NZIPP PRO Report March 2018 by NZIPP NZ Institute of Professional Photography

PRO Report BE INSPIRED, BE SUCCESSFUL, BELONG

NZIPP MAGAZINE MARCH 2018

NOT A MEMBER OF THE NZIPP YET? As an NZIPP Accredited Professional Member you have the support, networking opportunities and camaraderie of your peers within the photographic profession. Becoming a recognised professional also adds to your credibility with clients. Belonging to an institute that represents all areas of professional photography in New Zealand, with our focus on education, advice and a wide range of membership benefits, will help you improve the success and vitality of your business. Your Accredited Professional Member benefits will include: · · · · · ·

NIKON / NZIPP Iris Awards (member rates); Infocus Conference (member rates); Meeting and networking opportunities; Professional development; Membership discounts; PRO Report eMagazine.

Come along to the next regional meeting in your area and check out what becoming a member is all about! Contact: info@nzipp.org.nz

NZIPP MISSION STATEMENT To champion, embrace and communicate excellence and professionalism in photography.

CONTACT NZ Institute of Professional Photography (NZIPP) P.O. Box 133158, Eastridge, Auckland 1146, New Zealand w: www.nzipp.org.nz e: info@nzipp.org.nz

We welcome your feedback and thoughts. If you have something to say, send it through to: info@nzipp.org.nz

Cover Image: Image © Catherine Cattanach

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

CONTENTS 06

Honours Council Report Kaye Davis talks change within the NZIPP

Directorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Report Gino Demeer shares his exciting news about a new business venture

Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 Our Adobe expert Harry Janssen is back with this month's topic... Focus Stacking!

Accreditation Programme A reminder about the NZIPP Accreditation programme and the contacts for those seeking Accreditation.

Events & Useful Links Get Clicking to follow us on social media and the NZIPPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pro Report.

Regional and National Sponsors Special thanks to our Regional and National Sponsors who continue to support us in so many ways.

Member Story The spotlight is on Catherine Cattanach this month as she shares some stunning imagery with us.

Regional Updates Waikato Bay of Plenty Auckland Otago/Southland

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

EXECUTIVE UPDATE

Honours Council Report Kaye Davis, G.M.NZIPP, M.AIPP II, MCGD, Accredited Professional Shar Devine, M.NZIPP, Accredited Professional Paul Daly, F.NZIPP, Accredited Professional Harry Janssen, F.NZIPP IV, Accredited Professional

There is an age-old saying: “Change is the only constant. There is nothing permanent except change.” I think this rings true in every aspect of our lives, be it personal, organisational or business. There has been a lot of change in my own life over the past year. I have embraced and enjoyed the opportunities that have come with this, and ones that are still opening up. Possibly the biggest change was selling my much loved home and moving cities, which seemed daunting to start with but in the end (nearly one month later) it is just another city and life goes on and I have learned a lot through it. With all this change, am I where I’d like to be? No, not yet, but change is also about progress and taking it step by step (hopefully forward and not backward). Perhaps I’m a little slower than some at that, but I know I will get there and I am enjoying the journey. Through change, we can call on hindsight, from which we also learn a great deal about ourselves and others. To some change brings fear, to others it becomes an exciting challenge, and I hope that I fall into the latter category! Change is also constantly happening in our much loved NZIPP. Late last year the Honours Council released the final “version” of what the Honours Distinction system would look like going forward. When the proposal was first put out to members for comment there was certainly a lot of fear shown, but the process was valuable and through feedback and listening to our members we modified and created a system we hope will be of greater value and benefit. If you missed this information, details are in the December issue of PRO Report. While we had hoped to have information out to members around this time, things are taking slightly longer than expected (as often they do), but be assured there is a lot we are working on behind the scenes to make things happen in a smooth and effective manner.

