DIG News - February 2018
‘One Too Many’ by Peter Stickler ARPS
Winner of the forum competition this past month.
DIG ANNUAL PRINT EXHIBITION Have you sent in your entry to our Exhibition Organiser yet? If not now is the time as the deadline is Monday Feb 19th. For those of you new to this annual print selection process you might like a quick overview It is FREE and exclusive to all DIG Members. It is easy to enter. You enter 3 prints and are guaranteed to have one selected. Your selected image will be part of the 2018 travelling DIG Exhibition. Your selected image will be printed in the catalogue. It is an Open class – so your work is very acceptable. We have many drop off points around the UK. For overseas members we have arranged a special printing facility. You can bring your mounted prints with you to the AGM. A chance to win the DIG trophy or one of the 6 selectors ribbons.
Find the rules and entry form by clicking HERE. All you have to do by Feb 19th is submit your entry form and digital files to digexhibitions@rps.org - then make sure we get your mounted prints in time for the AGM on March 4th. Don’t leave it till the very last minute – NOW is the best time to get on and do your entry TODAY.
DIG ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (AGM) To many of us the words AGM make us run a mile as we think of a boring meeting, but that is not the case at all with DIG. The actual official business in all wrapped up within an hour and then we have a great time for the rest of the day. First is the selection of exhibition prints. Each person’s 3 prints are put up and projected for the audience to see. The selectors choose the one to go into exhibition and this gets put on the walls around the meeting room. The other 2 images go outside around the café area. So attendees can view all prints up close during breaks. The selectors then choose the top 30 from the selected prints; these go to those galleries in the programme where space is limited. Then they agree on the overall trophy winner and each their two ribbon winners. Presentations follow, usually around 2.30-3pm. Our finale is the talk from our speaker and this year it is Irene Froy. You will have seen some of her beautiful work in the DIGIT that arrived in January. But it is even better to see her work in print and she generously shares her processing techniques with the audience. So it really is a good day out and well worth travelling to Smethwick for. No need to book a seat but if you require a light snack lunch we do need you to book that please. Information on this page HERE. Please place your orders in pretty quickly as we don’t want to disappoint you. Pay for food on the day. Those wishing to bring their own lunch boxes with them are free to do so. Hot and cold drinks available throughout the day. COLLECTION OF PRINTS Collect your last years print at the AGM and take away your 2 that do not get selected. It is a rolling process year on year.
DIG DISTINCTIONS This month we are featuring a rather unusual all mono panel from Simon Street. It still shows the variety of skills and variations one needs to gain the Licentiateship. Congratulations Simon on gaining your LRPS. I love street, architectural and seascape photography - in B&W. My Licentiate journey started 12 months ago. It has been a great learning experience. I started looking for 20 photos that I would shortlist down to the 10 required for the L Panel. Two of my RPS colleagues in London offered to act as Mentors. My early efforts with Lightroom and printing got better by trial and error and great guidance. However, I soon found that my 'best' photos did not necessarily fit into a balanced panel or have the technical qualities needed. It was very painful to leave-out your favourites!
In late August, I was lucky enough to get a DIG prize in the annual competition for a panorama landscape photograph. With that as a boost to confidence, I attended an Advisory session. It was daunting putting my own pictures up in front of a room full of people but the feedback was positive and invaluable. On a cold day in November, I finally sat behind the judges for my L in Fenton House, Bath. In ten minutes game over - the hardest won letters of my life.
Spiral
Tin Woman
FORUM The DIG Forum monthly comp has now been running since this time in 2015, so this is an anniversary to celebrate. We have seen some great work and others that slipped the net. This month the winner is Peter Stickler ARPS. Here he tells us a little about the work and how he did it. The image was taken with a 24 to 70mm lens set at f2.8 with the vibration reduction on. The D750 has a flip out screen on the back so I did not have to lay on the ground to take it. The bottle and the street was much as you see it but I did increase the blur. When it comes to the man he was taken a little earlier in the day; he replaced a respectable person just sitting in the opening.
