AV News 219 April 2020

the RPS AV Group for ve years and only stepped down from the bookings, bank transfers, and PayPal to the NAVC and the IAVF. I

journeys to and from the Committee meetings, held in

In addition to the position of Treasurer, the Committee was very

Chairman's Chatter

Edgar Gibbs FRPS, MPAGB, AV-AFIAP

Since my last Chairman ’s Chatter we have emailed out the rst issue of AV News e-xtra. This won’t replace AV News, which will now be published three times a year in April, August and December. However, by reducing from four publications a year each issue of AV News will be able to have more pages of content, without adding to the annual cost of postage.

To help you keep in touch, the Committee also decided to introduce AV News e-xtra which will come out three times a year in between the printed AV News, sent out via Royal Mail. The quality articles, tips and tricks will remain in AV News whereas some time sensitive items will be in e-xtra. AV News e-xtra was emailed to members of the RPS AV Group and subscribers to AV News. So I hope when you received it, you found it interesting and helpful. I would like to thank Martin Addison for agreeing to take the lead on putting it together and making it such a splendid document.

Thanks also to Andrew Gagg for yet another set of visually compelling graphics and to Alastair Taylor for his invaluable help with coordinating the content. For those that are interested, the e-xtra graphics are based on the newspaper poster boards that used to be a regular sight on the streets stating “extra, extra, read all about it”, together with a hand written headline behind a mesh grill. AV News e-xtra is a 'digital' play on pronunciation. Please continue to send information on forthcoming AV events, your comments and articles to Alastair Taylor, who will determine whether they should be published in AV News or AV News e-xtra.

Hopefully, you will also have received, via email, FestiAVl News and made a rm date in your diary for the 24th RPS International AV Festival. The application for FIAP patronage has been made and plans are progressing well. The information for entrants remains virtually unchanged from previous Festivals. However, you may be aware of a conict between Windows 10 and graphic cards on some laptops affecting playback.

To help with this, the information for entrants to the 2020 Festival states that in the event of problems with .exe les authors may be required to submit an .mp4 le. My thanks advance thanks to Ian Bateman who has kindly agreed to write an article for this issue of AV News to help you make the right choice of settings if you need to provide an .mp4.

This issue of AV News also includes the latest news on the future of RPS Distinctions and I would be pleased to hear from anyone wanting further information on submitting their AVs for an RPS Distinction.

All Special Interest Groups (SIGS) are required to submit to RPS Head Quarters a Strategic Plan that ties in with the RPS’ s own Strategic Plan. I know you will be pleased to learn that the AV Group ’s Strategic Plan was submitted in February of this year. A copy will be placed on the of the AV Group's web page www.rps.org/av

There is one other element of news which is that the AV Group has submitted a proposal to the RPS in relation to a photographic project to promote environmental awareness. Details will shortly be available on www.rps.org/av.

Finally, my appreciation to our Editor Alastair Taylor for another superb issue of AV News

Edgar (right) with Bev and Alan Tyrer judging at the great Northern AV festival in December 2020. Photograph courtesy Alastair Taylor.

Submitting AVs for an RPS Distinction - The Future

You may be aware that on 6th January 2020, there was an announcement regarding the range of distinctions the RPS offer. Conspicuous by its absence was the Multimedia Distinction. I approached the RPS on this and was told that it was to be discussed at the Distinctions Committee. I have now received an email which states the following:

I know you have been waiting to hear our plans for the Multimedia panel for the next two-year Distinctions cycle and my apologies that it has taken a little while to review the data and come to a conclusion.

The decision has now been made. Sadly, we will have to disband the MM panel because there is insufcient interest in the genre to sustain it. We had only one application throughout 2019.

This is an interim measure, and we would like to keep a home open for anyone interested in submitting AVs, whether with or without video. We are therefore talking to the Chair of the new Film Panel, Max Robinson FRPS, to add elements of the MM criteria into the Film guidelines. We may well be calling on one or two of you to help with assessments, if you are willing, should we receive any applications.

Once the nal version of the lm guidelines are completed, we will send you a copy.