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

Recently the NZIPP Board held a two-day strategic planning retreat and from that will come further change, as the organisation evolves, adapts and works to ensure we are providing the best return on your membership investment. In the process of these changes, as you will likely already know, we farewell NZIPP Executive Director Gina Connell. Gina has gone above and beyond in supporting the Board, and the NZIPP, to achieve goals and become more effective overall. Thank you, Gina, for all your hard work. Change is everywhere. Every day brings change; a new morning, a new job, meeting a new person, going somewhere new, eating something new, learning something new. Change can be good, and in general, I believe it mostly is. Embrace change, grow from it and enjoy the journey. Take the time to acknowledge and adapt to the changes that are going on in your own life. Also remember, your business is a constant work in progress, evolving your style, changing to meet market demands (or trying to be a step ahead), changing technology and not to mention the photography profession itself. On behalf of the Honours Team, Paul Daly, Harry Janssen and Shar Devine. Kaye Davis (Chair of the NZIPP Honours Council) G.M.NZIPP, M.AIPP II, MCGD

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PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

EXECUTIVE UPDATE

Director’s Report Gino Demeer Accredited Professional

Now that we are already in March and summer is fading away I wanted to take this opportunity to update you a little bit about what’s been happening at Board level. As most are well aware, last year's AGM brought with it some personnel changes: we welcomed Ollie Dale, Sarah McGregor and Mike Watson onto the Board. Historically the Board covers a broad range of NZIPP business, none bigger than the InFocus Conference and the Iris Awards, but it also covers many smaller but just as important tasks, and these may not always be visible to the outside world. I’m pretty sure every Board and every president comes in with ideas on how to move the NZIPP forward, but a lot of the time things get in the way and we end up on a very slow-moving ship. So late last year the Board decided to look at getting someone in who could help the Board and admin become more efficient and productive. Our research led us to Brett Jeffery, the General Manager of The Australian Society of Association Executives. Brett kindly volunteered his time (at no cost) to go through all our systems and procedures to look at where we can improve things. He brought to the table the experiences of dozens of volunteer boards in other not-for-profit organisations, and funnily enough most share the same challenges as us.

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

As a result of this process, we now have some clear objectives, some of which we have already started to implement. Communication with our membership will be at the forefront, and you should see plenty of positives coming through over the next few months. The rest of the Board and I are pretty pumped about the future of the NZIPP. With all this going on it’s with a heavy heart that I will be stepping down from the Board. I’ve taken on a new business challenge outside of photography, and it will take every ounce of energy I have to make it work. I’ll still continue with my photography business and will remain an NZIPP member; I just won’t be able to volunteer for a while. I just want to finish off by thanking my colleagues. Claire and Kaye, you work tirelessly and the energy you put into the NZIPP is well beyond what’s expected of anyone. Ollie, I have no doubt that you will lead from the front and continue to honour the past as well as take us to a bright future. Last but not least, Mike and Sarah, I haven’t known you for very long but I can see you both have a deep passion and commitment for the NZIPP and your work ethic is second to none.

2018 IRIS AWARDS

JULY 5TH - 7TH. SHED 6, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND

Call for Entries out NOW Click Here

Â© Marina Mathews

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

EXECUTIVE UPDATE

Director’s Report Claire Birks, M.NZIPP Accredited Professional

It's a bit of a sad day for us, and very exciting for Gino Demeer: he’s off to greener pastures and leaving the Board. Gino is our cool, calm, collected head, and has put his heart and soul into the NZIPP and everything we stand for. I’m personally grateful for what I have learned from Gino over the years.

he’s never too far off if we need him and his awesome advice. We all want to say thank you Gino, for all your input into the Board and to the NZIPP. We wish you and Anna the best for your new adventure. As Gino wrote, it’s a very exciting time for the NZIPP, and we are thrilled with the new direction we are heading in, and sharing with you aspects of our new portfolios.

Our hearts skipped a beat when he announced he was leaving. It took time to sink in, because it’s hard to imagine the Board without him. As they say though, all good things must come to an end, and Gino is off to sink his teeth into another project, something that I think we will all be a bit envious of! Gino and Anna are now the proud new owners of the Custom St, Auckland Burger Fuel franchise. I’ve made him promise to personally deliver me Burger Fuel whenever I am in Auckland, and I hope you all pop in and visit him. We will miss Gino on our team, but know

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Â© Gee Greenslade

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Â© Stephan Bollinger

NZIPP ACCREDITATION

Accreditation Programme Sarah Beaufoy M.NZIPP, Mel Waite F.NZIPP & Shar Devine F.NZIPP Accreditation Coordinators

ACCREDITATION

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We are very passionate about NZIPP and adhering to the professional standards of the organisation and industry as a whole. It is important for you to become accredited; it is a recognisable professional business standard and is valuable for your ongoing growth as a professional photographer and NZIPP member.

