Royal Photographic Society Digital Imaging Group News April 2019

DIG News - April 2019

‘Tulip Head ’ – Jenni Cheesman Winner of the DIG monthly competition for March

DIG MONTHLY ONLINE COMPETITION For the first time ever since running our monthly online competition we have joint 1st and joint 3rd placed images. So the benefit of that is we have four people to congratulate and four quite different images for you all to enjoy.

Firstly on the cover you will have seen ‘Tulip Head’ from Jenni Cheesman. Congrats Jenni on your beautiful textured flower.

I often buy tulips, when they are in season, as I find the changes they go through from bud to fading flower vary so much that they can give endless opportunities for quite interesting still life images. These particular tulips didn't really open out at all but, as they faded, they developed interesting shapes and tones in the petals.

I usually photograph flowers against a white background so sometimes add textures, usually soft, subtle ones to give more interest in the image. Once you start adding texture layers and varying the blending modes you never know what will develop.

Over time I have collected a variety of images to use as texture layers, photographs of rust, stone, chalky walls and net curtains. Some are left as straight images, others are mixed together, or variously processed using textured paint brushes to add variety, thus giving me greater choice. Making a selection of the actual flower enables me to keep that masked from being affected by the various textures.

With this image the textures developed quite a strong background, so I increased the detail in the petals of the tulip to ensure that the bloom itself remained a strong element in the final image.

The other joint first was Janet Haines ARPS with ‘Organ Pipes, Sagrada’.

This is rather an unusual image for me in that I normally do highly manipulated work, but visiting the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona recently I noticed that the new shiny organ pipes were reflecting the colours of the beautiful stained glass windows. By holding the camera up above my head and the protecting barrier, and using the handy flipped back screen on my camera, I was able to frame and shoot an element of the pipes as you see here.

Organ Pipes, Sagrada by Janet Haines ARPS

Why not enter the monthly comp yourself and see your work in DIG News. Simply send an image to digweb@rps.org and make it no larger than 600px wide.

In joint third place we must say well done to ‌..

Parkside by Mike Cowdrey

Wistful Thinking by Eileen Wilkinson

WELCOME to our new members this month…

Bill Browne ARPS Tamma Srinivasa ARPS Sarah Beard Judith Kelly LRPS Michelle Richardson Andrew Hobbs Adrian James Thomas Watson

Middlewich India Steyning Luton Australia Sheffield Sheffield Norwich

Jeremy O’Keeffe ARPS Cranbrook Hugh Rooney ARPS Bangor Carol McNiven Young FRPS Nottingham Trevor Simpson Netherlands Kenneth Jessop Edinburgh Neil Milne Arbroath Jonothan Deeley Dorchester

FRESH TALENT At the recent 2018 AGM the committee put forward an idea to the members that we should endeavour to have a youth project, which we called ‘Fresh Talent’. It received very positive feedback from the members so one of our committee members, Daan Olivier, took on the task of researching the feasibility of such a project.

Daans task was to determine whether it was likely to be an attractive proposition to put to the Universities offering photographic courses.

Using some Society members with connections in to the Uni’s he quickly established that we were highly unlikely to get few if any to enter our competition. Through further research Daan also discovered that the Society ran a youth competition, with £10k worth of Canon donated prizes, to this same audience, a while back. It attracted only 93 entrants but was a lot of work to organise and run.

The DIG Committee have reluctantly concluded that we will not therefore be pursuing the ‘Fresh Talent’ project idea any further.

Consideration is being given to doing something at the Schools level.

DIG Southern are currently sponsoring, in conjunction with the Rotary Club, an inter schools photography competition in the Hampshire area.

That comes to fruition shortly, so we have decided that we will see how successful that is before progressing this idea any further for now.

We will update you further as and when.

DIG MEMBER GALLERIES I was fortunate to spend four days in New York – my first experience.

The buildings are amazing, such variety and such size. I had made a list of the obvious sights – Grand Central Station – using a slow shutter speed to convey the busy and hectic atmosphere.

Chrysler Building I took from the top of an open air bus and zoomed to the max with my 24-240 f3.5 Sony Lens.

The High Line Walk enables you to get above the city and capture architecture from different angles and perspectives also using reflections of buildings within buildings.

