RPS Landscape Group Newsletter, June 2016

NEWSLETTER JUNE 2016 / VOL. 1 / NO. 5

CONTENTS 01 Editorial

by Jim Souper, Newsletter Editor

02 Event Report: Tilt/Shift Workshop

by Mark Flatman

Š Mark Flatman

Editorial

04 What's On A selection of exhibitions and events, including both photography and other forms of art, of possible interest to group members.

The highlight of June's newsletter is Mark Flatman's article on the Tilt/Shift Workshop led by Tim Parish last month. As Tim's assistant for the day, it was great to meet fellow group members.

05 Events Details of group events

Mark is the first non-committee member to contribute to the newsletter - I hope the first of many. How you can contribute was one of the topics discussed at May's online committee meeting. While all ideas are welcome, there are two regular features we agreed to introduce as soon as possible. These are Featured Image and My Favourite Place.

Submissions

Featured Image is pretty much what it says on the tin, the idea being to get more landscape images into the newsletter. I will select one image for the front page and, depending on the response, some on the inside pages. I have set up a new topic on the group's Forum page for members to post images. Do not forget, if you have a series of images you can create your own gallery pages as well.

For My Favourite Place, we are interested in your personal reflections on a place, accompanied by a selection of images you have made there, rather than a location guide. It might be somewhere that has some personal connection or simply somewhere you find inspiring as a photographer. Again, I have set up a Forum topic for submissions. Please remember to post your full name on either forum so that your images are properly credited.

I look forward to seeing some great landscape photography!

The next newsletter will be out during the first week of July. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday 29th June.

Please send them to landscape@rps.org.

For articles, please keep your copy to 500 words or less and include two or three images at least. Feel free to send a brief summary of your idea before committing to the full piece

With kind regards Jim Souper Newsletter Editor

NEWSLETTER JUNE 2016 / VOL. 1 / NO. 5

EVENT REPORT Tilt/Shift Workshop Saturday 7th May

by Mark Flatman LRPS An intrepid band of 10 keen landscape photographers attended the tilt/shift lens workshop at the Rutland Water Bird Watching Centre, under the expert tutelage of Tim Parish, Chair of the Landscape Group. Each of us was keen to master the “black art’ of this unique style of lens. Tribal representation was broadly split 50/50 between Canon and Nikon, the main manufacturers of this type of lens.

© Tim Parish

By doing this, a super sharp foreground to background image can be achieved, independent of the aperture used. In more detail, these tilt/shift lens attributes assist as follows: 

Incredible edge-to-edge sharpness by comparison with a standard lens of the same focal length. This is due to the significantly larger image circle of a tiltshift lens. They therefore also make an excellent, if somewhat heavy, manual prime lens.



Vertical and horizontal panoramas along the nodal point are guaranteed every time when mounting the camera on a tripod by simply using the shift function. By overlapping images from the central image by around a third from left and right extremes of the shift, the 3 images will overlap perfectly and merge seamlessly in software. Lightroom 6/CC can now produces such a panorama in a RAW format. As a bonus, such techniques allow for some seriously large megapixel images and resulting high level of fine detail to be produced.



Shifting, especially in vertical format, allows perspective control and the elimination of “keystoning”, so frequently a characteristic of a traditional wide-angle lens. It is the reason the tilt-shift lens is the doyen of architectural and interior photographers.



Tilting, on the other hand is the real “black art” that most of us were keen to master, particularly the potential to achieve the massive depth of field achievable by controlling the plane of focus. Almost without exception, we had all struggled thus far with this aspect in our photographic journeys with the tilt-shift lens.

© Mark Flatman

As many will know, the wonder of the tilt & shift is threefold; incredible sharpness, seamless panoramas and lastly control over the plane of focus itself for selective depth of focus. The latter can be used either to achieve the miniaturisation effect or, and arguably of biggest benefit to a landscaper, the ability to extend the depth of field by matching the plane of focus to the subject plane that is in focus.

NEWSLETTER JUNE 2016 / VOL. 1 / NO. 5

Tim explained the approach clearly and precisely.

Forget the complexities of the Scheimpflug principle, the key messages for success were twofold; very small tilt adjustments from zero tilt coupled to an iterative back and forth process of focusing at one extreme combined with minor tilt adjustments at the other extreme of focus. With practice, we all mastered this process of oscillating back and forth between the two extremes of focus with minor adjustments of the respective focus and tilt until the incredible depth of focus was achieved. For ultimate control, tilting and shifting together offer endless possibilities, but mastering that was definitely for another day!

© Mark Flatman

Everyone came away from the workshop having experienced that eureka moment of now fully understanding the idiosyncrasies of this most versatile of lens.

Many thanks are due to Tim Parish, ably assisted by Jim Souper for showing us all how to use these lenses. They are planning to run future courses for those who missed this one and have had their appetite whetted.

© Nick Akers © Tim Parish

© Nick Akers

NEWSLETTER JUNE 2016 / VOL. 1 / NO. 5

What's On

A selection of exhibitions & events which may be of interest to landscape group members

Exhibitions Magical Surfaces: The Uncanny in Contemporary Photography Includes work by seven contemporary artists, including Stephen Shore and Joel Sternfeld. Showing at the Parasol Unit, London N1 until 12th June Justin Minns: A Stone's Throw Images of the landscape around Dedham Vale, on show at the National Trust's Boat House Gallery in Flatford until 26th June.

Photography and Film for the 20th Century A retrospective of Paul Strand's career including images of New York's wharves and factories from the 1910's and his only UK assignment, to South Uist. Showing at the V&A until 3rd July.

