Hi {name},

Welcome to the Lenscraft in Focus June 2020 newsletter. I hope you’re in good health.

I’ll start by saying a big thank you for all the emails of support and great feedback I received last month. Unfortunately, not every email was positive. Some people experienced problems accessing the F11 Magazine as their website had serious problems. Fortunately, they were eventually able to restore the service and I’ll share an update later in the newsletter. As well as this I’ll be sharing details of another great free magazine that you might want to look at. Fingers crossed for their website.

Another theme coming through in the feedback was how many of you enjoyed the film photography information and the NY Subway work of Exploring Ed who I was helping with scanning advice. Because of this I’ve published a couple of new scanning tutorials and have others planned. You’ll find the tutorials listed in the New Content section later in the newsletter.

This month we are also seeing the easing of lockdown restrictions in many countries. In the UK we can now venture a little further afield and meet others (at a distance) outside. I’m pleased about this as I’ve spent a small fortune on new camera gear since March. One purchase was to have my older Fuji XT2 converted to shoot infrared. Here’s a sample from the new camera on a local walk near my home.

If you’ve wondered about trying digital infrared photography but aren’t sure how to start, I’ve published an introductory article on the Lenscraft website. This tries to answer a lot of the questions that I had when I first became interested around 10 years ago.

I hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter. I think I’ve managed to find another interesting collection of resources to share.

New Lenscraft Content

Over the past month I’ve focused on publishing new tutorials and updating old ones. Here’s the list of what you can find on Lenscraft.

Camera Club Presentations

Unfortunately, with the spread of the virus in the UK and government restrictions, I’ve suspended all camera club presentations. Once life gets back to normal, I’ll publish a list of presentations here.

From Around the Web

This month, I’ve discovered a few things that you might find useful or interesting.

F11 Magazine Update

Last month I shared details of the (now closed) F11 Magazine which you could download for free. When I checked the service, before hitting send on last months newsletter, it was working fine. But then, shortly after the website crashed. After some searching, I managed to track down Tim Steele in New Zealand who had been the Publisher and Creative Director on the magazine. He was kindly able to get the website up and running again so that you’re able to download all 66 past issues of the magazine for free.

The website address is

http://www.f11magazine.com/

I’m also aware there’s another magazine with a similar name, run by David Noton. This is a different magazine which closed in Feb 2020 and requires payment to access the back issues. The F11 magazine mentioned above is free.

Inspirational Photography Magazine

This month I want to introduce another free digital magazine called Inspirational Photography from Ken Koskela. I first subscribed to this magazine after a friend shared it with me a few years ago. Sadly, Ken had to stop publishing around a year ago, but then to my surprise I received his email saying the June 2020 issue was now available.

Ken shares some valuable content and that it’s well worth subscribing to.

https://www.kenkoskela.com/page/2020-june-inspirational-photography/

Digitizing Film with a Camera

Not everyone wants to buy a scanner to digitize film. A lot of photographers have an archive of old slides and film negatives that they want to digitize. One solution is to use your digital camera and it’s something I want to explore further for myself in the future.

As part of my investigation I came across this informative YouTube video from Sprout Studio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqD9SikzZq0&list=WL&index=12&t=7s

The Nik Collection 3

This month sees the release of the Nik Collection 3 with some interesting new features. If you would like to see these in action, I’ve published a video review on my YouTube Channel which you can watch here.

https://youtu.be/bYoAXBvK9As

I’m also aware that many of you reading this have one or more of my Nik Collection books. If you decide to upgrade to the new Nik Collection, I’ve published an addendum to my existing books to cover the new “common features” in the Nik Collection 3.

Until I can update my books, you can download this addendum for free on Lenscraft. You’ll find it in the shop (in the Nik Collection Books section)

https://lenscraft.co.uk/lenscraft-store-2/photography-books-courses-guides/

Cole Thompson Lone Man

A little while back I shared Cole’s work in this newsletter in the “Photographers You May Not Know” section. At the time I mentioned his “The Ghosts of Auschwitz” series which I had originally seen and found amazing. Now he has a new series of work called “The Lone Man”.

https://colethompsonphotography.com/portfolios/series/the-lone-man/

I find his new series equally as inspired but in a much more uplifting way. I’d encourage you to look through his work and please don’t skip images too quickly. He has some brilliant shots.

The Most Over and Under Rated Film Cameras – Have Your Say

When I’m compiling the list of articles for the newsletter one site I check is FStoppers. They often have interesting articles even if I don’t always agree with them. Here’s one article I found interesting although I don’t necessarily agree with the list.

https://fstoppers.com/film/most-over-and-under-rated-film-cameras-2020-486380

One camera I’d like to add to the underrated list is the Hasselblad Xpan II. I know you can buy a small family car for the cost of a good example, but it’s an amazing camera that’s a joy to use.

Now I realise that’s my view and you may have a different view, so I want to hear from you.

Do you have a film camera that you’d like to nominate as being over or underrated? To gather answers to this I’ve created a short poll in Google Forms which you can access here

https://forms.gle/vWEfq5i84quDQDWa9

If I receive enough nominations, I’ll publish the results as a future article. I think it would be insightful to compile readers opinions in this way. We have a wealth of collective knowledge that I want to tap into and share.

Photographers You May Not Know – Ken Koskela