As a guide we would expect that members have a vast portfolio to select from when submitting. You would consider getting assessed for Accreditation after completing at least; 30 weddings OR 45 portrait shoots OR 45 commercial shoots as the lead photographer. For any questions please contact your Accreditation Advisor or the Accreditation Coordinators. PRE-ACCREDITATION CHECK

Please remember before you can submit for Accreditation you must speak to an advisor. If you don’t have one already, simply email us or contact your Regional Chair, who will help find the right advisor for you. For those already on the path to Accreditation, remember your Accreditation Advisor is there to help you; they have been chosen because they have great knowledge and skill and have a good understanding of what the judges are wanting to see in a submission. While they can’t guarantee a successful submission and we can’t make you use their advice, listening to their feedback, recommendations and suggestions will not only help your chances of a successful submission, it will also strengthen your photography practice overall. 2018 ACCREDITATION DATES 3rd May, 3rd August, 3rd November. For any questions please email: nzipp.accreditation@gmail.com

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

The strongest path to assured success, is together

ACCREDITATION HOT TIP

Make a mock folio submission for showing your Accreditation Advisor. This could be an A collection and a B collection. Put in a variety of competent work within your genre which reflects your style and creativity.

WWW.INFOCUS.ORG.NZ #infocus2018

y t i s er v i D f o s ee r g e D A Dozen

INFOCUS 2018 SPEAKER LINE UP JULY 8TH & 9TH. SHED 6, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

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17 Â© Nick Ghionis

MEMBER STORY

Catherine Cattanach F.NZIPP III Accredited Professional www.catherinecattanach.com

This month we caught up with the incredibly talented Wellington-based portrait photographer Catherine Cattanach. Catherine is a Fellow of the NZIPP and was named the New Zealand Creative Photographer of the Year in 2016 and New Zealand Portrait Classic Photographer of the Year in 2014. How long have you been a photographer? What sparked your interest in becoming one? Ten years now. I was a wire agency journalist in a previous life, covering the financial markets in New Zealand and London. I ended up overseeing the London copy desk, which was a pretty high-adrenaline job, and when we decided to return to New Zealand the journalism jobs on offer didn’t excite me. Then I gave birth to the most beautiful children in human history, and of course that beauty cried out to be documented. I started photographing my friends’ children too, and word of mouth spread, until my lovely husband Alistair said that if I wanted to try photography as a career, he would support me. I haven’t looked back. Before I found photography I had never had the experience of truly loving my job. I got pretty obsessed, and these days if you're self-driven the information is all out there and readily available: I learned through Creative Live, Phlearn, YouTube, attending workshops and conferences, and making (and remaking) mistakes.

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

What kind of work do you do? Mainly portraits - families and business photos. Much of my work is on location but I’m lucky enough to have a small studio at home. I shot weddings until recently but I’ve wound that side of my business right back; it just wasn’t working out for our family. I’m really enjoying doing a wider range of shorter shoots instead, and although I still usually work in the weekends, it’s only for part of one day. I’ve also been exploring trying to make money from my personal work. I sold quite a bit at my first exhibition in 2016 and at the NZ Art Show last year. That got me excited about future possibilities, so this year I’m going all out and have booked a Single Artist Wall at the NZ Art Show in early June. The question of how to price my work is giving me a few sleepless nights though. I don’t want to be too cheap but I also don’t want to end up with a studio full of unsold frames!