Just look up there is so much to see!

My night shot was taken from Top of the Rock – New York really does come alight at night…deciding to blur this shot showing the amazing range of colours in the spectre.

Taking a boat and looking back on Manhattan Island captures the essence of New York.

Katherine Rynor LRPS.

Click on the gallery images to link through to the albums

DIG EXHIBITION The first showing of our 2019 exhibition is now hung at the Crosby Library with thanks to DIG member Peter Jarvis.

There are 74 of the prints on display up till April 26th; that is as many as that location can take. The exhibition can be viewed during normal working hours for the library. The library details are here https://www.sefton.gov.uk/schools-learning/libraries/your-locallibrary/crosby-library.aspx Address is Crosby Road N, Waterloo, Liverpool L22 0LQ. DO go along and enjoy the members work if you can.

DIG CENTRES All DIG Centre meetings are open to everyone. Each puts on a minimum of 4 meetings p.a., offering varied and inspiring content. All welcome to every DIG meeting; members and nonMembers alike.

Eastern Centre DIG Eastern Centre – NEEDS YOU !

If DIG Eastern is to survive the year then we need some East Anglian or East Midlands members to join the volunteer team please.

Being a Centre volunteer is not onerous we just need to find some enthusiastic individuals to help out. It only requires a little work from a few to spread the load.

Mainly it is all done from the desk; so no committee meetings to drive to etc.

Primarily the Centre needs someone to do some promotional work. That involves creating ads and contacting camera clubs to advertise the meetings to their members, as well as through the normal RPS channels. Any additional publicity that can be generated is also great.

You won’t be left high and dry if you volunteer. We will make sure you get plenty of help and support as you get comfortable in your role. Any costs you incur you can claim through expenses. So it won’t cost you anything other than a little of your time.

Without your help the Centre is likely to cease so please do not ignore this message.

Contact the Centre organiser Mark Gillett on 07984 518959 or email him at digeastern@rps.org

Thames Valley Centre

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.

South East Centre

Yorkshire & NE Centre

DIG Scotland

DIG North West

DIG Western

SIG LINK 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.

Creative Group Exhibition Open 11.00am to 4.00pm and closed Monday 15th and Tuesday 16th April.

Do remember that when accessing these ‘DIGITAL CAMERA’ online links to only click where it says ‘’110 pictures” as other links and enticing arrows are to adverts!

KEN PAYNE TUTORIALS Greetings once again members. You have seen me add birds to my pictures many times so I thought it was time to show you how I prepare them for my work. Please note that any version of Elements can be used for this project.

ADDING BIRDS TO MY PICTURE IN ELEMENTS

ELEMENTS 2018 This video will show you how to get something out of nothing. I was really blown over by this result. Worth a look.

click on the images to take you to the relevant tutorial video on You Tube

MEMBER DISTINCTIONS Following the break in their normal programme the HQ Assessments have restarted at the new Bristol RPS House. It has a been a busy month for them and a successful one for some DIG Members. Well done to all of you who have gained your Distinctions this month. The Accolade Editorial team will be in touch with you shortly.

Malcolm Balmer LRPS Brian Mitchell LRPS Nigel Morris LRPS John Sanchez LRPS Andy Smith LRPS Michael Miller LRPS

Sherborne Verwood Basingstoke North Thoresby Slough Reading

Kathryn Phillips APRS (Travel) Surrey Susan Hutton ARPS (Travel) Leicestershire Dave Balcombe ARPS (Fine Art) Norfolk

NEW RPS WEB SITE

HQ are starting the process of renewing the Society web site and we are delighted to report that our own web content manager, Chas Hockin, has been invited to be part of the development team. So if you have any ideas that you want to feed in to that process to get in touch with him.

Obviously he cannot guarantee by any means that he will be successful in achieving everyone’s ideas, but at least it will give him the information to feed in to the process.

Email Chas on DIGweb@rps.org

A UK MEMBER Anyone who regularly uses the DIG Facebook site will know this member well as he is a very active contributor there. But because Dennis Russ LRPS hails from South Wales he is one of our members who doesn’t live close enough to a DIG Centre to benefit from being able to engage with fellow members more regularly. So that is a good reason to showcase Dennis here and to enjoy some of his more recent work.

