t use memory cards. This means you can only take a few photos before having to download them to your PC and make space for more – not good for taking on holiday.

WEBSITE www.camerasdirect.co.uk are totally up front about whether or not items are in stock – something you should always check for when buying online.

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FOCAL LENGTH

All but the most basic digital cameras have a colour LCD back panel for reviewing your shots, but using the LCD can be surprisingly tricky and battery-consuming

to a 38mm lens on a film compact – something between wide angle and standard focal lengths. It’s much better to pay an extra £50 or so and you’ll be spoiled for choice in the hotly contested £200 market. For this money, you can expect to get a motorised zoom lens with auto-focus, a good automatic metering system for adjusting to a wide range of light levels, and sharp pictures of at least 2 megapixels – just about big enough for decent 10 x 8-inch prints via a desktop photo inkjet printer.

Compact but clever The most popular type of digital camera is the zoom compact. These are similar in looks and construction to traditional compact 35mm

The bigger picture

cameras, but offer all the advantages of digital. Starting at around £150, cameras like the HP PhotoSmart 320 and Mustek MDC-3000 have built-in flash and can use interchangeable memory cards to

to go for a camera with at least 3 or 4 megapixels. In the current market, that means moving up to a £300 camera, while top-

If you want optimum quality for full A4 printing, you really need

extend your shooting range. Once you’ve filled up one card with

of-the-range examples will cost £400 or more. Higher quality optics, more zoom range and extra features (like advanced

shots, just slip another one in and keep on shooting. The big drawback with cameras at this price is almost always the lack of a zoom lens. They’re usually fitted with focus-free

shooting modes) will take the price up to around £1,000 or so on a sliding scale. Spend more than this, and you should also get the luxury of interchangeable lenses, like on a conventional 35mm

fixed-focal length lenses of around 5mm, which is roughly equivalent

SLR camera.

DIGITAL DREAM FUJI L’ESPION FINEPIX A202

RICOH CAPLIO RR120

NIKON COOLPIX 2500

KODAK PENTAX EASYSHARE DX4330 OPTIO 330RS

OLYMPUS C4000Z

CANON POWERSHOT G3

£600

SPECIFICATIONS AT-A-GLANCE STREET PRICE

£40

£150

£200

£250

£300

£370

£450

IMAGE SIZE

0.1MP

2.1MP

2.2MP

2MP

3.1MP

3.2MP

4MP

4MP

ZOOM LENS

No

No

38-114mm

37-111mm

38-114mm

37.5-112.5mm

32-96mm

34-102mm

MEMORY TYPE

2MB Internal

x-D card

SmartMedia

CompactFlash

Int plus MMC/SD

Int plus CF

MMC/SD

CompactFlash

BATTERIES

1 x AAA

2 x AA

4 x AA

4 x AA

2 x AA

Lith-Ion

4 x AA

Lith-Ion

MAINS

No

No

No

Yes

Opt

Opt

Opt

Yes

010 | DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINEFIRST STEPS

CCD A Charge Coupled Device is an integrated circuit that converts image information into an electrical signal. CCDs are very fast and accurate, and are also used in camcorders and scanners

MEMORY CARDS The only limit to how many photos you can take between download sessions is the amount of available memory you have. The good news is that the cost of memory cards has plummeted over the past few years, so having several cards to take with you when you go out shooting is an affordable option. The two most common formats of memory card are SmartMedia and CompactFlash. SmartMedia cards are wafer thin and connect to the camera via an exposed gold edge connector, while chunkier CompactFlash cards are a bit more robust and have concealed connections on one edge. Relative latecomers to the memory card market include MultiMedia cards, SecureDigital Memory cards, XD Picture cards and Sony’s proprietary Memory Sticks. All cards are available in a wide range of capacities, from as little as 4MB up to 128MB or more, depending on the type. When choosing a card, you need to know what format your camera takes but do shop around as prices vary considerably. A great place for picking up memory cards on the cheap is 7dayshop.com, at www.7dayshop.com which, for example, is currently offering 64MB SmartMedia cards at £15.49, plus 95p post and packing.