ÂŠ Catherine Cattanach

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

ÂŠ Catherine Cattanach

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

ÂŠ Catherine Cattanach

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

ÂŠ Catherine Cattanach

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

Have you won any awards? What are they? The Iris Awards have been a big part of my growth as a photographer. I first entered in 2009 and was stoked to get a Bronze - that success and the inspirational experience of listening to the judging inspired me to keep pushing myself. In 2013 I got my first Gold with a photo that then went on to be a portrait finalist in the World Photographic Cup, and I was also a finalist in the creative portrait category of the Iris Awards. My first category win came in 2014 (Classic Portrait Photographer of the Year) and I also received what was at the time the highest score in the NZIPP’s history, of 99/100. The particular image was very personal and fortunately I wasn’t at the judging as I would have had to leave the room: instead I could listen in to the livestream and be a blubbering mess in the privacy of my own home. I did book a last-minute flight up for the gala dinner after that result! I didn’t enter the next year, but I came back to it in 2016 and managed to win NZ Creative Photographer of the Year. It felt pretty amazing to win that category with fairly straight-up images. One did require some Photoshop layering but two were just shot in the streets of Brisbane and one was a series of nine photographs of the reflections in the convex shaving mirror in our bathroom. If you look closely you can make out the grout of the tiles. Awards aren’t for everyone, but personally I love entering because I just don’t seem to make the time for personal work if I don’t have a deadline. Each time I shoot for Iris I get on such a creative buzz and I just love it, and I think “I should do this all the time!” And then somehow I just don’t, until the next deadline looms. Lately that trigger has come in the form of the NZ Art Show, and that’s working in the same way for me. For some people creativity seems to just fall from the sky, but for me it often comes from constraints and deadlines.

How would you describe your photographic style and how it has developed over the years? The first phrase that springs to mind is ‘straight up’ - I’ve always liked simplicity and I’m not big on postproduction. I prefer photos where the impact comes from an emotional place or from the clever, quiet insight of the image itself. I’m interested in a really wide range of photography and I like to think I produce a wide range of work myself, but then I think sometimes other people are better at picking your photographic style than you are. Back in my camera club days I was shocked to find out that the son of one of the competition judges had looked at all the prints spread out on the floor, picked out my four entries (which I still think were all wildly different) and said: “I reckon these are shot by the same person.” Either he was a hugely perceptive teen (and there was certainly an element of that) or I am a lot more predictable than I like to think. It’s not predictability really though, it’s that I have a photographic voice, and that episode was my first real awareness that it was showing. I feel very lucky that I have always known what I like and what leaves me unmoved; that strongly opinionated inner voice has helped me a lot in finding my own path. If I’m going through a portrait shoot and a photo provokes an emotional response in me, whether it’s a ‘nawwww’ or a chuckle or whatever, then that photo is generally a winner. Unless I’m chuckling at what an unflattering outtake I have managed to produce.

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

ÂŠ Catherine Cattanach

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ÂŠ Catherine Cattanach

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

What gear do you most enjoy using at the moment and why?

What has been your biggest challenge as a photographer? How did you overcome it?

I switched from dSLRs to Fujifilm mirrorless cameras about a year ago, and they are a joy to shoot with, not just because they’re so much more lightweight. I also bought the Fujifilm medium format GFX50S, which I love using in the studio. Medium format is naturally slower but I’m still managing to make it work with kids in the studio, until they get too hyped up and then I switch back to my Fuji XT-2. I also invested in some Profoto lights and they’re a game-changer. No cables, and they can fire multiple times a second; no more missing shots because of recycle times.

Negative self-talk is probably right up there. “Oh man, you’ve really stuffed this shoot up, you idiot, why did you think you were nailing f1.2… oh no wait, now that I’ve culled and edited it’s looking better… ok that’s passable now… oh phew the clients love it.” That was a perennial Groundhog Day situation for me for years (and it still happens). And during a shoot itself the voice in my head was saying: “This isn’t working, that light’s not right, this composition is bad, that arm is so distracting, what IS that weird thing they’re doing with their mouth, they must be feeling tense, oh God, I’m not managing to relax them, this isn’t working” and so on. Over time though, mainly due to the sheer number of times I’ve been through the rollercoaster ride of thinking disaster has struck, I have learned to believe Alistair when points out that it always works out fine in the end. He just rolls his eyes at me now - he’s bored with hearing it. So I decided I shouldn’t have to hear it either. Another key discovery was the realisation that the dud photos are all just part of a problem-solving process; you’re “shooting through” to get to the ones that do work. In some cases maybe you wouldn’t even get the great photos if you hadn’t had that lead-up in which you gradually refined and improved things. I had it in my head that the photographers whom I admire would have just done everything so much better. But we see only the ‘highlights reel’ of other people’s work, not all the rejects that were also on those SD cards. To anyone reading this who has put me on that same pedestal: I shoot a lot of rubbish. And that’s OK.

