Royal Photographic Society Digital Imaging Group News January 2019

DIG News - January 2019

‘I am sure there is one more in here somewhere’ – Rex Waygood.

Winner of the DIG monthly competition for Christmas.

DIG PRINT EXHIBITION The 2019 DIG Print Exhibition competition is now open for submissions.

Full information now on the DIG web page HERE We would encourage all DIG Members to enter; there is even a special printing service for overseas members to make it easy for you.

Collection pickup points around the UK for the convenience of UK members. Or why not get together and fill up a car to come to the AGM and bring your prints with you (you need to submit your entry before the deadline though even if bringing your prints in person)

AGM A reminder to book Feb 24th as a day out at Smethwick. You get to see the selection of the print exhibition live. Hear and see the fab Irene Froy give one of her very last presentations (she says she is giving up doing talks) – oh and we do spend 45 minutes at the start of the day doing the DIG businessy stuff called AGM.

CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE COMPETITION Obviously the majority of you were too busy eating and making merry to think about taking photos on Christmas day - the entry was small but good for those who did make the effort to enter.

You will already have spotted the overall winner on the front page of this DIG News. Well done Rex and well done for capturing this lovely moment of his little grand daughter. Prize giving at the AGM !

All of the images can be seen HERE. This is a reminder of the 3 categories – 1. Photo and caption (no more than 15 words) 2. The most obscure thing to do on Christmas day.

3. Best food image.

The ‘Most Obscure’ really made us laugh…

Karaoke with wooden spoons (and alcohol) – David Pearson

And two joint winners in the Food category. Not sure the flying saucers constitutes ‘food’ but I am jealous of his hoard.

‘The true meaning of Christmas’ - Mike Cowdry

‘Six visiting dogs are waiting for their turkey – John Buxton

Back to the normal monthly competition for January with submissions to DIGweb@rps.org Max width 600px and an open category.

DIG MEMBER DISTINCTIONS Congratulations to our DIG members who have recently achieved their Distinctions.

Kathryn Alkins Gerald Phillipson

London France

Due to the move of HQ to Bristol there are now no further Distinction Assessments till March 2019.

All successful panels will be featured in a future issue of DIG Accolade.

TRAINING VIDEOS Greetings Members - No.3 in my series of general Adjustments on my holiday snaps in Photoshop 2019 has now been completed. If you would like to watch it then please click on the following link. You never know you might pick up a tip or two!.

Enjoy – Ken

In this video I show you a few tips for correcting colour using Hue/Saturation and Levels. Although I use Photoshop CC 2018 this project can be done in Elements.

click the images to view the tutorials

DIG MEMBER GALLERIES Just one gallery to feature this month but from an individual who only joined the Society and DIG in December. Imelda Bell is a professional photographer who lives in Kent.

Before I knew what to do with a camera, I started playing with photos in Photoshop. I loved manipulating images and creating scenes from my imagination. At the time, I didn’t have a clue about how to take a good photograph, but after investing in photographic training and learning to understand both light and my camera, I found a love for portrait photography, especially child portraiture. I started to create fantasy images of people combining both my photographic and Photoshop skills. I love seeing the magic and ideas come to life in what I call portrait art.

Click on the image to take you to the gallery.

WELCOME to our new members this month‌ Gavin Wallace LRPS Yvonne Mitchell LRPS Simon Biles Jacqueline Penfold David Turner LRPS William Venables Imelda Bell

St Helens Verwood Faringdon Ashford Wymondham Deal Kingswood

Theresa Bradley Brian Mitchell Collette Patto Dave Balcombe LRPS Jayne Lucas Mary Venables

Canada Verwood Godalming Wymondham Bournemouth Deal

DIG ACCOLADE For those of you who have been DIG members long enough you will know we periodically produce an online publication, DIG Accolade, that celebrates the work of members who have recently achieved their Distinctions.

Apart from showcasing members work it also includes articles which would help those aspiring to Distinctions, a blog from a member working towards his ARPS. Words from the HQ Distinctions manager and even some failed panels will be shared with you.

So far we have produced two editions with another coming out very shortly. The feedback from you the members has been really good so DIG aims to continue producing Accolade, but cannot predict the schedule. This is due in part by the HQ Assessment dates and of course the success of our members. But we feel that possibly three per annum is the likely production rate.

To remind you all about Accolade and to give you a little reminder of some that have already been featured here is a taster from Accolade 1.

Anne Woodman did a delightful panel of flowers and glass for her Fine Art ARPS and this was her personal favourite from the series.

Stephen Hyam displayed some good skills in this LRPS panel of which this was his favourite.

Paul Bullocks favourite from his successful LRPS panel shows us a bygone era.

More flowers from another successful ARPS Fine Art panel where Eileen Wilkinson’s favourite was this delicate study.

Another successful LRPS panel was from Rob Howarth. His favourite is an impressive dance shot.