A letter conrming this will be sent to you over the next few days. I would personally like to thank you for all your support. It was not an easy decision, but it was felt by linking elements to the Film genre this would in fact help applicants.

Best wishes

Andy Moore - Distinctions Manager

The AV Group Committee is obviously disappointed as the RPS AV Distinctions rst started in 1972, two years after the RPS AV Group was formed. On a positive note the email states that once the nal version of lm guidelines are completed I will be sent a copy. I will ensure that a link to the guidelines will be put on our website and it will go out in the AV Group’s AV News e-xtra and should you wish to apply for a Distinction hopefully you will be able to do so. A copy of the letter informing us of this decision will be put on the website as soon as it is available.

If you are interested in applying for a Distinction please feel free to contact Edgar Gibbs for the latest position.

David Neal LRPS AFIAP DPAGB BPE4*

I am very sorry to have to report that David passed away unexpectedly on 25 January 2020, aged 74. He was Treasurer of the RPS AV Group for ve years and only stepped down from the position at the 2019 AGM. He was the rst person to take on all three Treasurers' roles, namely the main RPS AV Group, the National AV Championship and the International AV Festival. In particular he helped me to introduce electronic entries and bookings, bank transfers, and PayPal to the NAVC and the IAVF. I was also grateful to David’s wife, Gillian who helped out at the last two International AV Festivals by volunteering to provide practical support during the Festival weekend.

In the last couple of years, David’s move to Hastings meant his journeys to and from the Committee meetings, held in Worcester, became long and arduous. However, not wanting to give up his role, David was still able to be seen and heard at the end of the Committee table, making his valuable contributions via Skype.

In addition to the position of Treasurer, the Committee was very grateful to David who stepped in after Jill Bunting and John Smith stood down from their role as Editors of the AV News, producing four editions of AV News.

Many of us will have appreciated David's lovely Celtic photo harmonies. I understand that in addition to his love of photography, the Air Training Corps, the RAF's cadet force, was an inuential part of his youth so much so that he was able to obtain his gliding licence and y solo at the age of 16. In the last few years David also took an interest in the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

David will be sadly missed by the AV Community and we send our heartfelt condolences to his wife Gillian and his family.

Edgar Gibbs FRPS MPAGB AV-AFIAP

Alastair Taylor ARPS CPAGB/AV

Isometime ponder as to who reads AV News. You are probably a subscriber and if so, I hope you like what you get and especially in this expanded version. This copy is 72 pages which is a considerable increase on the last copy which was 56 pages. Quite a thud when it drops on your doormat!

Our challenge is to get more people to read AV News and join our movement. With three printed copies of AV News backed up by a further three copies of the new AV News e-xtra together with our wonderful new RPS AV Group Website, there are plenty of ways for people to nd out what we are doing to promote our photographic interest.

The challenge of course is in reaching out to people who haven't got a clue what AV is all about. This continues to be a subject of great debate and one where there is no easy answer. I must applaud our friend Jeff Morris in South Africa who has introduced a “WhatApp” group where members can share information to all members of the group through a simple text message. On the left, I have shown a “ screen grab” to give you an idea as to what this looks like. I am sure that Jeff will be pleased to hear from you if you would like to join the group.

Of course there will be those people who resist all these means of communication. Balancing the negative aspects with the wider good is challenging. It is a complex world when it comes to communications but one thing for sure is that we are born to communicate and hungry to do so.

When you think about it, AV is all about communicating a message and you might wish to read Graham Sergeant's article to nd out some more thoughts on this. Similarly, Robert Albright has written an interesting article on the charitable purpose of the RPS with thoughts on the role of AV in meeting those aspirations. I certainly believe that AV has a great role to play in widening participation in photography and it power in expressing a view.

Another person who communicates well is the environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg. Last year I attend a careers event for young people aged around fourteen years of age. They were very driven by the environment and it was clear that communication through a compelling story and strong imagery is something which they will watch. I am very taken by a You Tube video on this subject which in effect is an excellent AV production. Have a look yourself at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q0xUXo2zEY

Perhaps sAVing the planet will be the next big thing for AV productions.

The next edition of AV News will be published around July and I already have some exciting articles ready for that. Over the course of the spring as AV events keep unfolding, do please keep sending me your articles and photographs.

