In part 8, we reveal the tricks of the pros as they transform everyday still life subjects into moody and magnificent fine art photography.

Turning your photos into black and white is a great way to give them artistic kudos. However, there’s more to making a good mono than simply taking the colour away. If you want to create a good mono image, you really need to be thinking and looking in mono while you’re shooting. The most interesting monochrome images are all about tone, contrast, light, texture and shape. The best results are usually achieved when you set out with the intention of making a mono image – here are some tips…

01 ‘Look’ in mono

Try switching your Nikon’s display to Monochrome. To do this, scroll to Set Picture Control > Monochrome in the main menu. If you’re shooting RAW it’s only the display that’s affected so you can always revert to the colour shot.

02 Don’t over-complicate

These dried poppy seed heads, with their twisted shapes and interesting textures, work well in black and white. Using nothing more than window light and a few homemade reflectors we’ve kept this set up simple.

5 quick tips

• Use homemade reflectors to control light and fill in shadows. White card or tin foil work a treat.

• Interesting shapes and textures really improve black and white photographs – don’t forget the background.

• Try digitally ‘toning’ your shots later in software for subtle sepia effects

• Shoot in RAW so you’ve got more to work with in the digital darkroom.

• A high ISO will produce more noise in your image, but can also look like ‘grain’, which is found in traditional black and white film.

Share your Nikon photography with us!

By Mike Shields

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READ MORE:

How to shoot flowers with a telephoto lens
Lightroom 5 beta: 6 things you need to know
Colour Theory: best colour combinations for your Nikon photography

In part 7, we show you how adding textures to your still life shots can turn them into atmospheric works of art.

Adding a texture is a great way to give your images some pizazz. It is possible to create this effect in camera using your Nikon’s multiple-exposure or overlay mode. However, it’s much easier to use Layers and blend modes in Photoshop to add a texture shot to another photograph. Here’s the texture image we used for our flower shot.

Every combination of texture and image will be slightly different so there’s not a hard and fast list of settings when it come to blend modes – be prepared to experiment. Here we used the Overlay Blend Mode with the Layer opacity set to 80%.

Start your own texture library

You’ll wonder what you ever did without one! While you can easily find free textures online, there’s nothing more satisfying than using your own. Wood, old paper, peeling paint, stones, rusty metal and even old roasting tins all make great textures to add to shots, so when you see them, snap them with your camera!

See also

Nikon home projects part 1: Create amazing light trails
Nikon home projects part 2: Capture smoke effects
Nikon home projects part 3: Shoot a water splash!
Nikon home projects part 4: Abstracts with oil 
Nikon home projects part 5: Macro shots and focus stacking
Nikon home projects part 6: Create a miniature world 

The Nikon WR-10 wireless control kit consists of, left to right, the WR-A10 adaptor (for D-SLRs with 10-pin remote connectors), the WR-T10 transmitter and WR-R10 transceiver.

Most of Nikon’s ‘consumer’ D-SLRs, from the D40 to the D600 and D7100, have built-in infrared receivers, so you can use an ML-L3 wireless remote controller. It only costs about £12 ($18) to buy but it has its drawbacks. The maximum range is only 5m and you need a direct line of sight between the controller and one of the receivers in the front or back of the camera. It’s like using a television remote – any obstacle that interrupts the infrared beam will stop it working.

WR-T10, WR-R10 and WR-A10

Nikon’s WR-10 kit, however, uses an advanced form of wireless RF (Radio Frequency) connection. The full kit comprises a WR-T10 transmitter, WR-R10 transceiver and a WR-A10 adaptor. You only need the adaptor if your camera has a 10-pin remote terminal. These are used by ‘Professional’-class Nikons, from the D200 to D800 and D4. If you own a camera with an MC-DC2 connector, including the D90, D600 and D3100 to D7100, you can save money by buying the transmitter and transceiver separately. The combined price is about £165 ($180).

The WR-10 system can’t be used with cameras that have the older MC-DC1 connector (D70s and D80). There’s also no compatibility with older cameras that lack a remote connector.

Send and receive

The transmitter has a two-stage button: a light press enables autofocus and metering, and a full press takes the shot. The transmitter and the transceiver have a ‘pairing’ button, and you use these to initially link the transmitter and transceiver to each other.