The composition of the favourite from Steve Jupp’s LRPS panel has always captured my imagination.

And finally Bruce Broughton produced some super work for his LRPS panel including this reconstructed old master from Caravaggio.

WILL YOU VOLUNTEER? Nominations for DIG Committee are now open. We are particularly keen to see a member put themselves forward for the Vice Chair role. It is imperative that we find that person so that they can work alongside the Chair through 2019 and take over the Chair role in 2020.

Another role we need to fill could either be a full committee or co-opt role to take responsibility as the PI Comp Organiser.

If either role is interesting to you and you want to chat it through before making up your mind then do please get in touch with any committee member.

Volunteering is rewarding. You get to work with a strong, friendly group of people, all with the aim of making DIG the best it can be for the benefit of the members.

Where you live is not a problem. We don’t drive hundreds of miles to committee meetings – we use online facilities. Any costs you incur on behalf of the group are reimbursed in full.

Nomination forms can be downloaded from our AGM web page HERE

BEST OF YEAR You know how it is at this time of year all over the web we see various offerings for the ‘best of year’ this and that, but two particularly caught my eye that I thought you might enjoy.

First some images, many of which are aerials…..

When viewing these links be careful to not click on the adverts (most annoying on this site but I guess they have to pay for it somehow). View only the tab that says ‘view gallery – 52 images’. Click to access.

Then this round up of equipment from the past year was also interesting and a good precise.

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.

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.

Scotland Centre

North West Centre

Thames Valley Centre

South East Centre

Western Centre

DIG AGM SPEAKER

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.

Contemporary – East Midlands

Travel Group

A UK MEMBER With thanks to Guy Davies ARPS for contributing and interesting article for this section.

Why Do You Take Photographs?

Why do you take photographs? When I ask myself that, the answer is that I enjoy it. More specifically, I enjoy making a picture from a photograph.

Although I try to ‘get it right in camera’, often the picture I envisage at the taking stage is not what I see through the viewfinder.

I may envisage a square picture or a letterbox shape, but my camera sensors are either 4:3 or 3:2 aspect ratio, so I’ll need to crop afterwards.

Or I may visualise a mono picture but the viewfinder shows me a coloured image. Possibly the contrast at the time may not fit the final picture, so will need some adjustment afterwards, or maybe I will have to do some perspective correction if I was looking up or down.

Sometimes I may find that a small additional element from another photograph will help to complete the picture. Whatever it is, there is usually something to be done in ‘post production’ as it has come to be called.

‘Estuary Colours’ is an example of a letterbox crop. Including the full sensor image would have reduced the impact.

With ‘Not Open Late’, there was a lot of work to be done to enhance the reflection in the cobbles and to control the overall contrast.

In ‘Palace of Arts Valencia’ I had to apply a strong perspective correction because of looking up with a wide angle lens, and in ‘Frost at Alum Creek’ the birds came from another image to fill an otherwise blank area.

Guy Davies ARPS EFIAP EPSA

AN OVERSEAS MEMBER I always find it particularly interesting to view the work from our overseas members as often we can see some differences to how we ourselves produce images. My feeling is that their cultural background and experiences leads them to express work a little differently.

This month we are featuring Tony Wong FRPS from Hong Kong.

Being a retiree, a man of leisure, I often indulge myself in seeking pleasure in revisiting the memory lane. I allow the bitter sweet scenes of early childhood to flounder in my mind. Yet T S Eliot once says "What might have been and what has been Point to one end, which is always present"

It is the present that matters. Travel takes me to the present world.

Photography captures the real life and makes records for future memories. Recently I took a tour to Cuba, a land of peace, simplicity and gaiety.

(Photo 1, Smiling Boy) This boy, not a shirt on his back, not a penny to his name yet enjoying every minute of his life. Happiness radiates from his face.

(Photo 2, The Young Boy by the Door) Another boy who bears no worries in life. He has few material desires, being content with today and tomorrow. He looks at me like a friend.

(Photo 3, Father and Son) Father and son sharing intimacy and leisure. Something we seldom find in the hustling and bustling lifestyle of ours.

(Photo 4, The Couple) A couple resting pensively, enjoying the twilight of their life. Fortune and fame are too far away; only peace in their hearts.

These scenes bring along a hint of melancholy. It invokes reminiscence of my happy youth and childhood. I cannot help recalling William Wordsworth' s words " Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not, rather find Strength in what remains behind"

Ending on those words Tony gave us from Wordsworth feels timely as we move from 2018 into the new year. So may we wish you all the very best as you move forward into 2019 to take or make your images that will all too soon become memories.

We hope you will share your work with us all to see, whether that is submitting to the two DIG annual competitions, posting on the DIG Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/255778611506306/ , perhaps uploading a RPS Gallery for me to choose from in the coming months. There are so many ways for you to engage with DIG, so don’t be shy send us some of your work.

Regards

Janet

Janet Haines ARPS DIG Chair digchair@rps.org