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LENS Use the zoom lens for image capture

FLASH Use flash when lighting conditions are low

VIEWFINDER Use this lens for shot composition

How it works Digital cameras pack a lot of high technology into their diminutive frames. Here’s the science bit… n terms of optics, most compact digital cameras work in pretty much the same way as a conventional compact film camera. Unlike SLR cameras, a separate viewfinder enables shot composition, free of the main image capturing lens, so there’s no prism and flip-up mirror to complicate the process. The principle difference is that, once the shutter opens, light falls onto a CCD chip that converts all the image information into an electronic signal rather than onto light-sensitive film. This is then processed into digital data that is recorded on the camera’s internal memory, or a slot-in memory card.

Apart from the very cheapest models on the market, most digital

for reviewing shots and for navigating the camera’s menu system. The set-up menu is used in conjunction with various buttons to set shooting modes and the quality of the shots. For downloading your photos onto a computer, most modern cameras use a USB connection, as it’s far faster than older style serial port connections. If you’re stuck with a serial port camera, it’s worth investing in a separate USB card reader to plug into your PC, which should cost around £25. The more you spend on a camera, the more frills you can expect to get. These might include aperture or shutter priority exposure modes, and fully manual modes as well as the ubiquitous program auto-exposure mode. You’ll also get more megapixels for bigger pictures and possibly a better zoom range. Other features might

cameras have a broadly similar set of kit. For optical quality, the

include the ability to capture short bursts of video and sound as well

most important part is the lens – usually a motor-driven zoom lens offering focal lengths from wide angle to short telephoto. A small

as standard, still pictures.

I

Anatomy of a camera

flash unit is often close by, for low-level lighting shots, and the close

The more you spend on a camera, the more frills you can expect to get

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3 IN DETAIL

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proximity often leads to red-eye problems. This is why many digital cameras incorporate red-eye flash mode, which fires a number of pre-flash pulses to narrow a subject’s irises. On the back of the camera, you can expect to find the LCD screen,

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LCD The screen for reviewing shots and navigating the menu

NAVIPAD Menu buttons for changing the camera’s settings

MODE Buttons for selecting individual shooting modes

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2 Cards are available from 4MB up to 128MB or more. Check what format you camera takes and shop around

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINEFIRST STEPS |011

CLOSE UP Get started

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CAMERA SHAKE Any movement in the camera while the shutter is open causes a blurring of the captured image. The effect becomes more noticeable with longer exposures, or when using long telephoto lenses, where keeping the camera still becomes critical

First shots Get to grips with your new camera and take pictures to treasure from the off, with our simple guide

igital photography is extremely beginner-friendly because it’s such an immediate process – you can see straight away if you’re doing something wrong when you’re out with the camera. Experimentation is the fastest route to success but, before you even take your camera out on the road, the first step is to get intimately familiar with all the controls and functions. Nobody finds operator’s handbooks a thrilling read but it really pays to find out all the intricacies of how your camera works. Take time to familiarise yourself with all the available shooting modes and practise all the functions until they’re second nature. This can

D

be an expensive process with a film camera but with digital, there’s no cost involved in practising shooting and evaluating the results. Take photos of anything and everything, just to get a feel for how things work.

On the button The mechanical process of taking a photo isn’t just about a quick dab on the shutter release button. Even in fully automatic mode, your camera has a lot to do. A light press on the shutter release will instigate the auto-focus and exposure metering systems, so you need to allow time for this to happen. If you don’t, you might be alarmed at the lag in response between pressing the shutter release and the taking of the picture. As you press more firmly on the shutter release to take the shot, aim for a gentle squeeze rather than a sudden click. This will lessen the effects of camera shake, which will produce blurred results. Especially in low lighting conditions, which need longer shutter speeds, camera shake can be a real problem so hold the camera gently but firmly with two hands rather than just one, or rest your hand on a convenient solid surface if possible. Finally, don’t be in too much of a rush to release the pressure on the shutter release and move the camera when you think the exposure is completed.

