From Failure to Success

By Paul Whitham APSNZ

This article is intended to demonstrate how I incorporated the feedback given on my failed 2021 APSNZ submission into a successful one this year. I hope that people will not think me arrogant in this regard, but I believe that the feedback given and the changes made helped me elevate the set to the “advanced photography” level that is demanded at the ASPNZ level and, by showing what the Board was looking at, helping other photographers. Please note: this tracks my experience as an individual member of PSNZ and not as President.

I have written before about the love/hate relationship I had with going for APSNZ. I had started and pulled out three times before finally committing in 2020 to submit in 2021. I had examined previous successful sets, studied the guidelines, and held discussions with the Honours Board chair, Bruce Girdwood FPSNZ. I also had people, including recently retired members of the Board, to evaluate my suggested images. So, I was fairly confident of success with the set I had chosen.

Sadly, that was not to be and, by virtue of my position on Council, I knew I had failed before the letter came out. I just had to wait for the feedback. Fortunately, in 2021 the feedback came in the form of a video, enabling me to see where things had gone wrong. Basically, of the 12 images submitted the Board had issues with seven of them ̶ as outlined below.

The Fortune Teller While they appreciated the strong storytelling in the image, they found that the lighting was not authentic in that it was too bright, and coming from one side, whereas the candles shown would have lit both sides.

Sian by candlelight As with the previous image, they found the lighting incompatible with what they were seeing in the image. They also could not understand the story being told.

Kate at the Waterfall They could not understand the story being presented in the image and how the subject related to the space.

Fresh from the oven While they acknowledged that this was a strong environmental portrait they felt that it was too posed. They said that there appeared to be no connection between the man and his work, which compromised the authenticity of the image.

Selling everything They recognised that this man operated in a very cluttered space. However, to better create him as the focal point of the image he would have been better placed, more central in the doorway.

Wilf While they said that the image had a strong story it was overexposed on the left-hand side and was made worse by the post-processing.

Reflection This was another image where they said it had a strong story but had been let down with the halo appearing around the person.

From Failure to Success!

They also said that the overall flow of the set worked well through the first eight images as we moved through the shades, but then it broke apart in the last two by moving from a light to a dark image. They felt that the diversity was not as strong as it could have been, with many of the shots taken from similar angles.

While I was disappointed, I consoled myself that three of the images could be potentially fixed with more post-processing, and one could potentially be reshot. Therefore, I only needed to replace three images. Now, anyone who has put a set together will know that it is not a simple matter of replacing one image with another, because you need to keep the flow right.

I started looking at the three images that could be fixed. With my “Fortune Teller” one I agreed that the lighting was inconsistent, so I worked in Photoshop to achieve something that better displayed what I was wanting. I even recreated the set with candles in the shown position and then photographed it without flash so that I would see where the light would have fallen.

Fixing the blown highlight in my image of Wilf turned out to be fairly simple. However, the fix to my “Reflections” image was not producing an image to the standard that I knew was needed, so I decided to not pursue this image any further.

I also revisited the shop where I had taken the image of Gordon and that confirmed what my recollection of the location was like. It was physically impossible to shoot from a position to place him in the doorway.

That meant that five new images would have to be found. I also needed to ensure that the new images added to the diversity in the set. As I went back to the catalogue, I was looking for images that were different to what I already had. Fortunately, I had quite a few new shots to incorporate and I had been focusing on storytelling in them.

To organise the images, I continued what I had done with the failed set in that I had created a separate Lightroom catalogue and dragged chosen images into their own folder. From these, I chose the ones that I thought were real contenders and added them to a collection. Then I displayed the collection in the book module. This let me play with the order of images without having to change their filenames.

One thing I did know was that it is a good practice to seek other people’s opinions on your work. I used the private APSNZ Facebook group to look at options for post-processing. In one case this also looked at the matting to be used on the image.

I also submitted images to my print circle and club salons so that I would get feedback from them. I would then incorporate that feedback in edits; for example, with my “Welder” image, it was recommended that I remove the join in the tarpaulin at the back and tone down the colour as it was distracting.

The major advantage of a different set of eyes is that they will be objective when viewing the image, much in the same way that the Board will be. They will also pick up defects in images that you may have missed or are deliberately choosing to overlook. From previous experience, I know that while it may hurt, it pays to seek objective advice.

From Failure to Success!

One tip that former Board member Tracey Scott FPSNZ AFIAP MNZIPP (Dist.) IV gave me was that the best way to test flow is to turn your images into a slide show with a transition between each image. If the transition is smooth then you know that the flow is good, but if the transition jars then there are issues with the flow.

In all, I think I generated six slide shows with images shuffled and replaced. I also tested by viewing the slideshows on my 65” television, as this would more closely represent how they would be portrayed to the Board.

By January 2022 I had what I thought was the final set which I again asked Tracey to review. She said that they were at the advanced level needed but picked up two issues with the set.

First, there was no consistency in the framing of the images, with ovals, squares and rectangles all present. While there is no requirement for all images to be the same, the Board will look for deliberate framing choices as a way to demonstrate that the set was put together with thought.

The second issue she picked up was that there was an object coming out of Wilf’s head. As I had been posting my most recent work to Instagram in a square format, I decided to use that for all images. It did mean some selective cropping and in a couple of cases, extra elements had to be added.

While this worked fine on the majority of the images it did create an issue with Wilf’s image, in that the removal of a lot of environment focused the attention more on the head, and by nature the object that Tracey had picked up. Therefore, it had to go.

Fortunately, around this time I had done a shoot in which I had recreated Brian Brake’s Monsoon Girl and that provided a good alternative.

By now it was late January 2022 and I decided that it was time to submit the set, as the longer I looked at it, the more I was doubting myself. I bit the bullet and sent them in and, just in case the Board had trouble seeing the diversity, I gave each image a title that also included the method used, such as “Beauty Multiplied – in-camera double exposure”.

As it turned out, the effort was worth it. In summary, the following tips may help to achieve the standard that the Board is looking for at the Associate level.

• Your images must be free from technical issues. • Your lighting must be consistent. Each image must have a good story to tell, or will engage with the viewer. • The set must hang together (prints) or flow (digital).| • Seek external comments on your image from photographers whose opinions you trust and, in the process, be prepared to leave your subjectivity at the door.

For those on Facebook, here are links to the three private groups:

• LPSNZ https://www.facebook.com/groups/1522543621430444 • APSNZ https://www.facebook.com/groups/1149036418838865 • FPSNZ https://www.facebook.com/groups/366074604997503