Sigma’s DC 18–250mm f/3.5–5.6 Macro OS HSM lens is designed to be an all-in-one lens and the focal length is one of the widest available on the market. It was specifically designed for use with an APS-sized sensor, which makes it more like a 24–300 lens, depending on the crop factor of the camera model. On the Canon 650D the lens becomes a 28–400mm zoom. Unfortunately, physics come into play with lenses and as you extend the zoom range, there are sacrifices that must be made to be able to cover such a wide zoom. The corners of the image are soft throughout the zoom range, particularly at the far ends of the aperture spectrum (f/22, f/5.6) and the blurred corners are more noticeable at the wider zoom settings — images are sharpest between f/11 and f/8 setting. (more…)

Continuing D-Photo’s online presentation of this year’s Epson/NZIPP Iris Professional Photography Awards we bring you the winners of the Overseas Professional Photographer of the Year, Highest Scoring Print – Colour and Highest Scoring Print – Monochrome categories.

Overseas Professional Photographer of the Year

The Overseas category went to Paul Hoelen, a commercial and fine art photographer originally from New Zealand, currently based in Tasmania, Asutrallia. His winning portfolio follows. (more…)

D-Photo readers have the opportunity to win a spot at one of three Lightroom workshops being held by one of Australia’s leading photographic educators in New Zealand this November.

Renowned trainer David Harradine is returning to New Zealand touring his acclaimed Lightroom on Fire seminars through the country, with one in Wellington on November 6, Palmerston North on November 9 and Auckland on November 12.

Harradine has kindly given us a spot at each of the three seminars to giveaway to three lucky D-Photo readers – to enter simply fill out the below forum.

These seminars are a full day, from 9.30AM to 5.30PM, and participants will learn ‘industrial strength’ Lightroom and Photoshop techniques with detailed, illustrated notes to get working faster and smarter.

The Wellington seminar will be held at Point Cook’s Flashdog Studio, the Palmerston North event at UCOL and the Auckland session at Kingsize Studio in Grey Lynn.

The Lightroom on Fire seminar costs AUS$245 but if you register 14 days in advance of the event you’ll be eligible for an early-bird price of AUS$195 – there are also discounts for NZIPP members, click here ...full story

Queenstown Photographer Jackie Ranken has, for a second time, won top honours at New Zealand’s most prestigious professional photography awards, being named the New Zealand Photographer of the Year.

Ranken, whom we are proud to count as a long-time D-Photo contributor, also took out the Highest Scoring Print – Monochrome and Portrait Creative categories at the 2012 Epson/NZIPP Iris Professional Photography Awards.

She topped 1211 entries to this year’s awards programme to add her new titles to an ever-growing cache of top-level awards, including Australian Professional Photographer of the Year, accrued over her 32-year career.

Chair of New Zealand Institute of Professional Photographers (NZIPP) honours council, Kaye Davis, says Ranken’s portfolio portrays landscape and people in a unique way with judges describing her work as “visual poetry, captured with a strong New Zealand essence.”

In the following days we’ll be bringing you galleries of all the category winners along with coverage of the NZIPP’s annual conference, Infocus, and the Iris awards in the next issue of D-Photo.

For now, check out Ranken’s winning portfolio below. (more…)

Update: The venue has now been confirmed - Axis Building, Studio 3.3, 91 St Georges Bay Road, Parnell, Auckland.

Commercial photographers keen to take their business beyond New Zealand shores have an exciting opportunity to learn from one of the country’s top consultants in Auckland next week.

Folio and marketing consultant Christina Force is holding a full-day seminar titled Cracking the Asian Market on Tuesday, October 2, to help commercial photographers looking to secure work from the Asian market.

Force says New Zealand is a popular go-to destination for major brand shoots from Asia and local photographers are increasingly being recognised as being world-class and being asked on assignments overseas.

But she cautions that without an awareness of how to handle cultural differences and making sure expectations aren’t misinterpreted in translation photographers may miss out on many opportunities.

“If you don’t have experience working with Asian based clients you need to learn some basics before you risk making key mistakes.”

The seminar comprises two sections:

The morning a session, called Getting Your Work Noticed, will cover such subjects as advertising in Asia, the difference in ad agencies, how the buying and production system differs, ...full story

With the release of Adobe’s Creative Suite 6 that most venerable photo editing tool, Photoshop, goes through another upgrade. All in all there have been around 600 changes made between Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop CS6, some very small and others rather major. Adobe Solutions Consultant and host of the online tutorial show Creative Sweet TV, Mike McHugh, talks to D-Photo about some of his favourite new additions, big and small.

Camera Raw 7

I used to show with Camera Raw 6 in CS5 how impassive the shadow highlight, the recovery slider all that stuff was for bringing a photo back to life. But you can now just bring so much more detail back into the photos with Camera Raw 7.

The recovery and the shadow slider have changed now to highlights and shadows, which makes a lot more sense for everyone. Also the sliders are now placed in the middle, so you’ve got both a negative and positive control over the image. It can bring in way more details than what is in the original image, you can even get that real HDR look on a single image.

So just really great control, ...full story

Leica used its recent time at Photokina, the huge annual photography trade show in Germany, to unveil four new cameras across its digital rangefinder, medium format and compact camera lines.

The much-anticipated successor to the hugely popular M9 digital rangefinder also signalled a change in naming scheme for the company as it lifted the curtain on the Leica M.

The camera features a newly developed 24-megapixel, full 35mm Leica Max CMOS sensor, Leica Maestro processor, Live View and the ability to record 1080p full HD video – firsts for the rangefinder line.

The Leica M also introduces two additional focusing methods, Live View Zoom and Live View Peaking, which can be activated quickly and easily with a new focus button. (more…)