012 | DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINEFIRST STEPS

* USEFUL INFO DIGITAL ZOOM Once you get going with your digital camera, you might start thinking that all things digital are good, but this isn’t the case when it comes to digital zoom. Cameras that don’t have zoom lenses, and even most that do, have a digital zoom option. This magnifies the central portion of the scene to fill the whole frame. A camera with a 3X optical zoom range from the lens and a 2X digital zoom would offer a total zoom range of 6X. That seems like good news but the digital zoom process relies on the camera guessing what’s in between the pixels it can actually see and fudging the results. What you typically get out of all this is photos that lack sharpness and have objects with jagged edges, especially if there are diagonal lines involved. For the best results, keep the digital zoom turned off and change your viewing position when taking the photo instead.

Ready to roll If your camera has a zoom lens, you can zoom in or out to capture the portion of the scene you want, without missing anything out or capturing unnecessary periphery that will distract from the main subject. Don’t make your zoom lens do all the work, though, as moving your view point even a small amount can make a big difference to shot composition, adding much more interest to any scene. Keep checking the effects of different shooting modes and methods by downloading test shots to your PC and analysing them on screen – even the best camera-based LCD panel is only any good as a rough guide to photo quality. Once you’re familiar with all the controls and confident enough to get into some serious shooting, it’s time to get out and about. Before you go, though, make sure you have fresh batteries that will last the distance and take spares if needed. There’s nothing worse than missing shots because your batteries are flat and you should always be aware that batteries which look fresh in the warmth of your home can look very secondhand when they get into the cold outdoors. If you’re using rechargeable batters, you don’t need to run them flat before recharging unless they’re old-style NiCAD cells. More modern NiMH equivalents don’t suffer from “memory effect” so you can top them up at any time without worrying about impairing their useful life. The golden rule of taking advantage of photo opportunities is to have your camera with you. It might sound obvious but how many of us have missed great shots simply because we left the camera at home? With the small size of compact digital cameras, there’s no excuse not to slip one into a spare pocket or bag when going out.

Close in on the target As a general rule of thumb, the closer you are to a subject, the better the results will be. Pick out the main person or object you

Compose your landscape shots according to the rule of thirds, where imaginary lines dissect the image horizontally and vertically. Aim to make two-thirds of the image either land or sky, or split it into equal thirds. Go to www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/education/programs/composition

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This is a drawback of using NiCAD rechargeable batteries. If they are repeatedly recharged without first being completely discharged, the memory effect causes them to only be useful down to the previous level of charge, effectively making them run out much sooner than expected.

N IO AT RM FO IN

MEMORY EFFECT

COMPOSITION Always try to get some foreground detail into your landscape shots to add interest and perspective to your pictures

TOP TIP

01

want to capture in a scene and move in for best effect. It’s tempting to use the telephoto setting of a zoom lens to cut down the legwork but you’ll end up losing depth of field, so only small parts of the scene will be in focus, and the overall perception of space between foreground and background objects will be flattened. The exception that proves this rule is portrait photography. It’s often best to keep some distance in this case as the close proximity of a camera lens can be very off-putting for people being photographed and they’ll look ill at ease and not very natural as a

AVOID FINGER TROUBLE The viewfinder lens is separate to the main image lens on a compact digital camera, so it’s possible to have your finger obstructing the main lens without even seeing it through the viewfinder. Mind where you put your hands!

TOP TIP

02 POWER UP

result. The small depth of field, throwing the background out of focus can also make the person stand out much better in the composition. Another good trick for taking portraits is to get people to carry on

Even if you think your batteries are really fresh, take a spare set with you, especially if it’s cold out. Also, switch off the camera’s LCD panel whenever possible to conserve battery life.

doing whatever they’re doing, rather than assuming static poses with a fake grin plastered across their face. Again, you don’t have film and processing costs to worry about, so take a series of photos

TOP TIP

in quick succession and you’ll find the one that comes out best normally isn’t the one you thought would be just right.