Do you have any advice you would share with aspiring photographers? I think one of the biggest things is not to get too precious about your images, but to welcome critique. You might hear a negative opinion and disagree, which is great that’s all part of finding your own photographic voice too. But often, even though the assessment might be disappointing, part of you recognises yep, they’re right. And then you remember that thing for next time. When I first wanted to join the NZIPP I brought some prints along to a coffee morning, and most of them got shredded. I was told it would be a big step up for me even to become a provisional member, let alone an accredited one. I sat there writing copious notes, and someone remarked on how well I was taking things. Partly that was because I saw that I had other work they would have liked more, but mainly I felt excited that I could get all this valuable feedback for free; I felt like I should be paying them. They pointed out the lack of catchlights in my subjects’ eyes, which had never crossed my mind before, but from that day on I’ve always watched for it.

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

ÂŠ Catherine Cattanach

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

ÂŠ Catherine Cattanach

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

ÂŠ Catherine Cattanach

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

ÂŠ Catherine Cattanach

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

ÂŠ Catherine Cattanach

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REGIONAL UPDATES

Waikato Bay of Plenty Region Words by Myra Bayly, A.NZIPP Accredited Professional

It was a great get-together for the first meeting of the year at The Pig and Whistle in Rotorua, starting with fabulous food and refreshments. It was good to see everyone after the Christmas and New Year break, and lovely to see Kaye Davis has finally moved to Tauranga and is now settled in. A big welcome also to John Miles who has moved from the sunny Hawkes Bay to Rotorua. We had an informative and interesting night with speakers during PechaKucha. First up was Alana Dresner, who showed us travel photos from her career as a travel agent. She began with photos of India before moving onto Cambodia, where she had her own driver and guide. What a fantastic way to make your way around an unknown place! Alana showed us a haunting photo that she took at Vietnam's Hanoi Hilton Jail, as they call it. She loved New York and the hustle and bustle of Times Square, and did some street photography there as well. In Niue, Alana had taken some amazing images of the beautiful scenery there and crystal clear pools. Alana does weddings or weddingmoons as she calls them and photographs lots of newlyweds overseas. In her next adventure, Alana is going to go on safari in Africa and we can’t wait to see the photos from that. Caroline McKenzie was next to talk. She moved overseas 10 years ago after gaining her Bachelor of Media Arts degree, eventually working in retouching for Mark Rossetto, which she found a pretty amazing experience. Caroline moved back to New Zealand last year after living in London, and she photographs mainly families, choosing to capture those interactive candid moments. She also photographs weddings, babies, and maternity. She usually meets up with families at their favourite places that they like to visit, which adds a special element to the photos that will adorn a family’s wall. Caroline loves to travel and has been to some amazing places like Havana, Peros, and beautiful Richmond Park in London where deer roam free in a beautiful setting.

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Kerry Grant started photography in 1958 and has been a photographer for over 60 years now. He has lived in Rotorua all his life. Kerry had a studio for 10 years and also worked for a newspaper for 10 years. He has photographed about 450-500 weddings during this career. That is a serious number of weddings! Kerry showed us a beautiful portrait he took of his daughter in their family marae. He has had the pleasure of photographing Katchafire, the Kiwi band, among other things, but big machines are his passion. He has done a lot of work for CAT machinery as well as photographing buses, trucks and Hella lights. Kerry has taken lots of travel photos and has an extensive collection on his website. Now semi-retired, he works part-time photographing big machinery as well as other commercial work that comes his way. Bianca Dumiel started her career in labs, developing and printing film and also working in camera sales. From there she moved to glamour photography, running a studio with eight staff working seven days. They would photograph five or six sessions a day, mixed in with family portraits. Bianca was one of the first people to take pregnancy photos in New Zealand and this was groundbreaking. It also had its critics in the public eye and was not always well received. In 1996 she moved from film to digital and it was about then that Bob Tulloch approached her about joining the NZIPP. Bianca now loves to do illustrative work and has quite a passion for this. Glamour has made a comeback more recently and this is something Bianca would like to rekindle as well as boudoir photography. She had a dabble in pin-up but this was not her thing and in the future she wants to do beautiful nude photos. About three years ago she photographed a gorgeous redhead who revealed to Bianca that she had been bullied because of her hair. From this, Bianca's “Red Matters” project was born. Now, with two books out and a third on its way, Bianca has been invited to attend “Red Head Days” in the UK and Melbourne.