Nikon claims the transmitter has a range of at least 20 metres. The transmitter and transceiver can communicate on one of three RF channels, selected using switches on both devices. The transmitter also has a Fn button that replicates the action of the Fn button in the host camera. However, it’s only compatible with cameras that were launched after the WR-T10 went into development (currently the D7100, D600, D800, D800e and D4).

You can buy extra WR-R10 transceivers, so you can fire multiple cameras simultaneously. Each one is powered by the host camera, rather than having its own battery. The claimed range of the WR-R10 is 50 metres, and so while you need to be within 20 metres of one camera when operating the transmitter, other cameras linked on the same frequency channel can be placed up to 50 metres apart. You can also set up to three different cameras or banks of cameras on the three different frequency options. This enables you to operate each camera or bank of cameras independently.

How well does it work?

In our tests, we found the maximum operating range for triggering a camera from the transmitter was about 25 metres with uninterrupted line of sight. We could operate the camera from a range of up to 50 metres in some cases, but with much less reliability. Results were disappointing when the path between the transmitter and transceiver was blocked. The better news is that, indoors, the system had no problems working reliably through walls.

Overall, the WR-10 works moderately well and it’s compact and lightweight. Build quality feels adequate. However, it’s extremely expensive for what it is a fairly basic piece of kit. Wireless RF connectivity aside, it merely replicates the shutter button when used with most cameras, as the Fn button is only compatible with the very newest Nikons. There are independently manufactured wireless RF remotes with features like programmable self-timers and time lapse options available at half the price.

What’s significant, though, is that it forms part of a new wireless control system that goes far beyond a simple remote release for one camera, opening up the potential for more advanced, multi-camera setups.

The WR-1 and where it fits in

Nikon’s WR-10 kit brings wireless control to the consumer market, while the WR-1 is aimed more at professionals. As reported in New Gear, N-Photo 18, the WR-1 acts as both a transmitter and a receiver over distances of up to 120m when two units are used together, and it’s part of Nikon’s new Wireless Remote Control system.

The Nikon WR-1 is a higher-powered transceiver for profesional use. It can work both as a remote and as a receiver, and it can also work alongside the WR-T10 and WR-R10.

Launched alongside the D7100, the WR-1 boasts a much greater range than the WR-10 kit and allows remote control of various camera settings (on the D7100 – options for other models have yet to be confirmed by Nikon). It’s also compatible with the WR-10 units, so that you can use a WR-T10 to fire a camera fitted with the WR-1 transceiver, or use a WR-1 to fire a camera, or cameras, fitted with WR-R10 transceivers.

The WR-1 even offers a release delay mode, so that you can fire a series of cameras at staggered intervals rather than all at the same time. And if your remote camera is more than 120m away, you can use a third WR-1 controller at half distance to ‘relay’ the signal. We’ll bring you a full review of the WR-1 very soon.

One of the big advantages of Lightroom is the way it combines image organisation, editing and sharing within a single workflow.

Many of the new tools in Photoshop CC are actually part of Adobe Camera Raw 8, which is an integral part of Lightroom 5. This is the module that processes RAW files before passing them to Photoshop itself. And over the years, Adobe has been gradually adding more image-enhancement tools to Adobe Camera Raw, to the point where for many everyday image adjustments you don’t need Photoshop at all.

Lightroom 5 incorporates Adobe Camera Raw 8, as used in Photoshop CC. The new Radial Gradient, Upright and Advanced Healing Brush can be found in both programs.

Did you know Lightroom 5 can do this?

Have a think about the things you do most often to your images and see if they’re on this list of Lightroom tools:

