NEWSLETTER APRIL 2009

FORTHCOMING PROGRAMME      

May 12th:  Competition - Monochrome
                     Presentation - Cate Sparrow - Diving Fiji and New Zealand - Details TBN
                     Foto Forum -  Macro - Arthur Kingdon
                     RAW versus JPEG - Rob Bailey

June 8th:  Competition - Macro
                     Foto Forum - Green Water - Arthur Kingdon
                     Presentation - Simon Rogerson - Wide Angle   

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

May 12th:      Monthly Meeting

The Meeting (start time 2000hrs) will be at our normal venue - The Casson Centre, Rodway Road, Patchway, BS34 5DQ (map)  It is  easiest to access it via Durban Road, off Highwood Road - you can turn right at the traffic lights if coming from the Gloucester Road direction. The Casson Centre is the left hand part of the Patchway Community Centre, immediately next door to the Patchway Town Council Offices. There is off road parking adjacent to the Centre and further spaces along Rodway Road, near to the local Spa shop.

The monthly competition theme is 'Monochrome'. Send your digital files to Bob Anthony ( anthonyrez30@tiscali.co.uk ) and please include BUPG on the subject line. Unsure about entering? Even if you don't feel you have any winners, send some in to benefit from the audience feedback - it's an ideal way to learn. Don't know how to do monochrome - see below.

The Foto Forum is 'Macro' and this will be led by Arthur Kingdon.

The main item on the programme is a presentation by Cate Barrow covering her recent trip to Fiji and New Zealand - a long way to go but some great subject potential including shark feeding.

Rob Bailey wil give a short presentation on RAW versus JPEG. There are advocates for both so it will be interesting to see what Rob has discovered in his comparison tests.

RECENT EVENTS

March Meeting

Monthly Competition - Abstract

There was a sizeable entry of 30 images and a noticeable increase in the standard over previous years for this subject.

In First Place with four votes was Anna James with a recent shot from Nuweiba given the monochrome traetment:
	In Second Place was Jim Drake with three votes for this clam mantle treated to a bit of PS
In Third Place was Rob Bailey with two votes for this clam mantle:     Several images picked up one vote each including these two below from Bob Anthony - from his recent trip to South Africa:

Presentation - Trevor Rees - Photo Manipulation using Photoshop Layers

In this presentation Trevor covered a wide spectrum of applications for the layers facility within Photoshop. Although many photographers claim not to use layers, anyone who has added text to an image or created a portfolio has used layers. Using Elements 6, Trevor demonstrated how to extract an image to combine it with another to create a single image compilation. He looked at the various tools available for the extraction and how to refine the results. These tools included the ‘magic wand tool, the ‘lasso tool’, the ‘magnetic lasso tool’, the quick select tool -and the ‘magic extractor tool’. When this is done well the resultant image is very convincing and Trevor has had a good deal of success with a variety of composites. A couple of examples shown here:

Trevor was keen to stress that Photoshop layers was a very powerful tool in not only being able to create some whacky composite images but also to selectively alter part of an image and make repairs. Adjustment layers, particularly levels, was discussed along with the technique of using the Gradient Tool which acts pretty much like a graduated filter placed over the lens.

The whole presentation was taken at a measured pace so that no-one was left behind and the audience joined in enthusiastically.

With stunning images and a good teaching manner, Trevor managed to both inform and inspire  - many thanks.

Photo Forum/Tutorial  - Monochrome - Arthur Kingdon

Arthur kicked off with a selection of images which showed the merits, or otherwise, of converting from colour to black and white. He emphasised that this was not intended as a quick fix for washed out colour images but it was better to think in monochrome when planning such shots. Those images that rely on colour for impact do not convert well but those images that have strong shapes, texture or tone will often work best when there is no distracting colour as in this example from Tamsin Eyles:

Arthur explained that there were a variety of ways to convert to monochrome: the simplest method of Mode/Greyscale was not ideal as it usually resulted in a flat, dull image. Much better was to use the Channel Mixer. This retains all the RGB colour information which can be adjusted to suit. Selecting Images/Adjustments/Channel Mixer results in the following screen:

The opening screen defaults to 100% red and needs the monochrome box ticked to see the result. Underwater shots will often have lots of blue in the images, which will be filtered out and will usually result in a very dramatic result:

However, selecting the Blue Channel will have the opposite effect and a very light coloured sea will result:

The Green Channel will often work out pretty close to what we want:

However, a combination of all three channels will probably be best - note that they do not need to add up to 100%, anything higher will be lighter than the original, anything lower will be darker.

A few tweaks of levels or curves may be needed after the above conversion.

In photographic competitions monochromes can contain a colour element, similar to the toning processes used in traditional darkrooms, and this is achieved by following the above steps and then discarding the colour information in a mode change to Greyscale. This will then enable the Duotone process:

This will allow any single colour to be added and the amount of colour to be adjusted eg in this sepia effect (don't over do it!):

Although the monochrome conversion above has been done using CS2, it is even easier using Elements. This has a very handy tool found in the Enhance menu - Enhance/Convert to Black & white. It has a variety of preset styles or a custom facility where you can mix your own percentages of RGB.

To achieve a Duotone effect in Elements it is necessary to go via Enhance/Adjust Colour/Hue and Saturation. Tick the Colorise box and use the sliders to create the desired effect.

Have a go, it's great fun and you can create some stunning images. Any queries, contact Arthur.

Keep bubbling,

Arthur