Originally from Brisbane, Josh Parker is an 18-year-old student living in Te Kuiti and about to head off to university. As a Te Kuiti High School student, with Marama Shearer as his teacher, Josh attended Infocus last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. He started learning photography two years ago, with the bulk of his work being self-portraits. He then moved to concept photography which was very cathartic for him.

I am sure we will be seeing more of Josh in NZIPP and we thank all of the guest speakers that we had speaking at our Pechakucha night. It was a great way to get an inside perspective of how other people explore their inspiration and creativity, and it was thoroughly enjoyed by those who attended the evening.

Josh has a fascination with lights and lighting, and he took many creative shots while on a family holiday in Bali. Landscapes are also a passion for Josh and he has created some beautiful art work, with a grid and blocklike patterns piecing together his images. He showed us a creative circular image in differing sizes that was a favourite of his grandmother's, who recently passed away. Josh also incorporates birds in many of his images, as he finds them interesting and they add movement to his images.

ÂŠ Bianca Duimel

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Â© Kerry Grant

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REGIONAL UPDATES

Auckland Region Words by Chris Traill F.NZIPP Accredited Professional

Our Auckland February event, Three Stories from the Heart, was something very special, with three completely different NZIPP photographers sharing their personal stories and projects. It began with Emma MacDonald and a beautifully crafted, poetic presentation on the charitable work she does with Heartfelt, where she makes a tender visual record (photos) and special memories for the parents and families after the tragedy of losing a baby or a child. Emma, you clearly have the special qualities that it takes to do this type of work. We salute you, and the standing ovation was well deserved. Then Aliah Jan spoke of her very personal encounter with the young African photographer Khadija Saye. Aliah had fallen in love with Khadija's work, which she saw while visiting the Biennale Arts Festival in Venice. Not long after, on her return to London, she heard of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and discovered that Khadija had died in the fire. Then, just by chance, while visiting and documenting the aftermath of the fire, Aliah met Khadija's best friends, who were there paying tribute. This sharing of her work and her story with us was Aliah's personal tribute to Khadija and a promise to her family and friends.

ÂŠ Keri-Anne Dilworth

PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

Then as if that wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enough, John Crawford shared his famous project/ body of work, of portraits of the homeless on the streets of Auckland. This edgy, black and white, square format imagery was all shot with an iPhone. John's three-day exhibition of this work last year at Gow Langsford Gallery had thousands through the doors and generated approx $80,000 in sales and donations for the city mission. John's dedication and personal rapport with these characters of our streets was admirable, as was his commitment not only to taking amazing photos, but also to telling the characters' personal stories, which accompanied each image. Thank you to the three of you for saying yes to being part of this presentation and sharing with us. Thanks to Charles Howell of White Studios for giving us the gigantic no.1 studio at White Studios. Thanks Keri-Anne Dilworth for getting the shots throughout our evening once again. Thanks to all those people who came along, over 40 in attendance, of which there was a great representation from the PSNZ family. See you next month.

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REGIONAL UPDATES

Otago/Southland Region Words by Heidi Horton Accredited Professional

In February we were lucky to have Ole Hansen from Canon NZ host a social evening for us in Dunedin. Genevieve Senekal from Canon Professional Services also joined us, and those who came along took full advantage of asking both Genevieve and Ole questions about their Canon gear, camera and lens maintenance with CPS and more. Ole also brought us a Canon 5D Mark IV to have a play with! There was quite a bit of discussion on this camera from those who have already made the upgrade, which was interesting and useful for those contemplating an upgrade. I personally really enjoy these relaxed, social events, which our region are great at doing. I always leave these evenings feeling inspired and refreshed, having spent time in the great company of like-minded people. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re an ideal sort of event for any newcomers to say hello and get to know some of our existing members.