Simple shots nearly always work best. Fussy backgrounds and compositions produce photos where everything is vying for attention and nothing stands out. If you can’t compose all the elements in a picture yourself, like in landscape photography, take time to move around and experiment with different vantage points, as well as changing the height you’re shooting from, to simplify photos as much as possible. Whole books have been written about landscape photography but if there’s one thing you need to know, it’s that you should always try and include foreground objects in your photos. Grand vistas lose a lot in the translation when reduced to a photographic image, so you need foreground objects to give a sense of scale and perspective.

GET MORE SUPPORT

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Don’t be fussy

03 OFF-CENTRE Moving your main subject to the side of your frame makes for a more natural picture, especially if it’s a posed shot like this one

Be off-centre It’s a common mistake to always put the main subject of a photo slap dab in the middle of the frame. With portrait shots, you can easily end up with something that looks like it should be stuck in the back page of your passport, whereas moving the main subject elsewhere within the boundaries of the overall composition can make things much more interesting. One thing to be aware of when shooting the main subject offcentre is that most auto-focus lenses adjust themselves to make whatever’s in the middle of the shot sharp. This can throw the object

To avoid camera shake in low light conditions, use a tripod if possible. If not, rest your hand or elbow on anything sturdy that’s available, or crouch down and rest your elbow on your knee if all else fails.

TOP TIP

04 KEEP IT WARM If you leave your camera somewhere cold, like in the boot of a car overnight, the lens will mist up with condensation when you bring it in to the warm. This isn’t a problem the other way around so always keep your camera somewhere warm if possible.

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINEFIRST STEPS|013

CLOSE UP Get started

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These dedicated modes attempt to select all the camera’s ideal exposure settings for a wide range of different shooting conditions and types of scene, such as backlit portraits, city night scenes and so on, effectively giving you expert knowledge at the press of a button. However, they’re not infallible

IN DETAIL

Auto focus

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If the auto-focus system in your camera is trying to focus on a moving target, it can keep hunting and lose the plot completely. Also, if a scene has little contrast or definition in it, like a hazy landscape, the camera can’t find anything to focus on in the first place. Either case means that you can end up missing the shot. To get around the problem, see if your camera has a manual focus mode and then use this to focus on an area into which the fast moving object will be travelling, or, in the other case, pick your own point in that hazy distant landscape. The only drawback is that many cameras simply don’t have a manual focus mode. What they do tend to have instead, though, is manual options that enable you to set the lens focus to infinity or to a length of around 2.5 metres, at the press of either of a couple of buttons. This suits most eventualities when auto-focus fails.

CLOSE UP A telephoto zoom setting and wide lens aperture produce a small depth of field, ideal for throwing the background out of focus

THE SIZE ISSUE In digital photography, the camera resolution affects the sort of shot you can reproduce Many digital cameras coming onto the market boast four, five or even six megapixel capability, but how many do you really need? If you’re intending to view your photos purely on screen, the maximum resolution you’ll probably need is 1024x768 pixels, which equates to less than a single megapixel. A typical 2 megapixel camera, shooting at 1600x1200 resolution will allow you the luxury of cropping pictures slightly without having to enlarge them to fill the screen, losing quality as a result. Things get a bit more complicated when printing, as sharp prints on photo quality paper demand much higher resolutions. For example, a 10x8 inch print from an inkjet printer really needs a minimum of 3 megapixels, though you can get away with 2 megapixels if the printer has built-in smoothing in its software driver for printing digital photos. It’s not just the resolution that you’re shooting at that has a major effect on image quality, but the degree of compression you choose. For example, a 2 megapixel camera shooting in high quality mode might squeeze 128 shots onto a 64MB memory card, but this will drop to just 45 shots in super-high-quality mode, or increase to around 650 in standard mode. In standard quality settings you can be assured of some unpleasant compression artefacts in your photos, though most of these will be ironed out in high quality mode. For the best quality, you simply have to bite the

CCD: This is the heart of the camera, where resolution determines image quality dependent on compression and the size of the prints you reproduce

Fully exposed

next to each other. If you’re not careful, the camera still focuses on the empty space between your two subjects, bringing something in the far-off background into perfect sharpness while leaving both

these modes with dedicated scene modes, for portrait, landscape, backlit and other types of photo. While the basic Programme mode usually gets things right, it

your main subjects horribly blurred. To beat the problem, focus on one of your subjects and then swivel the camera round to recompose the shot.

