Photography magazines

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Donki

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Ian
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Which one is best, I usually pick up one a month (random pick) so going to subscibe to one just dunno which. Anyone got any favourites, personally I find them all pretty good but 3 below I would get regularly.

Photo Photo

Digital Photographer

Practical Photography

Not really bothered by a free gift....... well depending what it was it would be nice, anyone have any recomendations?
 
Might want to take the NSFW tag off - before you get any grief:lol:

I have Digital Camera mag, but I also buy journals which are different as theyre aimed at contemporary art photography. I never liked practical photography. Personally, I felt it assumed the viewer was a complete numpty.
 
squizza said:
but I also buy journals which are different as theyre aimed at contemporary art photography. I never liked practical photography. Personally, I felt it assumed the viewer was a complete numpty.
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:agree: The only one I buy with any regularity is the BJP. I try to get a hold of a copy of Foto8 Magazine and Hotshoe.

There are also some fantastic online mags like Flak Photo :)
 
I tend to buy atleast 6 a month lol, might sound mad but the way i see it is that its alot cheaper than the £10 a day smoking habit I used to have !!!!!
 
The relaunched monthly British Journal of Photography is a big bundle of awesomeness in that they take a theme each month - this month it's video/stills convergence - and then use that as a thread to link most of their articles. And they actually speak to practitioners with very few 'how to' articles or puff pieces pretending to be reviews. Good value on subscription too - there's a lot of reading in there compared to the other mags.

I also occasionally pick up Source, Foto8, Photoworks and B&W, and get Black & White Photography most months. I try and avoid the tutorial-based ones because I never really feel they explain techniques in anything like enough depth or in any way that would enable you to use that for your own style (unless your style completely matches the images they are presenting).
 
Is it just me Jon or is Black & White Photography "dumbing down" a bit... certainly more digital and less wet darkroom creeping in - hadn't bought one for maybe 6 months, and the difference was noticeable.
 
TheBigYin said:
Is it just me Jon or is Black & White Photography "dumbing down" a bit... certainly more digital and less wet darkroom creeping in - hadn't bought one for maybe 6 months, and the difference was noticeable.
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It definitely has a bit but I think that may be about to change.

I'll send you a PM.
 
If you take a mag by subsrcription don't be keen to renew your sub as soon as you recieve that last issue.
These guys are desparate for your money and will pester you renew your sub. Two months after my Outdoor Photography sub expired they offered me another 12 months for 40% off.
 
squizza said:
Might want to take the NSFW tag off - before you get any grief:lol:

I have Digital Camera mag, but I also buy journals which are different as theyre aimed at contemporary art photography. I never liked practical photography. Personally, I felt it assumed the viewer was a complete numpty.
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What does NSFW stand for??

I buy photoplus, as it's mainly about Canon's, and I like the DVD's they include!
But I will also buy anything else that takes my fancy!
 
There are one or two mags to choose from. ;)

Amateur Photographer - http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/
The British Journal on Photography - http://www.bjp-online.com/
Digital Camera Buyer - http://www.digicambuyer.co.uk/
Digital Camera Magazine - http://www.dcmag.co.uk/
Digital Photographer Magazine - http://www.dphotographer.co.uk/
Digital SLR Photography - http://www.digitalslrphoto.com/
Digital SLR User Magazine - http://www.dslruser.co.uk/
Digital Photo and Practical Photography - http://www.photoanswers.co.uk/
Photography Monthly - http://www.photographymonthly.com/
Professional Photographer - http://www.professionalphotographer.co.uk/
What Digital Camera - http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/
Other magazines without websites :- Black and White Photography, Outdoor Photography, PhotoPlus magazine (they didn't have websites last time I checked) ;)


The ones I buy most often are Practical Photography, Digital Camera Magazine, and Digital SLR Photography.

The last couple of months I've got Digital Photographer magazine, which seems to have a lot in it, content wise some good interviews. I haven't bought it that often in the past.


Oh and NSFW = Not Safe For Work. ;)
 
squizza said:
I never liked practical photography. Personally, I felt it assumed the viewer was a complete numpty.
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For those who are still beginners and have a lot to learn (like myself) I think it's one of the better mags to get. I actually quite like PP I only took out a 6 issue sub so I could do the DSLR Skill Course they are running but I've quite enjoyed reading it.

I also get Digital SLR Photography which I like :)
 
The mainstream mags are pretty similar, then there are a load of more specialist titles that have a strong, if minority following in areas like black & white, film, professional, Canon users, landscape etc.

Mainsteam monthly mags are Digital Photo (biggest selling photo mag, quite a lot about post processing), Practical Photography (second biggest selling), Photography Monthly, Digital SLR User, Digital SLR Photography. Amateur Photographer is similar, but weekly and cheaper.

Then there are a few 'what camera' type mags, written by folks that know even less about photography than most, and specialise in getting their facts wrong.
 
Digital Photo may be the best selling, but it is heavily biased towards post processing. And they seem to have done so much that the processing articles that they are do are fairly extreme editing. It also helps that it is in some of the bigger supermarkets. ;)

I know it is the only mag available in my local Tesco Metro for example.
 
redhed17 said:
Digital Photo may be the best selling, but it is heavily biased towards post processing. And they seem to have done so much that the processing articles that they are do are fairly extreme editing. It also helps that it is in some of the bigger supermarkets. ;)

I know it is the only mag available in my local Tesco Metro for example.
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Digital Photo and Practical Photography sell way more than the others - like double, around 50-60,000 per month (although this is under half what PP used to sell). All the others are in the twenties.