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Our February event was also a chance for our awesome Nicola Wilhelmsen to say farewell to her role and to introduce me as the incoming Regional Representative. Nicola and her husband, Alex, are expecting their second child in April. A huge thank you to Nicola for her years of effort and dedication to our region! I have big shoes to fill! Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re lucky though that Nicola is still going to be a part our regional committee, looking after the accreditation side of things for our region which is a great asset for our provisional members. As the incoming Regional Representative one of my first priorities is going to be continuing the great culture we have of regular coffee catch-ups and also to help plan some exciting events for the year ahead.

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Focus Stacking Harry Janssen G.M.NZIPP www.harryjanssen.nz

Focus Stacking Shooting a Focus Stack Focus stacking is a digital image processing technique which combines multiple images taken at different focal distances to give a resulting image with a greater depth of field than any of the individual images. Focus stacking can be used where individual images have a very shallow depth of field, such as close-up and macro photography. Focus stacking can also be useful in landscape photography where the focus range from near to far is too great for a single image. Shooting a range of images with varying focusing distances can be a solution. This image sequence can be combined in post-processing software to create an infinite depth of field. This image was created by combining twelve individually focused images into one image. There are several different ways to photograph the â&#x20AC;&#x153;focus stacksâ&#x20AC;? but for this article, we will use Photoshop. For the more advanced, refer to the HeliconSoft link at the end of this article. Note: this method can only be achieved by mounting your camera on a tripod. Shooting the stack freehanded is virtually impossible. Set-up your object. In this case, I mounted the cicada skin on a acupuncture needle, which in turn can be fixed in a vertical position using Seismic Wax or Blu-Tack. Add lighting, background etc. With the camera on the tripod, take some test shots to determine lighting, exposure and composition. Focus on the part of the subject closest to the camera and take the shot. Focus slightly back from that point and take another shot. Continue doing this until the furthest focus point has been reached. Tip: a macro focusing slide could be handy! Each image has its own tiny depth of field, but not enough to cover the entire object. These individual slices of sharpness are of course influenced by the aperture. Stopping down more or less will give a greater or lesser depth of field in those slices. Either way will work fine, but it will determine how many stack shots you would need. If you stop down to f22 or less, you would need fewer stack shots to cover the range. Once you get down to micro photography using microscope lenses to photograph the eyes of the bee, it is possible that you would need 100 stack shots or more to cover the depth of field required!

When is this technique useful? Basically anytime when there is a situation where the desired depth of field cannot be achieved with one image, not even stopped down to smallest aperture. The common cases where you could use this is close-up, macro and microscopic photography. I use it often doing product shoots such as jewelry and other small items. At first it seems a little bit involved and time consuming and maybe it is. But in many cases there is simply no other way to cover the desired focus depth.

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Processing the Focus Stacks using Photoshop Now you have a stack of say 20 images, ready to be processed into a single image. This method describes the Photoshop way. Go to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack. This will select all the required image stack files and loads them into a single Photoshop file as layers.

In the window that pops up, click on Browse and navigate to your stack images. Select all of them and then before clicking OK, make sure you tick the box Attempt to Automatically Align Source Images. Then click OK. All images appear as layers. Select all layers and then go to Edit > Auto-Blend Layers. Photoshop recognises the stack and automatically selects the Stack Images option. Click OK.

Photoshop applies layer masks to each layer to retain only the sharp areas from each layer. You can now flatten the image. A sharp image front to back!

Helicon Focus and Helicon Remote software HeliconSoft is shooting and post-processing software that extends the depth of field. For Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras, it offers automatic focus bracketing, which allows precise and uniform steps to eliminate manual focusing and focus errors. Must-have software if you do a lot of focus stacking work. http://www.heliconsoft.com PRO Report / Magazine of the NZIPP

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