Swan Lake by Janet Haines ARPS
Birmingham Station by Chas Hockin LRPS
Our very first winning image in 2015 ……
Jack Bolton – Ventilation Grille
COUNCIL DECISION TO STOP FREE 1ST YEAR SIGS Some of you have noticed and commented upon the fact that the Council have stopped offering new Society members free 1st year membership to SIGs as from January 2018. Council made this decision, without consultation, around autumn time 2017. The information that came down to SIGs was that it was being withdrawn as the retention rate figures were extremely low. On the face of it that could be seen as a reasonable decision if the ‘free offer’ was not a good investment return. It should be noted that the Council had been paying the SIGs for these first year free memberships. However their Society wide statistics did not reflect what happens in the individual SIGs. DIG Committee analyzed our membership stats and found we had a 44% retention rate of new 1st year members; 56% of our new members came through this scheme. As Council had offered all SIGs the opportunity to continue with the scheme at their own expense DIG Committee concluded that we would offer free 1st year DIG Online membership and notified Council accordingly. Regrettably other SIGs did not respond to the CEO so at the next Council meeting they
concluded that as DIG were the only SIG to wish to continue they could not allow us to do so as it was not fair to the other SIGs. As 25% of our entire DIG membership were originally Free 1st year members you can easily understand the importance of this scheme to our group. So we then canvassed the other SIGs and got an accurate statement of where each stood. DIG +3 other SIGs wished to continue the Free offer. 8 did not but supported those who did, 1 was neutral and 1 did not respond. A paper was prepared that went to Council on Jan 30th 2018 asking them to reconsider their decision. The following day we were informed that “The trustees noted the detailed consultation you
had undertaken and the responses you received. Overall, they did not feel that this materially altered the reasons given last year for not continuing with the scheme, or for a small number of Groups to operate it on their own account.”
In our opinion a decision that is disappointing, short-sighted and potentially damaging to all the SIGs. They are offering us no concrete evidence of how they will support ongoing SIG recruitment other than producing a new piece of literature. At no time did they consult with the SIGs to reach a satisfactory conclusion for all parties. The impact on DIG will be significant. It reduces both our intake of new members and reduces our income by about £2.5k p.a. Without some strong recruitment initiatives DIG will see its’ membership rapidly decline. Your DIG Committee want to assure you that we have done all we can to try to get Council to allow us to continue with the scheme. Given that has failed we are now discussing recruitment ideas and how we can give DIG members ever more ‘value for money’ from their annual subscription. Finally you might like to see the following evidence of how (when recently surveyed) new members in their first year of DIG membership feel about us.
DIGIT Our Editorial team go from strength to strength and have given us another super issue of DIGIT. Even those members in the farthest places should have received their copy by now and DI Online members have received the email providing the direct link to the magazine to enable them to read online. All DIG members can access the online version if they wish. Just go to the link HERE.
We had quite a few emails congratulating us on this issue but here are just two of them. Maureen Connelly (Chair of the Documentary Group) Received several copies of DIGIT in this morning’s post. I’ve never seen a printed version of DIGIT before - it’s great. I might have to join DIG just to receive it! Palli Gajree HonFRPS A note to say that my copies of the DIG Magazine Number 75 2017 and DIG Projected Image Competition arrived yesterday and I would like to congratulate you for their elegant design, layout of images, including a variety of articles. Truly wonderful!
TRAINING VIDEOS Ken seems to have been working extra hard this month as I have received several new tutorials – too many to feature in one DIG News. The two chosen videos are about some new software that he has tried that he is rating very highly – Luminar. Greetings Members – I have just purchased Luminar Software and it is brilliant. This software will certainly give Lightroon a run for its money. This video is Part 1 of adding a sky. First off, we tour the interface and prepare our image in Elements to be exported into Luminar. Purchasing this software along with Elements will set you up for many years ahead instead of paying £10 a month to Adobe. If you would like to watch it then please click on the image below. Run time 50 mins. The software is £64 but if you use the code AM18 it will cost you £54.
Hi Guys, I have now completed part 2 of this amazing programme called LUMINAR 2018. You get to see me add the sky and blend it in using a blending mode. Various other adjustments are made using gradient and brush masks. The image is saved with all the layers but not the history as you will find out why. I also scale down the completed image for a club competition. Along the way a few mistakes are made and unfortunately, I get two freeze ups due to my recording software using tons of memory but we get there in the end. The movie is 1 hour and 13 minutes long so it might be advisable to make yourself a cup of tea or pour a large scotch first. Having said that you might want to leave the scotch until afterwards as you may well need it☚ ☚. May I suggest you watch it in two halves as it may be less painful. Cheers, Ken.
click on the images to link through to the correct web page.
MEMBERS GALLERIES This month I have two very interesting and diverse galleries to share with you. First one from an OU Student, Jeff Whitehill – his OU 10 image panel.
