Digital Photographer

Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1

Gifts & giveaways

2 free ebooks to download The Photographer’s

WELCOME

“In celebration of the launch of our new DP University program, we’ve brought you a premium edition packed full of extras”

LEICA’S NEW CAMERA IS ‘THE FASTEST LEICA SYSTEM CAMERA EVER BUILT’

The new Leica SL3-Scombines strength and speed, with features such as 30fps bursts, 6K video, IP54 weather-sealing and up to 96MP photos

7Artisans AF 27mm f/2.8 II: same but different?

Just under a year after the original lens

Canon reveals new RF 16-28mm f/2.8 IS STM

Canon’s latest wide-angle zoom lens gets weather-sealing and afast f/2.8 aperture, all in acompact, budget-friendly package

Voigtländer releases 28mm prime lens

This top-quality prime has a12-bladed iris and f/1.5 maximum aperture, so is it the new king of bokeh?

In other news

More snippets of photography news from around the world

STORY BEHIND THE STILL

Pictured Fab Four, Valencia “The lucky part was

LIGHT, CAMERA, CREATIVITY!

Peter Fenech joins Bill Ward for exclusive access to his Light &Land workshop to learn the secrets of shooting great abstract cityscapes

SELL YOUR OWN STOCK

Stock photography specialist Joás Souza explains the first steps to creating apersonal stock image collection

Photo CV

We profile an expert photographer’s career journey for insight on becoming established in the industry

Rachel Riley

Location: Northeast England Specialisms: Landscape, aerial, commercial To

Rachel’s photo kit

The essential gear items needed for this tylpe of professional work

Approaching companies

How do you market yourselves and approach companies

Career advice

Claire Gillo speaks to amarketing professional and offers advice on essential kit and dealing with disorganised clients

How do I market my small business?

Marketing expert Emma Dixon shares her top tips for boosting visibility and improving social media algorithms for your business

Get inspired

Pro insights to give you ataste of what to expect at The Photography &Video Show next month

THE TALK: Finding your own voice in photography

CHRISTIE GOODWIN

THE TALK: Astrophotography – our window to the universe

JOSH DURY

The Gallery

World Sports Photography Awards 2025

SHOT OF THE MONTH

WIN! SAMSUNG 1TB PRO PLUS MICRO SDXC MEMORY

THE BEST OF GARDEN ANIMALS

TASTY FRAMES

WIN! Prizes from Affinity

Enter our Captivating Portraits contest before 12th March for achance to win Affinity Photo

VENTURE INTO THE CITY

Discover the excitement of acityscape and plan your next photographic adventure with key advice from Rebecca Greig

Make it modern

Embrace the ever-evolving skyline of amodern city

Pay attention to reflections

Capture the most interesting pictures by embracing the reflective nature of modern building materials

Control light with a Custom White Balance

Balance the tones in your lighting with acustom setting

Adapt to your new location

Each new city you encounter has its own unique culture and qualities that you can highlight in the shots you take

The perfect aspect ratio

Choose the best frame shape for your chosen subject

Take the right kit

Some of the essential gear you need to shoot the city

Get creative

Take your cityscapes to awhole new level with some creative techniques

Essential shots to capture

Get creative with your cityscape and include these key shots

Capture traffic trails

Light trails add an eye-catching element to your night-time cityscapes

Enhance your cityscapes

Use photo editing software to make your cityscapes stand out from the crowd

Top cityscape editing tools

STRAIGHTEN TOOL A wonky horizon will always reduce

WHO NEEDS AI?