pays to learn how different aperture and shutter speeds affect your photography, so you can use them to best effect. In aperture-priority mode, you can adjust the aperture to the setting you want and the

Send in the clouds

camera’s light meter will adjust the shutter speed accordingly. Small apertures have large F numbers, like F11 or F16, and give you a long depth of field, bringing near and far objects into focus. However, this

essential for the best results. However, that’s seldom the case; in fact the opposite can be true since gloomier atmospheric conditions can make for fantastic landscape and portrait shots.

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you’re photographing out of focus. If the object is to one side of the centre, lightly press and hold the shutter release with the object in the centre of the frame and then, while still maintaining that pressure on the shutter release, recompose the shot before finally releasing the shutter. The same rule applies when taking photos of two people standing

A lot of photographers seem to assume that bright sunny days are

PANNING Using a small lens aperture and wide angle zoom setting, you can keep near and far objects in focus with long depth of field

bullet and accept the fact that you’ll get relatively few shots on your memory card in super-high-quality mode but another annoying spin off is that the camera takes longer to write all that extra data to the memory card, meaning it won’t be ready to take subsequent shots for a longer period of time after each exposure. To get things right for every type of use, experiment with your own camera in all the quality and image size modes you have available.

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SCENE MODES

When you’re shooting portraits, forget what your camera manual tells you about having the sun over your shoulder so that your subject is illuminated by the sun. This simply means that your subject will have the sun in their eyes and you’ll end up with a perfectly lit shot of them squinting into the lens. However, it’s equally true that harsh shadows can ruin a good portrait, which is why some of the best people shots are taken on a cloudy day, when even, soft lighting allows for natural expressions and flattering results to come through.

014 | DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINEFIRST STEPS

The easiest and most convenient method of exposure control is to use the fully automatic exposure mode, or Program mode offered by a digital camera. However, many cameras also offer aperture-priority, shutter-priority and metered-manual modes, giving you more freedom of expression. Other cameras supplement or substitute

will mean longer shutter speeds, and there’s a danger that camera shake could be a problem. Large lens apertures of F2.8 or F4 give you a small depth of field, ideal for isolating objects against a blurred backdrop, and you’ll get the bonus of faster shutter speeds for sharper handheld images.

Shutter/aperture priority Shutter-priority modes work the same way, but you decide on the shutter speed you want and let the camera work out the aperture setting. To freeze fast-moving objects, you need to go for as fast a shutter speed as possible in the available lighting conditions, or use the camera’s built-in flash for short-range shots. Last but not least, metered manual mode gives you full flexibility over both aperture

and shutter speed, and is useful if you want to take a light reading from the main object in a scene with complex lighting conditions.

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A subtle flash mode which is used to fire a low-level flash is sufficient to illuminate areas of shadow in a backlit scene

PRE-FOCUS So that you don’t miss the action, pre-focus the camera by lightly pressing the shutter release button, then wait for the right moment to take the shot

PANNING Following fast-moving objects by “panning” the camera, even while the shutter is open, creates motion blur in the background and gives the illusion of speed. Use a slow shutter speed for the best effect here

*

USEFUL INFO

AS SEEN ON TV

Being flash The flash is the most neglected part of most digital cameras. It’s not just there for shooting in the dark and can add a lot to creative compositions. For example, if you want to photograph someone in bright sunlight, it’s often best to have them turn their back to the sun so that they’re backlit and then to illuminate their face with the flash. This technique is called “fill flash” and it usually works very well. But don’t just save the effect for sunny day portraits – it’s also great for making objects stand out in bright surroundings, day or night, so check if your camera has a setting for forcing the flash to fire even if its metering system thinks there’s enough light in the scene and doesn’t want to use the flash. Another popular flash setting is the anti red-eye flash. However,