This has as much to do with distribution as anything else, ie if you're in every branch of Tescos, you'll sell more than those that aren't. However, most of the mainstream mags I mentioned above have good distribution.

By way of comparison, Heat sells around half a million :eek:
 
HoppyUK said:
Digital Photo and Practical Photography sell way more than the others - like double, around 50-60,000 per month (although this is under half what PP used to sell). All the others are in the twenties.

This has as much to do with distribution as anything else, ie if you're in every branch of Tescos, you'll sell more than those that aren't. However, most of the mainstream mags I mentioned above have good distribution.

By way of comparison, Heat sells around half a million :eek:
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BJP has an official sales figure of 8,015 but I don't know from looking at the page if that only refers to its previous incarnation as a weekly.
 
gingerjon said:
BJP has an official sales figure of 8,015 but I don't know from looking at the page if that only refers to its previous incarnation as a weekly.
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BJP has always had lowish sales, being a relatively specialist pro mag, a weekly, with most buyers being on subscription.

The only sales figures worth looking at are from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). The last normal available audit period is Jan-Dec 2009, or July-Dec 2009, obviously for the weekly version. That could be an ABC figure or a so-called independent audit.

You can apply for a special audit when you re-launch or change frequency, and that figure needs to be broken down and analysed very carefully. It will be stuffed to the brim with every single sale they can possibly muster, honestly or otherwise, to maintain advertising revenue. They've obviously managed to squeeze it over 8,000... ;)

The BJP has been putting off going monthly for years. It's the last thing they wanted to do - quarter the revenue, quarter the profit, but maybe only one quarter of the losses. Last throw of the dice. Sadly.
 
HoppyUK said:
BJP has always had lowish sales, being a relatively specialist pro mag, a weekly, with most buyers being on subscription.

The only sales figures worth looking at are from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). The last normal available audit period is Jan-Dec 2009, or July-Dec 2009, obviously for the weekly version. That could be an ABC figure or a so-called independent audit.

You can apply for a special audit when you re-launch or change frequency, and that figure needs to be broken down and analysed very carefully. It will be stuffed to the brim with every single sale they can possibly muster, honestly or otherwise, to maintain advertising revenue. They've obviously managed to squeeze it over 8,000... ;)

The BJP has been putting off going monthly for years. It's the last thing they wanted to do - quarter the revenue, quarter the profit, but maybe only one quarter of the losses. Last throw of the dice. Sadly.
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It is an ABC figure (link).

The amount of advertising and classifieds does seem to have gone up since the change. And also the magazine is better too (which is nice).
 
gingerjon said:
It is an ABC figure (link).

The amount of advertising and classifieds does seem to have gone up since the change. And also the magazine is better too (which is nice).
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It may be an ABC figure of sorts (doesn't specifiy, because that's a sales pitch) and it's only up to March before they went monthly. So basically meaningless for the current product. And you would need to see the actual ABC breakdwown which is only available on subscription to the ABC website.

It will be next year before we'll see any meaningful figures. Crucially, when all those folks that subscribed to the weekly version have or have not been converted to the new monthly.

You would expect the monthly to have more advertising, as it's basically four editions crammed into one. And then there's all the relaunch hype, which will die down.

The BJP has now lost both its main USPs - it was a weekly, and relatively cheap on a per issue basis. It now has to stand toe to toe with all the other monthlies, particularly Professional Photographer and Photo Pro.
 
Better Photoshop Techniques - fantastic magazine and it's not just about PS.

Color... Now that's a great mag, even though they can't spell 'Colour' properly ;)


www.richardbarryphotography.com

Creating Art With One Eye Closed
 
Sectionate said:
Amateur Photographer for me...
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ditto, on subscription, for its broad coverage. I like the mix of news, reviews and technical articles. I've been reading it for nearly 30 years off and on.

Even though I have the internet available most of the day, I still enjoy leafing through the advertising and classifieds toward the back. Oh, and for Roger Hicks' column, which is always worth a read.

BJP perhaps if I'm looking for something to read on a train and there's something that piques my interest.

Very occasionally, I pick up a copy of some other photo mag, but there's only so many times I can read yet another piece about how to do b/w conversions in Photoshop :D
 
Used to buy several a month some years ago but the same things kept coming round, the only new things were the reviews, and as I have finally stopped chasing gear I gave them up :)

Now I stick to BJP and the occasional Black and White Photography, though having seen some of the art ones recommended here I might have to give them a try...
 
Another vote for BJP, first magazine in years i've actually enjoyed reading.

Alot of the content is completely irrelevant to me but still really interesting, I spend alot of time on public transport and it gets me through!
 
Thanks guys for all the imput, from what has been written on here there seems to be a wide variety if nothing else. I have just subscribed to B&W magazine as its something that I would like to get into (not just as simple as selecting greyscale in LR obviously). Still have to decide on a mainstream mag but I am sure I will get one.

Thanks again.
 
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