1. Crop and rotate. Non-destructive cropping and rotating, in fact. In fact all Lightroom adjustments are non-destructive – you can go back at any time to change them, remove them or add new ones.
2. White balance: using custom presets or manual Temperature and Tint values
3. Advanced tonal controls: Exposure, Contrast, Whites, Blacks
4. Dynamic range control: use the Highlights and Shadows sliders to recover detail without compressing the tonal scale or affecting overall brightness,
5. ‘Prescence’ controls: Saturation, Vibrance, Clarity (highly effective localised contrast enhancement)
6. Curves: either with conventional control points or ‘parametric’ adjustments where you drag up or down on a part of the image to shift the curve for that region
7. Advanced Hue, Saturation, Lightness: you can adjust all three properties for specific colour bands with sliders, or drag up and down directly on key ares of the image
8. Advanced black and white conversions: manually adjust the mix of eight different colour bands, or drag directly on the image to darken or lighten specific colours
9. Split toning: apply one colour to the highlights and another to the shadows – you can split-tone colour images too, not just black and white
10. Sharpening: a more refined version of Unsharp Mask, with Amount, Radius, Detail and Masking sliders
11. Noise reduction: you can adjust Luminance, Detail and Color sliders
12. Automated lens corrections for most common lenses, plus chromatic aberration correction and manual adjustments if required
13. Upright tool: one of the key features in Photoshop CS6, this can identify horizontal and vertical lines and apply automatic perspective corrections
14. Post-Crop Vignetting: adds a controllable vignette effect to images even after they’ve been cropped with the Crop tool
15. Grain: effectively simulates film grain and is especially useful for authentic looking black and white work
16. Camera Calibration: if you don’t like the default rendition for your RAW files you can choose or create one that closely matches your camera’s
17. Advanced Healing Brush: you can fix sensor spots with a single dab, or remove unwanted objects by brushing over them – another key new feature in Photoshop CC
18. Red Eye Correction tool: though red-eye is quite uncommon these days
19. Graduated Filter: use it to tone down bright skies and exploit the extra dynamic range of the RAW file, then use a second to lighting the foreground (for example).
20. Radial Filter: another new feature in Photoshop CC, this can be used to focus attention on your main subject and darken (or lighten, or otherwise alter) the surrounding areas.
21. Adjustment Brush: use this to apply localised colour, tone, clarity, sharpness and other adjustments to specific areas of the picture using masks and adjustments which remain editable
22. Presets: sets of Lightroom adjustments for creating a specific ‘look’. Many different presets are supplied as standard, but you can also create and save your own
23. History: every adjustment you make is recorded in a list, so that you can go back to an earlier image state if you’ve taken a wrong turn. Unlike Photoshop’s History tool, which is reset when the image is closed, your Lightroom History is saved permanently
24. Snapshots: like Snapshots in Photoshop, these can be used to remember an image state you might want to return to or use for before-and-after comparisons – these, however, are not lost when you close the file, but saved indefinitelyVirtual Copies: if you want to try a new treatment for an image, you don’t have to create a new file – Virtual Copies use the same original image but apply a new set of adjustments – Lightroom’s adjustments are stored within its Library, not applied to to the image itself

And the key point is that Lightroom is build around the Adobe Camera Raw processing engine. Whatever you can do with the latest version of Adobe Camera Raw for Photoshop, you can also do in the latest version of Lightroom.

The new Advanced Healing Brush, Upright and Radial Gradient tools in Photoshop CC are already in the Lightroom 5 beta. And Adobe has publicly stated that Lightroom will continue to be a standalone ‘perpetual licence’ product for the foreseeable future. It’s not only much cheaper than Photoshop, it’s going to carry on being sold in the old, non-subscription format.

What Lightroom can’t do

This is also a very long list, but we’ll stick to the big ones…

1. Layers and masks

Lightroom is fine for enhancing single photos, but can’t do composites. For this you’ll still need Photoshop, whether you’re adding in a new sky, extracting objects from their background or producing a multi-layered artwork (though OnOne Software offers a Layers plug-in for Lightroom).

2. Effects

If you can imagine it, you can do it in Photoshop. It’s not always easy, and you do need a good deal of imagination, but there’s no disputing Photoshop’s dominance in image manipulation.

3. Cloning and repairs

Lightroom’s new Advanced Healing Brush, clever as it is, is no substitute for the cloning/repair tools available in Photoshop. It can hide sensor dust spots or blot out objects, but most repair jobs will still need the might of Photoshop.

4. Vector shapes, type and paths

You can use the Pen tool to create complex, adjustable selections, add type (text) to your images and create vector-based shapes and layer masks to your images. Lightroom has nothing like this.

What we think

This comparison might seem a little one-sided as we’ve talked a lot about individual Lightroom features and glossed over whole swathes of Photoshop’s tools, but the point is that Lightroom now does an awful lot of the everyday image-enhancement work that photographers need. The balance is shifting… you may still need Photoshop (or Elements), but you may need them less and less often.

First, you have to understand how Photoshop and Elements open RAW files. They don’t do so directly, but use a kind of sub-program called Adobe Camera Raw – this is what processes the RAW file and turns it into an editable image which is then transferred to Photoshop. Photoshop and Elements come with Adobe Camera Raw as standard.

The problem arises when manufacturers produce a new camera. Each camera has a unique RAW file format, which means Adobe has to produce an update to Adobe Camera Raw to keep up with these new models.