As always, can I express my thanks and appreciation to all of our contributors. Contact the editor at: magazine@avnews.org.uk

Charity begins at home

Robert Albright Hon FRPS

The RPS AV Group continues to provide an excellent service for its members, running a ne regular publication and a major festival each year. As Immediate Past President of The Royal Photographic Society (not an ofcial post, by the way), I was interested to read some comments about the broader Society in the AV Group Chairman’s annual report. Howard has since retired from his role so I must rst thank him for his work for The Society, a service which is much appreciated by me. He rightly draws attention to the inuence of the Charity Commission and charity law generally in the nature of The Society. He cites a Voicebox column of mine in the September 2019 RPS Journal. ‘In a recent editorial in the Journal, the President said that ‘’The RPS charity is not […] to operate for the benet of its members. Our goal is higher and more ambitious.’ What I actually wrote is:

‘ The RPS charity is not like a global camera club whose primary purpose is to operate for the benet of its members. Our goal is higher and more ambitious. ’

My intention was to point out that a camera club, global or otherwise, is created and exists primarily for the benet of its members. In contrast to this, The RPS is obliged by its Charter and the terms of its Royal Patronage to operate primarily in a public education role.

It is important to stress that the two goals, public benet and membership benet, are not incompatible. Members of The Society are also members of the public. The RPS can and should operate in a way that benets its members but this activity, under our Royal Charter, must be secondary to a broader educational purpose. The Society cannot, under the terms of its Charter and acceptance of Royal Patronage, simply cater for its members and relegate public benet to a secondary role.

You may ask ‘How did The Society end up with these obligations? Surely it was founded in 1853 as a members’ club?’ The answer to these questions lies in the events of the early years of this century.

Pictured Right: Robert Albright meets the RPS Patron, the Duchess of Cambridge in 2019. Photograph courtesy Rebecca Faith

At this time The RPS was headquartered in a Grade 1 listed building at Milsom Street, Bath. The Society had a repairing lease for use of the building. This meant that it had to maintain the building in a good condition, both internally and externally. Here we start to feel uneasy. The building housed The RPS Collection, conservatively valued today at £20 million.

What happened to cause such a major change in the fortunes of The Society? It rained. The roof leaked. The valuable Collection was at risk. The RPS did not have the funds to make the necessary roof repairs. It was hours away from insolvency. In desperation, government authorities were approached. A deal was done. The nation would effectively purchase the Collection (for approximately £4m) and transfer it to the National Media Museum in Bradford (part of the Science Group of Museums).

Charity begins at home continued ...

This agreement (‘memorandum of understanding’) would enable The Society, for the rst time in its 150 year history, to buy a freehold building (Fenton House, Bath) and to invest the balance in an investment fund. The agreement was sealed by a Royal Charter (2004) which stipulated the terms on which The Society would operate in the future, no longer as primarily a members’ club but as a registered incorporated charity. And here I quote from the RPS AV Group Chairman’s Annual Report, citing Clause 2.1 of The Charter: ‘’ ‘The objects of The Society are to educate members of the public by increasing their knowledge and understanding of Photography and in doing so, to promote the highest standards of achievement in Photography in order to encourage public appreciation of Photography.’’ In the full context of events it is possible to see why ‘No mention is made of any benet to paying members, nor of the unstinting contribution of the multitude of volunteers who run most of the activities of The Society.’

Events have moved on since 2004. The RPS Collection has moved to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The RPS were ‘consulted’ but had no authority in this decision. It must be said that the V & A have proved to be in a much better position to curate and display The Collection than the Science Museum Group.

Under my Presidency the long-term future of The Society has been further secured by the purchase (250 year lease) and tting out to a very high and creative standard of a new headquarters building in the Arnos Vale area of Bristol. From what I have outlined above you can see the critical importance of this recent move in securing the future of The RPS. There are superb rooms to display and project all types of image and a research facility. There is a public event space and the essential ofce facilities. It should be mentioned here that the new HQ was partly funded by a large and generous legacy from Tony Troman ARPS, well known to many of us as an RPS AV Group member and festival organiser.