Iceland, an Uneasy Calm An exhibition of Tim Rudman's black and white photographs of Iceland at the Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock Abbey, near Chippenham, Wiltshire.

Continues until 10th July. Also on show at The Lightbox, Woking, Surrey until 3rd July.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year On loan from the Natural History Museum, now showing at the Rheged Centre, Cumbria until 3rd July.

Paul Kenny: Land | Sea A new exhibition of camera-less photography will include recent works from his series Seaworks and O'Hanami - re-imaginings of objects found along the shoreline and forest floors of Great Britain. Showing at Beetles+Huxley in Mayfair from 20th June to 16th July.

Henri Cartier-Bresson: PARIS Features images captured between 1929 and 1985, providing an extraordinary insight into the streets of the city and the lives of its people. Showing at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Art, Norwich until 29th August.

Echoes of the Great War: Photographs by Peter Cattrell Peter Cattrell's black and white images of the Somme today at Museums Sheffield until 4th September.

Fox Talbot: Dawn of the Photograph An exhibition exploring the life and career of Henry Fox Talbot, 'the father of photography'. Showing at the Science Museum in London until 11th September.

Noble Prospects: Capability Brown and the Yorkshire Landscape A celebration of the work of designer Lancelot Capability Brown in Yorkshire, with an exhibition of paintings, drawings and manuscripts. In addition, a new film by Simon Warner that depicts a group of Capability Brown’s Yorkshire landscapes as they are today. On show at the Mercer Gallery, Harrogate from 25th June to 11th September.

Painting With Light: Art and Photography from the Pre-Raphaelites to the Modern Age A major exhibition exploring the relationship between early photography and British Art. Showing at Tate Britain until 25th September.

Conferences and Festivals Patchings Festival An art, craft and photography festival at the Patchings Art Centre in Nottinghamshire, from 9th to 12th June. Speakers listed in the Photography Marquee include Valda Bailey, Dav Thomas, Steve Watkins, Greg Whitton and Pete Bridgwood.

New Pastoral Paradigms: Explorations in Landscape and the Self Saturday 23rd July, 10:30am to 4pm.

As part of photographer and writer Jesse Alexander's residency, Bank Street Arts is hosting a symposium that will consider how contemporary landscape practice has shifted from its pastoral traditions to embrace more nuanced, personal approaches.

Tickets £25 - £40 A Meeting of Minds 2016 18th - 20th November, Rheged Centre, Cumbria Organised by online magazine On Landscape, this year's speakers include John Blakemore, Charles Cramer, Mark Littlejohn, Simon Norfolk and more.

Conference tickets £260.

Do you have an exhibition of your own?

Do you know of a local exhibition which may interest members?

Please let us know at landscape@rps.org.

NEWSLETTER JUNE 2016 / VOL. 1 / NO. 5

For further details of all Landscape Group events please visit the group's event page at

EVENTS

http://www.rps.org/special-interest-groups/landscape/events

The Natural and Man-made Landscape Saturday 2nd July

Monyash, Derbyshire The workshop will be centred around the beautiful village of Monyash (pronounced Munyash) in the middle of the Peak District in Derbyshire. Led by Paul Hill, Maria Falconer and Nick Lockett.

See here for full details.

Wallingford Wanderings Friday 7th - Sunday 9th October

Wallingford, Oxfordshire This weekend has been organised by award-winning wine writer and Travel Group member Andrew Barrow. Andrew is also a member of the Landscape Group and would like to extend the invitation to our members.

Andrew, along with Liz Rhodes, will guide participants around the town and local area. Local photographer Damian Ward will also lead a workshop and a session on woodland photography. The guest speaker will be Jeanne Horak-Druiff who will talk about food photography in the context of travel and discovery.

See here for further details.

Liverpool and Crosby Field Trip Saturday 15th October

Capture the Lake District in Autumnal colours Saturday 22nd October

Elterwater It may seem that summer is only just beginning, but now could be a good time to start booking your autumn outings! The North West Region is again running its successful autumn trip to the magnificent Langdale valley in the Lake District; a trip that will be of interest to many members of the Landscape Group.

See here for further details.

Long Exposure Coastal Exploration Sunday 4th Dec., 10:00am - Sunset Shoreham and Brighton - EVENT FULLY BOOKED

Meet at the car park on Shoreham Old Fort Rd, BN43 5HL The day will start at Shoreham harbour, making images of the harbour structures and the harbour wall. After two hours the group will drive along to Shoreham beach and make images of the posts and breakwaters as well as break for lunch. The day will finish on Brighton beach with the opportunity to photograph the old west pier at sunset.

Participants: Max 8 to attend.

Please email Richard Ellis sre868@gmail.com Cost: RPS Landscape SIG member £0, RPS £5, Nonmember £10

© Mark Reeves

Spend the morning photographing the blend of magnificent Georgian, Victorian, neo-classical and striking modern architectural styles in and around the city centre. Then, weather permitting, relocate (by car or easy public transport) to visit Anthony Gormley's renowned Another Place, an installation of 100 life-sized statues at Crosby Beach.

See here for full details.

Could you host an event?

If you know of a promising and photogenic location in your area, and you would be willing to organise an informal session for other members of the Group, please get in touch with Paul Graber at paul.graber@ntlworld.com or on 07971 885905.

We welcome all volunteers and would very much like to hear from members in Scotland and the north of England.

NEWSLETTER JUNE 2016 / VOL. 1 / NO. 5