Challenge the medium of photography to create AI aesthetics without the use of AI creation programs

Understand aesthetics

Learn technical approaches to replicate AI-generated imagery in your photography

Double up

Combine two subjects to create double exposures

Clean up your images

Eliminate some elements to add agraphic touch

Achieve flawless skin

Give your subject AI-like perfect skin by controlling the light

Block out reality

Shoot macro to reduce reference points

Shift the scales

Create unusual composites that manipulate subjects optically

Create a photomontage

Get creative by constructing aconceptual image using elements from different shots

Create B&W surreals

Ali Zolghadri on photography techniques that leave the viewer questioning their own perception of reality

On the right lines

Include graphic elements to enhance the surrealistic approach

Use the space

Use aminimalistic subject placement and composition

Pro Advice

Ali’s top tips for creating imagery that blurs the lines

Welcome to ‘Magic Realism’

Michael Bross on playing with perspective to create aperception of reality

The retouching process explained

Michael’s post-processing workflow allows him to fine-tune the effects

Pro insight: gaming the system

We talk to Miles Astray , the photographer who tricked the industry by entering areal-life photograph into an AI competition –and winning

PAINTING WITH LIGHT

Dan Mold demonstrates how to create otherworldly light paintings that will leave your friends wondering how you did it

Shooting steps

1 Set up your torch The light orb

The setup

EL WIRE ‘EL’ wire, or electroluminescence wire comes

Top tips for light painting

Follow these six tips to ensure your images work for this technique

Editing steps

1 Load up your layers First, go into

Set the spotlight

Create aDIY honeycomb speedlight grid to illuminate your subject on abudget

Process focus stacked shots

Combine your shots in Photoshop to create asuper-sharp image

Merge HDR shots in Lightroom

Use the adjustments you normally apply to maximise dynamic range

Cleaner images

Use basic tools to create asurreal frame

MEET THE SPEAKERS

David duChemin , Christie Goodwin and Josh Dury share their passion for their respective photography genres with Kim Bunermann and tell us what we can expect from their talks at The Photography &Video Show

THE TALK: Light, space and time: Camera craft and creativity

DAVID DUCHEMIN

Kitintro

The expert and independent reviews of gear we’ve bagged this issue

THE TUBE MAPPER PROJECT

Luke Agbaimoni photographs London’s public transport network, focusing on symmetry, imperfections and contrast

Photo Kit Leaderboard 2025

Our real-time report on the very best gear available for you right now

KEY SPECS

What features should you expect as standard in acamera today?

Canon EOS R5 Mark II

The updated EOS R5 might just represent the pinnacle of mirrorless camera technology

BEST FULL-FRAME CAMERA

If you’re after maximum quality images, its larger pixels mean that afull-frame camera is the best place to start

PROPRIETARY LENS MOUNT COMPATIBILITY

Demystify the diversity of current lens mount systems

BEST APS-CCAMERA

+10 POINTS 1 Fujifilm X-T5 Retro power

BEST MICRO 4/3 CAMERA

OM System OM-1Mark II

ESSENTIAL AF FEATURES

Keep up with speedy subjects

BEST MEDIUM-FORMAT CAMERA

Fujifilm GFX 100 II This advanced GF-mount camera

BEST EDITING SOFTWARE

DxO PhotoLab 8 The best software for

KIT SHOOTOUT

The best of the rest to consider

Nikon Z8

The Nikon D850 took the world by storm

Canon EOS R3

Other than price, there’s little to separate this

BEST WIDE-ANGLE LENS

For even greater frame width

L-MOUNT ALLIANCE

The L-Mount is oddly underrepresented in the photographic

REAR FILTERS

Many lenses with large front elements, such as

BEST STANDARD LENS

Essential for all-round use

BEST SPECIALIST LENS

For something alittle different

BEST TELEPHOTO LENS

Zoom in closer to the action

BEST LIGHTING

Take full control of the lighting conditions

BEST FILTERS

1 Urth Magnetic Circular Polarizing (CPL) SPECIFICATION

BEST MACRO LENS

For capturing the world up close

BEST TRIPOD

Using atripod is the key to sharper shots

Leica Q3 43

Gareth Bevan finds out if anew longer lens makes for an appealing upgrade

Blackmagic Pyxis 6K

Rob Redman discovers apotential powerhouse camera for filmmakers

Tamron 90mm F2.8 Di III Macro VXD

Matthew Richards tests alens that picks up the baton from some legendary macro lenses

Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB

This lens looks and feels ideal for full-frame portraiture, says Matthew Richards