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Big shotsYour monthly showcase of inspirational images from all around the world

Celebrating sunsetLittle did Karthick Ramachandran know when he took this picture of Manarola, Cinque Terre, that this place would be washed away by a cruel landslide in a month. The Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the

Italian Riviera and the Five Lands is composed of ve villages that are part of the Cinque Terre National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Over centuries, people have built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the clifs that overlook the sea. The Cinque Terre villages were severely afected by torrential rains which caused oods and mud slides in October 2011. To me, the ve lands of Cinque Terre represent the beauty man is capable of creating and the resilience of the people who live there, Karthick told us. His HDR image is a blend of three exposures, tonemapped in Photomatix and processed in Photoshop using Tony Kuypers Luminosity Masks.

Camera Canon EOS 500D & 17-40mm lens Software Adobe Photoshop, Photomatix

Inspiration

Camera skills

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10top tips for better portrait picturesPortraits are a staple subject for most photographers and probably the one thats the most accessible. Family, friends, colleagues even complete strangers are ideal candidates for portraits and every pic tells a diferent and very personal story about the subject, making it one of the most intriguing photographic disciplines. But whether youre snapping friends and

family, or even local models, youll want to achieve professional-looking results and this is entirely possible when you know how. Our top 10 tips are designed to help you learn the core essentials of taking your best-ever people pictures, and we concentrate on essential areas like focusing, framing, lighting, and getting the composition right. Whats more, you dont need to own an arsenal of expensive equipment to get the best results, either all the portraits youll see over the following pages are achievable with either an entry-level D-SLR or a compact so everyone can join in the fun all you need is a willing model. So, what are you waiting for? Read on and get inspired!

great portrait pictures are within the grasp of every photographer and with

our expert advice, well show you just how achieve them! techniques & pictures tom calton

at a glance youll learn how to set up and shoot professional-looking portraits.what you need a d-SlR or compact time needed You can get some great shots in just 10 minutes.difficulty level Easy 1Get the focus rightFor most types of portrait photography, the eyes will tell the story, so making sure theyre pin sharp is vital in getting a good pic (even if theyre shut up tight like our

infant subject here). Compose your shot then move the active aF point so that its over the subjects eye, half-depressing the shutter to lock on the focus. if your subject is positioned at an angle, make sure the focus is set over the eye thats closest to the camera. Even if the model is looking of camera or has their eyes closed, theyll still need to be sharp and in focus. there are exceptions to this rule, however, and if youre feeling adventurous, focus can be used creatively to pick out a specic detail within the photo to tell a completely diferent story about the subject.

Creative camera

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method involves taking a sequence of pictures of the same location at the same time and then merging them later using software like Photoshop. This second route gives you much greater image quality and allows you to

capture scenes that are too big for one shot, even when using the widest of lenses.However, although

panoramas are fundamentally about recording very wide views, its important to remain selective in what you

shoot just as you would with a regular landscape. This means the rst step is always to nd a great subject after all, a wide view of nothing isnt going to impress anyone! Now turn the page and nd out all you need to know...

Panoramic shot this image has been created from ve separate images shot in a sequence.

shot 1 shot 2 shot 3 shot 4 shot 5

the ve separate pics above were shot in manual mode to ensure the exposure was the same in each. Do it this way to make sure they match up later.

Portfolio Andrey NarchukEvery month, we showcase a selection of work by a great photographer, so discover how Andrey Narchuk creates his fascinating split-level ocean shots and manages to do it all while holding down a full-time job.

interview by kate hardy

Go Diving was taken at Balicasag in the Philippines. this huge school of Bigeye trevally (Caranx sexfasciatus) was photographed right under andreys diving boat.

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Andrey Narchuks rst Red Sea dive in 2004 left him with a lasting impression. That rst look beyond the surface of the water was unforgettable; to hold my breath and dive and shoot at the same time wasnt easy, but nothing could stop me. Since then he has never missed an opportunity to get in the water with his camera, and just a few days after returning from his rst dive, he bought an underwater case for his camera and began spending as much time as he could in the sea. I was rewarded for my perseverance by some manta rays appearing from the depths, swimming right up to me. It was wonderful! We swam together for about half an hour, and since then, my heart has belonged to the sea. Living and working in Moscow, 33 year-old Andrey has a full-time job as a programmer working in railway transport,

but ts in photography in his spare time. I try to organise photography trips to shoot new subjects, but if I cant get away, then I shoot at home. Andreys main focus is on underwater

photography natural and artistic and he loves to experiment with diferent places, objects and genres, trying varying technical elements such as non-standard lenses, system ashes and lters. But how does he achieve his split level images? The diference in light under the water

and on the surface is solved by using strobes. Using a very wide-angle lens like a sheye, closing the aperture and shooting at the hyperfocal distance helps me overcome the diferent depths of eld above and below the surface. Waves constantly leave water drops on the lens port of the underwater case, so I use a glass

above: Sunsetwas shot around apo Island in the Philippines at sunset. the turtles swim very near to the coastline so its relatively easy to take photographs of them.

Left: Dive to Fiji shows one of the small islands near the Pacic harbour. In between scuba dives the team had enough time to swim and enjoy the crystal clear water, and andrey was able to grab this shot.

Portfolio

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wide-angle zoom lens test

testing conditionsWe subjected all six lenses to a rigorous examination, and to ensure a comprehensive and fair test, each was graded on a number of diferent factors, to gauge not only how they performed optically but also how they fared on build quality, handling and value for money, too. For afordability, we set a price ceiling of 700 and only picked those with focal lengths that started at 10mm or 11mm to ensure all the lenses were comparable at their widest focal length. Finally for conclusive results, we tested all lenses on similar bodies and at a variety of apertures and focal lengths in both real world and lab environments.

what to shoot with a wide-angle lensBecause of their characteristically large angle of view and the way in which this leads to a greater depth-of-eld in your pictures, wide-angle lenses are generally used for capturing expansive vistas and getting great landscape pictures, but their usefulness doesnt end there. Their construction inevitably leads to some barrel distortions as the light is bent to t the wide angle of view onto your sensor, which can change the look of a subject making wide-angles a fun choice for quirky portraits or action shots, too.

landscape at 12mm

portrait at 10mm

that the shorter the focal length of the lens you shoot with, the greater the angle of view and the more of the scene youll be able to enjoy. Of course, there are even wider lenses available,

achieving anything up to 180, but these sheye versions are diferent creatures entirely and give much more distorted images even if their focal length appears the same. Wide-angle zooms do give a certain amount of barrel distortion, but are designed to correct and render the scene youre shooting as close to reality as possible. Convinced? Good! Now lets see which one is best for you...

tamron sP aF 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 di ii 374

nikon aF-s dX 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5g ed 659

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