I used to enjoy taking photos as a young boy using an old 110 camera - and waiting weeks for the film to be developed! Life kind of got in the way & only in the last couple of years have I got myself a dslr and got back into photography - the main drive was for astrophotography, but having a camera again has got me back into photography as a whole. I’m really enjoying being a member of the RPS & DIG, went to my first visit at Thames Valley Centre last week to listen to Tony Worobiec talk on low light photography.
Secondly – Barry Cawdell LRPS. Anglesey’s breath-taking beaches, bays, islands and cliffs offer countless opportunities to capture stunning landscape and seascape images. The photographs in this album represent my work over the past twelve months since moving to the island, where I am a member of Beaumaris & Menai Bridge Camera Club"
click on the images to take you to the gallery to see the album.
DIG CENTRES By clicking on any of the Ads it will take you to the RPS Events pages where more information can be found about the meetings.
Thames Valley Centre
Southern Centre
Western Centre
N W Centre
DI Centre Scotland - Meeting Sunday 11th Feb - Bridge of Allan. For the first event of 2018 we are inviting all DIG members and also non DIG members to bring along a mini presentation or small portfolio of their photography from the last 2 years. If you do have approx 6-12 prints or digital files this will be ideal and please try and let us know before the day so we can plan the session ahead. Work can be inprogress or ‘Panel ready’ We will also take this opportunity to have an open discussion about some ideas for future group meetings. So if you have any thoughts on speaker subject, practical or theory sessions please send them to me in advance or share on the day. This group is for you so best we follow what we all need from the group. We will be continuing with the same venue, the Parish Church in Bridge of Allan, FK9 4NW. Doors will be open at 1pm for a 1.30 start. All Welcome.
DI SE Centre The new SE Centre has now held two extremely successful meetings in October and January. With record breaking attendances they have proven that this area has the desire and support to continue and grow. The start-up committee are all to be thanked and congratulated for this initiative. The Centre organiser, Bruce Broughton gave us the following information‌. Our future programme is very exciting with Margaret Salisbury FRPS, MFIAP and John Herlinger who is the owner of Fotospeed doing a presentation on the 8th of April at the Cornwallis Academy in Maidstone. If you want to know about printing and paper then this is for you! Even if you get others to do your printing you need to know how to prepare your images and how to dispatch them. Margaret will show her award-winning images explaining the different effects of various paper and John will enlighten us all on the dark arts of Printing. You will be invited to touch and inspect closely the various papers with the various types of printing. Do no miss it! Following this in June we have the brilliant Photographer Tim Pile who specializes in "the artistic nude". Now you may not think this is for you but if you ever think you would like to break out from flowers or landscapes the human form both male and female is a fascinating subject nude or otherwise. Tim will instruct us all on lighting and his various techniques both pre and post production. All his techniques will be relevant to those interested in photographing the human form, clothed, draped or nude. He will be running a workshop the day before. Our stated policy is to spread our events around the South East so our following event is in Canterbury with Damien Demolder, Photographer, Journalist and industry consultant. We also work closely with other SIG groups in the area and of course the RPS SE. We are planning exciting events for next year. If you require information on the group please contact Bruce Broughton, Organiser digse@rps.org or call 07482275811
GETTING VALUE OUT OF YOUR DIG MEMBERSHIP Know where to find things on www.rps.org/DIG The Digital Imaging Group have so much for our members to engage with and enjoy but we frequently become aware that members do not know how to access things. So we thought we would give you some road signs of how to find things more easily. First we have 7 DIG Centres, each have regular meetings and some very inspirational presenters. For details of all the Centres and to link through to their individual web pages go to www.rps.org/DIG and scroll down to the right hand side to the full list of the Centre’s there.
There is also a new self help group who have held a couple of meetings based at Ossett. And another being considered at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. If you are interested in either of these then do get in touch digchair@rps.org
If you are not in an area where we currently operate a Centre but would like to volunteer to set one up, then we would be delighted to discuss this with you. Again please get in touch digchair@rps.org If you are outside the UK or not within driving distance of a Centre then we offer two ways to meet and engage with other DIG Members. Using the Societies web site we have the DIG Forum. This is a small but active group of members where you can post images and get good feedback. There are also discussion areas where we often get quite lively debates about hot topics, plus the monthly competition. You need to be logged on to the RPS web site to be able to access this forum area HERE
Another online method to participate in is through the DIG Facebook area. We know some of you do not like the public nature of Facebook but this is a private group for members only. This informal group posts images just for fun or asking for feedback. We have promotions on there for meetings or suggestions and discussions. It does not turn into a brawl and has normal mature people on there – so don’t let the Facebook tag put you off; using their hosting is just a convenient way to have a free online area, that is easy to use.
