We received the results of our second contest for the year.  The critiques were interesting.  One judge would comment on some content and a second judge would make an apposing comment on the same content.  They were both correct, it just depended on their point of view.  The results were still enlightening in many ways.  It was an excellent evening. Thanks to all involved in this contest process.

Thanks also to Bill Hall, who took five minutes to show us how to correct a common complaint of the judges.  He showed us how to avoid or reduce perspective distortion when photographing buildings.

Now I have to create a Valentine card using one of my photographs for our next meeting.  That should be interesting.

BoB

Hello folks,

This coming Wednesday February 1st is meeting night and we have some good stuff going on.

It is the Results Night for Contest #2 “Historical Architecture” where we will see all of the image entries in the contest.

We also will have the image viewing for our Project Challenge #4 which was “Telling a Story with Feet”.

And lastly we will have the Project Challenge #5 announcement that is about “Food Art”..

Should be a great meeting so we shall see you there..

Jerry

Last Wednesday we had Mark Helm from Dorchester attend to introduce us to Macro Photo Stacking.  The process is to take a series of pictures of an object and change only the focus point (distance) of each picture.  The pictures are then stacked in software, increasing the depth of field and allowing more of the object to be in focus or sharp.  Check out his blog at mhelm.com/blog or his photography site Mark Helm Photography.

If you check out his blog, today he provided the links to e-books and sites full of valuable information.

Mark is a great presenter, funny and knowledgable on his topic.  He kept us interested for an hour and a half without the seats getting uncomfortable.  We laughed a lot and learned a lot.  Some of us are thinking about trying our hand at photo stacking.

Great evening Mark.

BoB

1.Yes, there is still time to prepare your ‘Historical Architecture’ entry for Contest #2!

Deadline is January 18th. Your digital, companion, image can be sent anytime up to the deadline of January 18th. Please see the enclosed attachment.

2. Looking ahead to the February 15th meeting… At our Jan.18th meeting, we will be exchanging names for the Valentines Party. If you miss picking up your Valentines name, or you are unable to attend the meeting, we will email you the information the next day.

Have a great week.

Deb

Jerry just sent out a poster reminding us of the next photo challenge and being as creative as a rock I said: “What am I suppose to do with that?”

I also know most of the people in the club are very creative and this should make an ideal challenge for those upcoming (maybe) winter days and evenings.  Think up something creative and show your stuff.  I know some of you will create some fantastic shots.  I will be expecting amazing photos.

Woops, I just had an idea for a picture of my own!

BoB

John Novak spent some time with us last Wednesday discussing how to create outstanding black and white photographs from our digital cameras.  There was a lot of information provided and I did manage to gain a little more knowledge.  I then played with some of the techniques he showed us. 

Colour photos in Raw format work best but jpg will work.  Raw files contain a lot more information to work with.  The following photo was in jpg format.

There are a number of programs to convert from colour to black and white.  Taking your pictures in the black and white mode and using “convert to grey scale” are not recommended.

The original after a levels adjustment in Elements

Converted to Black and White in Elements

Converted to Black and White in Lightroom 3

Converted to Black and White in Lightroom 3,

You just have to play until you find what you like….

That may even be the original colour shot: keep an open mind.

Thanks John,

BoB