That’s fine, you might imagine, so all you have to do is update Adobe Camera Raw and your copy of Photoshop or Elements will work again? Not quite. This is the controversial part – older versions of Photoshop and Elements don’t support newer versions of Adobe Camera Raw. The net result is that you will often have to invest in a newer version of these programs, just to get the latest version of Adobe Camera Raw to open your new camera’s RAW files.

So which version do you need? We’ve trawled through the list of Adobe Camera Raw updates on the Adobe website, matched them against compatible versions of Photoshop and Elements and whittled them down to those which have supported new Nikon D-SLRs as they’ve been launched.

To use our table, simply find your Nikon D-SLR in the column on the left then look across to see what version of Adobe Camera Raw you need and which versions of Photoshop and Elements this will work with. There are usually several Adobe Camera Raw updates during the life of either program, so you may find that even if your camera is not supported initially, there is an update which will work.

Adobe Camera Raw compatibility table

To download Adobe Camera Raw updates, go to the Adobe website and type the version name into the Search box, e.g. ‘ACR 7.4′. You should be able to find your download from the search results – not that the PC and Mac versions are different downloads and that Photoshop and Elements versions may be different too.

If your version of Photoshop or Elements doesn’t support the version of Adobe Camera Raw you need, you have two options:

1. You can buy the latest version of Photoshop (CS6 is still available for the moment, but it will be CC after that) or Elements (currently version 11).

2. You can use the free Adobe DNG converter tool which is constantly updated to support the latest cameras to turn your RAW files into DNG files (still RAW, but using Adobe’s own format) which can be opened with any version of Adobe Camera Raw, even older ones, and hence older versions of Photoshop and Elements. You’ll can choose the Windows Adobe DNG Converter 7.4 or the Mac Adobe DNG Converter 7.4.

In part 6, we show you how to create a tiny world in your lunchtime – literally! With the help of some model actors you can turn your plate of sausage and mash into a miniature Matterhorn…

The most important aspect is to establish a sense of narrative. Here you can see that there’s a conversation between the characters, with the mountaineer on the ‘mash face’ being helped by his colleagues on the ground. There’s an imagined dialogue between them that makes the scene seem realistic. When choosing figures, try to visualise how they will interact and what type of scene will work best.

01 Actors

Sourcing the right figures for a scene is essential to creating a story. Hornby (www.hornby.com) sells wonderful sets of figures. For under £6 ($9) you can pick up a themed collection of characters. Preiser (www.preiser.co.uk) has a great range too. Your local model shop can be a good resource for accessories to refine your figures, such as paint and brushes.

02 Lights

To light the scene, use two off-camera Speedlights: one for the background and one for the subject. Use a home-made white reflector to bounce the light. If you have only one flashgun, try using more than one reflector, positioning them to create a sense of depth. For a harder, more direct reflected light, try covering one of them with tin foil.

See also

Nikon home projects part 1: Create amazing light trails
Nikon home projects part 2: Capture smoke effects
Nikon home projects part 3: Shoot a water splash!
Nikon home projects part 4: Abstracts with oil 
Nikon home projects part 5: Macro shots and focus stacking

Even though Nikon came comparatively late to the compact system camera market, it’s been quick to add lenses to its Nikon 1 range, which already outstrips rival systems from Canon, Samsung, Sony and Fujifilm and is hard on the heels of Micro Four Thirds systems from Olympus and Panasonic.

The Nikon 1′s smaller CX-format sensor has attracted some criticism when most rivals use larger Micro Four Thirds or APS-C sized sensors, but this has enabled Nikon to keep down the size of both the camera bodies and, crucially, the lenses. The new 32mm f/1.2 is just 47mm long and weighs 235g – this compares with 84mm and 595g for the Nikon 85mm f/1.4, its nearest full-frame equivalent.

This is what it looks like on the Nikon 1 V2, a camera aimed squarely at serious photographers and enthusiasts – they make a handsome pair! The ‘N’ marking on the barrel indicates the presence of Nikon’s Nano Crystal Coat technology, which is designed to reduce flare and ghosting, even in backlit shots. This usually found only on Nikon’s professional D-SLR lenses, and it’s the first time it’s been used on a 1 Nikkor optic.

Nikon has also been careful to ensure compatibility between the Nikon 1 range and its D-SLRs with the FT1 mount adaptor. This enables you to fit any Nikon D-SLR lens to a Nikon 1 body. The CX size sensor produces a 2.7x crop factor, so if you use a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, for example, it becomes the equivalent of a 189-550mm f/2.8!