My Marmite Look by Dennis Russ LRPS You’ll either hate them or love them!

I love all kinds of photography, so call me an all-rounder if you like.

I gave myself a challenge, to take me out of my usual comfort zone, and decided to strip the colour from the image and play with textured backings. We usually portray flowers in their glorious colour however because I love mono I decided to put together a series of flowers in mono.

Now I love the Bromoil and Lith look so I do my best to get them to look just like that, so call them my ‘Digital Marmite Look’ or ‘I Did It My Way’. I am no artist and I cannot visualize the look beforehand, so it is a trial & error thing and easier without colour.

So I start off in Lightroom doing the basics, I then go to Photoshop and open up Nic Silver Efex and change to B&W. I will either use one of the Sepia tones then change slightly in Photoshop or I will use my PseudoLith action and change the tone a bit to suit me.

I also change to 8bit, Grayscale, Duotone and mess around in there until I am satisfied with the result. If I am satisfied I will save it to use again.

I try to keep things as simple as possible as I am no artist.

Magnolia Magnificence

The Face of a Tulip

Tulip from Amsterdam

Standing Tall

AN OVERSEAS MEMBER Our featured overseas member this month is Greg Dunn LRPS, who lives in Calgary, Canada. We thought it would be especially good to put the spotlight on Greg as he has also recently become a DIG Volunteer – he is our new competition catalogues editor. So welcome Greg and thank you for offering to put our future catalogues together for us.

The first time we will see Gregs work will be when the Print Exhibition catalogue comes out with the June DIGIT. But in the meantime here is a very interesting viewpoint from Greg and a peek at some of his work.

Eye-phone Greg Dunn LRPS It really hit home the first time I read the footer of an email from a friend: “Sent from my Camera which happens to make and take calls.”

We all carry a remarkable device on us, that not only “makes and takes” calls, it also sends and receives e-mail, resolves niggling debates with a simple “Google” search, and of course takes and edits pictures.

Now, let me be clear, there still are limitations with the phone camera hardware—sensor size, light sensitivity, optical zoom, to name a few— that prevent it from comparing equally with the larger and more dedicated tools we commonly associate with photography, but this gap is closing with each passing year month. And the gap is closing in both directions. Think of the smartphone technology that has crept into the DSLR world: touchscreen focus, Bluetooth communication, and WiFi file transfer. All this to say, we have an extraordinary tool readily available to us; it is how we choose to use it that differentiates photographers from the rest.

The photographic eye we have developed from all the workshops we have participated in, the study of other photographers’ work, and understanding how to use the features of our tool beyond the “shutter release button”, it is that knowledge and vision that really matters. So whether you treat your smartphone as a “photographic sketchbook” or as a device to create finished pieces, remember that it is your “eye” that really transforms that phone into a camera.

All images taken with an iPhone using Slow Shutter and Snapseed apps

Holiday Hustle and Bustle

Nine-o-Nine Right on Time

Birch Forest

Ginza District

RECRUIT AND WIN As a DIG member we hope that you will help us to increase our membership by participating in the following recruitment programme.

DIGIT 80 Your latest copy of DIGIT should have arrived with you by now. If you normally receive a printed copy and this has not arrived then do let us know. If you are an online member then go to the web page HERE where you can read it via page turning software. Remember this page a ‘members only’ hidden page so please do not send the link to nonmembers.

One member emailed to say the following….

What a fantastic magazine this month, full of great articles. Well done to everyone involved. I found The Expressive Landscape and Symmetree articles particularly inspiring.

Fiona McGowan

WOW – IR is not normally my thing but who could not be impressed with this work?

Do remember that when accessing these ‘DIGITAL CAMERA’ online links to only click where it says ‘’57 pictures” as other links and enticing arrows are to adverts!

One final thing to remind you all before I ask our web content manager to get this up online – don’t forget we have a DIG Facebook page which is exclusive to members. It gives you the opportunity to post work for member feedback. It is polite and we see some good work on there.

All you have to do to join is go to the FBook page HERE and ask to join, giving us your RPS membership number. We cross check you against the membership list and sign you on.

Regards

Janet

Janet Haines ARPS DIG Chair digchair@rps.org