Welcome to issue 125

Light the Beacons

Our Apprentice shoots first and last light in  rural Wales with landscape pro Edyta Rice

TECHNIQUE ASSESSMENT

1 LIVE VIEW Edyta says… If I’m searching

HOW TO: BLEND AN IMAGE

1 FIND YOUR BRACKET Edyta says… Open Adobe

PRO PORTFOLIO

BURNHAM-ON-SEA This classic minimalist image of Burnhamon-Sea’s Low

LIGHTBOX

Our favourite Nikon images from the Pink Lady ® Food Photographer of the Year competition

How to shoot cities

Award-winning travel photographer Jordan Banks shares his tried-and-tested tips and tricks for shooting stunning shots of towns and cities

The trick to effective culling

There’s more to picking pictures to present than you might think… Here are some tips to help you pull the diamonds from the rough

Seeing double

Project one: Core skills

Fork handles

Project two: Creative techniques

It’s hip to be square

Project three: Essential gear skills

Filter fun times

IMPROVING YOUR LANDSCAPE IMAGES IS EASY WITH THESE SUGGESTIONS FOR MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FILTER KIT

Put the moves on

Project four: Affinity Photo

Turn the kids into superheroes

Project five: Adobe CC

Glow-in-the-dark flowers

Project Six: The big project

The setup

FIND A DARK ROOM AND A FEW FLOWERS, THEN TURN ON YOUR UV TORCH FOR STUNNING DISPLAYS OF COLOUR AND LIGHT

Top tips: Capture fluorescing flowers

1 Get a UV flashlight The Convoy S2+

Correct and enhance colours

USE TOOLS IN PHOTOSHOP OR LIGHTROOM TO CORRECT THE STRONG BLUE COLOUR CASTS

A race against tide

Some landscapes have a narrow window of time when conditions are perfect, doing your homework will help you get it just right

ADAM OSWELL

Investigative photojournalist  Adam Oswell specializes in  covering the illegal wildlife trade  where the dangers aren’t always  clear and ever-present. He tells  Keith Wilson about elephant  abuse, burial pits and why  gang busts go wrong…

Treated like animals

Animal photojournalist Amy Jones shares her experience of documenting our relationship with captive creatures

Readers’ letters

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the mag and all things photographic! You can write to us, message us or share your images in the following ways: mail@nphotomag.com twitter.com/nphotomag facebook.com/nphotomag instagram.com/nphotomag

Room to bloom

John Holmes made the most of lockdown restrictions by improving his editing skills and experimenting with a whole new genre

Water wonderlands

Phil Cooke meticulously plans his waterthemed landscape shoots in a bid to capture lighting conditions inspired by paintings

How to shoot sport

Don’t miss N-Photo 126 See page 24 for

NIKOPEDIA

The only camera manual you’ll ever need…

Exposure exposed

Getting the correct exposure is key to a great image. Neil Freeman explains how to achieve perfect exposures – on both a technical and creative level

Exposure tips and tricks

The need-to-know controls and settings for great exposures from your camera, whatever light you are working with

Expose to the right

Sensor sensitivity To get the most technically correct

Bracket exposures to get the best shots

Can’t expose the entire scene in a single shot? Use exposure bracketing for more dynamic range

Step by step How to set exposure compensation

Dial in exposure compensation to fine-tune exposures for darker or brighter scenes

The exposure triangle

The three main controls must be coordinated in

Technical or creative?

Don’t get caught up in technicalities Every time

Master Levels and Curves

Levels and Curves are great editing tools, Neil Freeman shows you how to use them to enhance your images

Ask Matthew...

Our resident Nikon expert Matthew Richards answers your questions and solves your problems. If you have a Nikon-related question, email it to mail@nphotomag.com

Seek discomfort

If you want to push your imagery and get exciting new shots, you shouldn’t be afraid to try new things and get a little dirty…

MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY

The search for the world’s best Nikon photographer of

New gear

Here’s what caught our eye this month

Help me buy… photo paper

The best photo paper for bringing your shots into the real world

Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift

£1249/$1199

Street lenses

It’s time to get back out on the streets. Here are the best lenses for shooting life in motion

The drawing board

Mike Harris reckons planning is the key to consistently great photos and this month’s Apprentice shoot was a case in point