Nikon 1 lens range

The Nikon 1 lens range now includes the following lenses:

1 NIKKOR VR 6.7-13mm f/3.5-5.6:  super-wideangle zoom lens

1 NIKKOR 10mm f/2.8: 28mm equivalent wideangle prime lens

1 NIKKOR 11-27.5mm f/3.5-5.6: 20-74mm equivalent compact low cost standard zoom

1 NIKKOR 18.5mm f/1.8: 50mm equivalent standard prime lens

1 NIKKOR 32mm f/1.2: 85mm equivalent fast portrait lens

1 NIKKOR VR 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6: 27-81mm equivalent standard zoom

1 NIKKOR VR 10-100mm f/4.0-5.6: 27-270mm equivalent 10x superzoom lens

1 NIKKOR VR 30-110mm f/3.8-5.6: 81-297mm equivalent telephoto zoom

1 NIKKOR VR 10-100mm f/4.5-5.6 PD-ZOOM: 27-270mm equivalent 10x superzoom with power drive operation optimised for movies

 See also

Nikon 1 V2 review

In part 5, we show you how to take macro shots with massive depth of field using a technique called ‘focus stacking’.

The fact is, it doesn’t matter how good your macro lens is or even how small your aperture is, when you’re working with extreme close-ups it’s difficult to create a deep enough depth of field to get your subject in focus from front to back. This toy car is a perfect example. Even at a small aperture, such as f/22, getting the front and back sharp in one shot is impossible – it simply won’t happen.

There is, however, a cunning solution: if you take several shots (we’ve taken 15 in total for this image) with a different point of focus in each one you can easily combine them in Photoshop using Auto Blend Layers. Here’s how it’s done…

01 Keep it steady

A sturdy tripod is essential. You will have to touch the camera between shots, which increases the chances that it might move. Switch your exposure mode to manual so the exposure doesn’t change between shots.

02 Fine focus

Set the focus to manual and focus on the point closest to the camera that you want to appear sharp. Take the first shot. Move the focus ring so that the next part of the subject is sharp, then shoot. Work along the subject like this.

03 A Bridge to Layers

Open Adobe Bridge. Browse to your images. Select them all and go to Tools > Photoshop > Load Files into Photoshop Layers. It’s a good idea to process your RAW files and save them as JPEGs as this procedure is processor-heavy.

04 Auto blend

When your file is open in Photoshop, all the images will have been loaded into one document as Layers. To blend the sharp bits, go to Edit > Auto Blend, then in the dialog select Stack Images and check Seamless Tones and Colors.

See also

Nikon home projects part 1: Create amazing light trails
Nikon home projects part 2: Capture smoke effects
Nikon home projects part 3: Shoot a water splash!
Nikon home projects part 4: Abstracts with oil 

They’re not all the same! Here are 6 key features to take into account before you make your decision.

1. Autofocus

Fast, quiet autofocus is always good to have but shouldn’t be a deciding factor. Ultra-wide lenses are very effective and easy to use even in manual focus mode. Note that if you have a D3000-series or D5000-series camera, you’ll need a lens with a built-in autofocus motor. Nikon AF-S lenses do, some third-party lenses don’t.

2. Focus distance scale

This is a big advantage because you’ll often want to pick the focus distance manually to exploit the immense depth of field super-wideangle lenses can generate.

3. Zoom range

A generous zoom range isn’t particularly important for an ultra-wide lens as most photographers tend to use them at or near their shortest focal length anyway. Lenses with longer zoom ranges simply overlap more with your standard kit zoom, so you’re not really gaining anything.

4. Filter attachment

Some ultra-wide lenses don’t have an attachment thread so you can’t use screw-in filters or square filter systems. That’ll be a problem for landscape photographers, who often need to use polarising or graduated filters.

5. Internal focus

With internal focusing, the front element neither extends nor rotates during focusing. The lack of rotation enables the use of effective, petal-shaped lens hoods to reduce the risk of lens flare.

6. DX or FX?

It’s the most important decision of all! If you have a DX camera, then get a super-wideangle lens designed for this format. If you fit an FX-format (full-frame) ultra-wide lens to a camera body with a DX-format (APS-C) image sensor, the smaller sensor’s ‘crop’ effect will leave you with a much smaller angle of view, so you lose the super-wideangle effect.