Computer screens and print-outs aren’t the only place to view your photos. Many digital cameras feature a video output as well as the more common USB port for connecting them to a PC. You can use the video output to connect them to any TV set that has a video input and, if they don’t, they’ll probably still have a SCART connector which you can buy an adaptor for so that you can connect the digital camera direct to the TV. Using this setup, you can view photos you’ve taken without the hassle of downloading them first.

we would strongly advise against using it. The rapid firing of light

EXPOSURE SETTINGS

If there’s one straightforward rule for portrait photography it’s always focus on the eyes. Use your image editor to sharpen eyes, remove unsightly blood vessels or shadows, plus darken and enlarge pupils for that friendly, dilated look…

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FILL FLASH

pulses to narrow your subject’s irises and reduce red-eye will only put them on edge and jeopardise natural-looking results. A much better idea is to edit any red-eye out of the shot afterwards using an image editing package – that’s what they’re there for.

Keep a check If a shot is important to you, don’t wait until you get home and download your images before finding out that it hasn’t worked. Check your valued shots as you take them, reviewing them on the camera’s LCD panel. It might not show the finer points of a shot but at least you’ll be able to tell if your subject has blinked, or if something else has gone disastrously wrong. A digital camera gives the beginner so much freedom to experiment that you’d be foolish to waste the opportunity of checking your pictures as you go. You’ll also be able to delete unsuccessful shots after taking them, freeing up space on your camera’s memory card for more good shots to take home.

Assuming that your camera’s Programme mode suggests an exposure setting 1/125th of a second at F8, here’s how alternative apertures work out for a range of different shutter speeds. The overall exposure is the same in each case, but there’s differing depth of field and susceptibility to camera shake to consider SHUTTER SPEED

APERTURE

DEPTH OF FIELD

CAMERA SHAKE ALERT

1/30

F22

Excellent

Wide angle to telephoto

1/60

F11

Very Long

Standard to telephoto

1/125

F8

Long

Short to long telephoto

1/250

F5.6

Average

Medium to long telephoto

1/500

F4

Short

Very long telephoto

1/1000

F2.8

Very Short

Safe

1/2000

F1.9

Minimal

Safe

DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINEFIRST STEPS |015

CLOSE-UP DEVELOPING PHOTOS

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TRANSPARENCY ADAPTOR This is a unit that sits above a flatbed scanner’s platen (often replacing the lid) and contains a light source and mounting system for holding transparencies. It enables film, such as 35mm slides or negatives, to be scanned in, instead of the more usual ‘reflective scanning’ process for paper-based prints

Digital darkroom

There’s no need to black out the room or splash around in nasty chemicals. Digital developing is quick, clean and powerful

* USEFUL INFO PROFESSIONAL PRINTING Even the best dedicated photo inkjet printers can make your paperbased prints look a bit, well, inky. For the very best results, it pays to use a professional printing service. The easiest way to do this is to take your camera into a high street digital developer and choose the shots you want printed. However, we’d recommend editing your photos first in your digital darkroom, before taking the memory card into the shop for printing the images. Another option is not to go to the shops at all, but to order your prints online. Do shop around, though, because prices can vary considerably. Bonusprint charges just 25p for a 6 x 4 inch photo, while Jessops’ prices are slightly higher at 34p. PhotoBox is another popular UK digital printer and, while the price of 49p per print is expensive, this drops if you order larger quantities. Similarly, Fujicolor charges 45p per print, without discounts for larger quantities. Another bonus is that you don’t have to have your prints on paper, because ‘gift’ ideas often include T-shirts, mouse mats, place mats, mugs and so on. Check out all the online suppliers for a full list of options.

hen it comes to photography, digital cameras and computers are like two sides of an equation – one without the other doesn’t quite add up. Even with conventional film photography, much of the truly creative work is done in the dark, as printing experts bring out the full potential of a photo – something that’s always been denied to all but the most fervent amateurs. In the digital domain, though, setting up a darkroom is as easy as plonking a computer on a desk and connecting your camera to it. Mind you, there are still a few important points to bear in mind.

W

from excellent music and movie features built in, there are brilliant facilities for organising, viewing and even creating slideshows and screensavers from your digital photos, using nothing more than Windows itself. When it comes to compatibility, most of the world talks PC rather than Mac.