To join you simply click the ‘JOIN’ button and provide your name and RPS membership number and one of our moderators will check and then allow you access. Click the logo below to join today…..
We have a DIG Print Circle where a group of members post a portfolio of images around for comment. Spaces do become vacant within the group from time to time and we will announce that in DIG News. But if you want to know more then go HERE
Annually we hold two free to enter DIG Member competitions – the PI Comp in August and the Exhibition Prints in March (see previous item in this publication for more information). These are promoted through DIG News but there are also pages on the DIG web site. Hidden pages. These are pages on the web area that are only visible to DIG members when they are logged in to the RPS web site. These additional links become available only after you are logged in – see the difference
not logged in
after you are logged in
You can see the two additional pages that become available. Firstly DIGIT Archive. This is where you will find online copies of our magazines for the past two years. The entire back library of DIGITs is available to download from the DIG Forum area. It is great to look back and find articles and images of the early days of the group and digital imaging. These are downloadable pdf’s. A great resource that most members do not appreciate is there.
The second Hidden Page is the Welcome Pack. Whilst this was originally uploaded for our DI Online members it does give you a good overview of the various aspects of the group and links to the specific pages. In the public part of the web pages even our ‘About Us’ page is a wealth of information that guides you as to how to upload your own personal
Gallery, how to log on to the Forum, how to submit a photo for the header images for the group. And more. www.rps.org/DIG So do take a good look around the web pages and really get to know what is on offer. Your committee make a huge effort to make DIG the very best it can be for you all to enjoy.
WELCOME Each month we have a good number of new people joining DIG, so starting with members joining in 2018 we felt it would be good to welcome them by name and where they live. Maybe they live near you or you know them personally. If so please make an effort to introduce yourself and get them involved in DIG activities. Leo Palmer FRPS Doug Morehead LRPS Benjamin Sharman Anthony O’Reilly Sarah Shelley LRPS Judith Rolfe LRPS Sarah Townley LRPS David Millard Brian Mitchell Anna Barwick Ian White Snezhana Encheva David Brown Robert Kiff Keith Chanter Andrew Rawe George Stocks Colin Keown Dave Balcombe LRPS Dean Corbett
Newcastle Lydney Romsey Salisbury Salisbury Godalming Bishops Waltham Farnham Verwood Bournemouth Slough Orpington Birchington Bedford Woking Lichfield Quorn Liverpool Wymondham Harrogate
AN OVERSEAS MEMBER This month we are featuring DIG member Palli Gajree HonFRPS who is a member of the Australian Chapter and has been very involved with the RPS throughout his professional career. He has chosen to show us some of his IR work.
MY APPROACH TO INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY To my mind, Infrared Photography is a fascinating branch of photography and I always look forward to challenges to explore further into this area.
I distinctly recall that achieving good results in the old traditional darkroom was a kind of hit and miss ... not to mention that many a time it became a tedious and time consuming exercise. Now with the advent of digital technology, things have become little less complex and much easier. A few years ago I had my DSLR 40D Canon converted to IR and have been using it extensively, taking photos of various subjects including buildings, seascapes, sand sculptures, not necessarily those of the foliage, trees, landscapes (with clouds and blue skies) which fit into this area. The biggest advantage of doing IR photography is that it can be done even when the sun is over head.
Ringwood Lake
Forest Gums
Split Point Lighthouse
As mentioned earlier, I have pushed the boundaries of IR somewhat merely to satisfy my curiosity! For post-processing I use both the Lightroom CC and Photoshop CS6 + NIK and Topaz Software. Quite often I add a hint of warm tone as a finishing touch. Palli Gajree OAM, Hon.FRPS
Through the Water Wall
In Mother’s Footsteps
As we approach the time for our AGM I do hope we will see many of you attending this enjoyable day. Last month there was a request for members to put themselves forward for committee – only one new nomination has been forthcoming so far, with a deadline of Feb 18th. We would encourage you to stand as it is always good to have new ideas and energetic people as part of the team. The nomination form can be downloaded from HERE – if you want more information then do get in touch. Regards
Janet
Janet Haines ARPS DIG Chair digchair@rps.org