How much?

When it comes to choosing a computer, the basic choice boils down to whether you go for an Apple Mac or a PC. Apples are easier to use, especially if you’ve never used a computer before,

With continually increasing performance and static or falling prices, you can expect to get a great PC without breaking the bank. Unlike gameplay, digital photography doesn’t demand the fastest processing or most exotic hardware, so you don’t need ‘bleeding edge’ technology. One particularly good PC manufacturer is Evesham, on 0870 160 9500 or www.evesham.com, who are better than most for technical support and are currently offering AMD Athlon 1700+ based PCs, complete with 17-inch screens,

and are still the darlings of professional image-manipulation experts. However, PCs give you much more processing power per pound, and offer you a lot more choice when it comes to buying

from as little as £499. Coupled with the right software (see page 18), a PC of this specification is more than up to whatever your digital camera can

software and extras. One of the things that has let the PC down slightly in the past has been its fiddly operating system, which was anything but

throw at it. And when it comes to throwing images at the PC, the preferred method is USB. Older cameras relied on serial port connections, which were incredibly slow by comparison. USB is

intuitive. That’s been well and truly put right with Windows XP,

much faster and the new USB 2.0 standard is 40x faster again, though few cameras currently have the new version installed.

What system?

though, which offers many benefits for digital media users. Apart

Subscribe to MSN 8 and get your free copy of Picture It! Express – a digital darkroom that enables you to share pictures in email

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Bonusprint www.bonusprint.com Fujicolor Use www.msn.co.uk Jessops www.jessops.com MSN Photos http://photos. msn.co.uk PhotoBox www.photobox.co.uk Supanet www.supanet.com

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CLICK HERE

Create your own online community and share your digital photos with the world at http://photos.msn.co.uk, which enables you to add, view and share photos online

AMD ATHLON This is a popular rival make and model of PC processor to the Intel Pentium 4 chip, offering excellent performance at a slightly more competitive price

3 IN DETAIL

Jessops has its own complete software package for ordering prints online, which you can download for free at www.jessops.com

Perfect printing The second most important piece of kit for your digital darkroom, after the PC itself, is a good quality photo inkjet printer. The difference between these and standard colour inkjet printers is that standard models work on a four-colour system, creating all the available colours at their disposal by mixing CMYK inks (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). However, dedicated photo printers almost always use an extra two colours, adding ‘photo cyan’ and ‘photo magenta’ to bring the total number of ink chambers up to six. This allows much more accurate reproduction of the vivid colours found in photography that can’t be produced with a simple four-colour process. High-quality photo printers, with massively high print resolutions start at surprisingly cheap prices. The Epson Stylus

We reckon that using a digital camera without a PC is pretty barmy but, if you’re determined not to give house room to a computer, you can just about do without the technology. Some printers, the best of which are supplied by HP, can accept memory cards direct from your digital camera and have all the controls for colour printing, complete with an information and menu screen, built into the printer itself. This enables you to use the printer as a complete printing system for your digital camera but, of course, you’ll have to forego most of the other advantages of sharing your photos online, emailing them to friends and so on, unless you have a PC on your desk at work and a particularly understanding boss.

digital from now on, the chances are that you’ve got a few albums’ worth of prints lying around as well. With a scanner, you can digitise these quickly and efficiently, building them into your computer-based photo albums and editing the images with software on your PC – just as you would with native digital photos. Flatbed scanners always work best but you don’t need anything with a higher resolution than 600dpi for scanning photos. The exception is if you want to scan transparencies as well, in which case you should go for a 1,200dpi or 2,400dpi scanner. You can get dedicated film scanners but they’re very expensive, whereas the quality on flatbed scanners with transparency adaptors has become very good over the past year or so, thanks to better CCD technology in the imaging units (similar to that used in a digital camera itself). As for printers, top companies for scanners include Epson and HP, though Canon is currently our pick of the crop.

Get online One of the biggest pains of prints on paper is that they have to physically be in the same room as the person who wants to see them. That might sound obvious, but it really does pose a huge problem if you want to share your photos with friends and family around the country, or even around the world. Thanks to the net,

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WHO NEEDS IT?

The easiest way of getting your photos online is to join an online community

HP’s standalone Photosmart 7550 photo printer sells for around £270. For more info, call HP on 08705 474 747

though, you can make your digital photos available to anyone, anywhere on the planet. Even if they don’t have a PC, they can pop into their nearest library or internet café to browse your shots.

Digital photography doesn’t demand the fastest processing or most exotic hardware…

The easiest way to get your photos online is to join an online community, like the ones hosted on Microsoft’s MSN Photos. This system enables you to sign up for free and then create your own

Photo 830 is a good example, combining high-speed, six-colour printing and a top print resolution of 5,760dpi (dots per inch) at a

pictures that they’ve put in the public domain, though you get the final say over who is allowed to see your own work (see

street price of around £95. One thing you do have to watch for,

http://photos.msn.co.uk for details). The much vaunted MSN 8 adds even more features, but it does

though, is the price of consumables. Premium quality glossy photo paper can work out at around 70p per A4 sheet and the ink to cover it can cost that much again. Always check the price of replacement ink cartridges and how long they’re estimated to last before choosing an inkjet printer – all the most popular manufacturers supply this information online.

Scanning alternatives Another item that should be high on your shopping list is a good quality scanner. Even though you might be shooting exclusively

community for showcasing your shots, which you can arrange into individual categories and portfolios. Naturally, you can also join up to other online communities at MSN Photos to view other people’s

cost £6.99 per month to subscribe to the service (after a two month free trial period). The photography benefits include more space to create your online collections, and a ‘free’ copy of the surprisingly feature-rich Microsoft Picture It! Express 7.0 for editing and enhancing your images, and adding special effects. Find out more about MSN 8 subscriptions at www.msn.co.uk. The one essential ingredient for any digital darkroom is a good image-editing package. To find out how to pick the best, just turn the page…

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The worlds first 17"notebook.

You might want to take a photo. iPhoto on the new Powerbook The next big thing from Apple: the new 17-inch PowerBook G4. Featuring the largest, most spectacular display ever to grace a portable, miraculously engineered into a 1-inch-thick notebook that’s ultralight and ultradesirable. The new PowerBook gives you supercomputing power in a choice of three ultrafast portables. They range from a 12-inch model — the smallest, most affordable PowerBook G4 ever — to the 15-inch Titanium beauty, and the world’s first 17-inch notebook computer. So you can be as effective on the road as you are at your desk — accomplishing everything from rendering huge image files to crunching digital video — faster than ever before.

Power Mac G4 series. You’ll also find a huge choice of software, monitors, compatible printers, scanners and other accessories.

Peace of mind In addition to the quality and value that’s part of the package when you buy at John Lewis, a free two-year guarantee is included too.*

Knowledgeable service Customers return to John Lewis time and again because they know the sales assistants are fully trained by Apple. This means that you, the customer, can rest assured that you will get the best product to suit your needs.

iLife – Connecting lives

Buying made easy

Through iPhoto 2 iLife enables you to organise, edit and share your digital photos – and even set them to music. Besides letting you enhance your digital photos with a single click of your mouse, iPhoto 2 gives you a Retouch wand tool that makes blemishes disappear like magic. Naturally, you can access you photo albums directly from iMovie and iDVD, and bring in music for your slideshows from iTunes.

Buying Apple equipment from John Lewis is one thing. But the story doesn’t end there. Not only will your Apple be delivered free but installation professionals can help you set up your computer for a small charge. All in all, John Lewis offers a service that is designed to make buying and using your Apple easier than ever.

John Lewis – All under one roof John Lewis department stores stock the complete range of Apple products including the brand new and faster iBook, iMac, PowerBook and *

See in store for details. Please note camera as pictured above sold separately.

Want to know more? Visit your nearest John Lewis.

iLife system requirements • Mac PowerPC G3 or G4 processor. • 256MB of physical RAM. • Mac OS X v10.1.5 or later • 2GB disk space(Apple SuperDrive required for iDVD)