Public Benefit in Action

AV workers; Dave Cooke, Malcolm Imhoff, Jose ’ Currant and Richard Brown, members of Sutton Coldeld Photography Club, at last year ’ s AV event for an audience of over a hundred which they organised in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support

Howard concludes his article by saying; ‘I suspect and hope that this change in focus may have little effect on the AV world, other than perhaps a continuing decline in membership of the RPS Group.’

I see no reason why our new focus should contribute to declining membership. Surely there are opportunities for the AV Group to put on events in public venues with a charitable goal included in the programme? One idea is to invite a group of disadvantaged children to a free session at an AV festival. Such public benet activities, demonstrating a commitment to our charitable obligations, might even lead to a growth in membership members by broadening our appeal and demonstrating our higher purpose.

The History of the South Wales RPS AV Group

Edgar Gibbs FRPS, MPAGB, AV-AFIAP

The rst record of the Group I could nd was in the March/April 1979 issue of AV News where it was noted that Flt Lt N.S.B. “Pat” Reynolds was the Regional Organiser. I have not been able to nd out any details of when Pat Reynolds started the Group or what events he organised.

I have however been fortunate in that my predecessor, Owen Gibbs LRPS (no relation) gave me a hand written partial history of the origins of the Group. Owen Gibbs thought that it may have been at a National AV Championships in 1981, held at Sutton Bonington, when Pat Reynolds LRPS asked him if he would take over the running of the Group, which conrms the Group may have already been having meetings from 1979 to then. Owen was not sure what, if anything, happened for about 18 months but it was then he had a ‘phone call from Ray Brightman FRPS, who was then Chairman of the National RPS AV Group. Subsequently, Owen found himself in the RPS AV Group minutes on 8th May 1983, named as the Area Organiser for AV in South Wales. Owen organised three meetings in spring of 1983, the third one being held on 12th March. In 1984 Owen began the routine of winter meetings, which continued to 1988. As a matter of interest on 14th May 1984 there were 18 present (names are available to those interested). It was on 10th November 1986 that Owen Gibbs persuaded Linda and I gave our rst show to the group. I have copies of the programmes prepared by Owen Gibbs for 1986, 1987, and in 1988 (copies are available to those interested). Owen Gibbs who was my boss at that time (incidentally I had to address him as ‘Mr Gibbs’ at work and ‘Owen’ outside of work) handed over or should I say persuaded Linda and I to take over organising the Group in 1989.

The History of the South Wales RPS AV Group continued ...

When we took over we were given the Group’s le which has been helpful in preparing this history. The meetings continued to be held monthly at the TOC H building in Richmond Crescent, Cardiff. 1989 was the rst programme Linda and I produced with a mixture of guests, along with home grown talent. We had invested in an Amstrad Word Processor and used the Royal Mail to send out copies of the programme, and we would regularly get 20-30 people to our meetings. Equipment was not easy with 2 Kodak Carousels, and Elmo projectors, the incredibly heavy 4 track TEAC reel to reel, cassette players of 2 different speeds and 3 types of noise reduction.

For the dissolves there was the Diafade, Pollock Duofade, and Dataton plus Novar, and Imatronic dissolve units being used, and of course the Royale. We would occasionally get guests with 3 and 4 projector shows but thankfully they brought their own kit.

During our involvement with the Group, Linda and I put on AV days and together with other members organised some day trips and although slightly less, the numbers attending our meetings were still good. After nearly 10 years Linda and I became members of the RPS International AV Festival Committee, and stepped back from running the Group. I am very grateful to Peter Brown, Les Charlesworth, Mary O’Connell, and Phil Bennion as Treasurer, who then formed a Committee to run the Group.

Digital then came along and this was quite a milestone, as there were some that embraced it straight away, some reluctantly and some did not. I recall at one evening projecting one of our AVs both digitally and using slides simultaneously on 2 screens that were side by side. Christmas 2010 saw the lead committee member Mary O’Connell step down and Linda and I picked up the reins again.

With the sad loss of some members, and those that were nding driving and coming out in the dark a problem, the numbers decreased. With this as a background, the numbers of active members reducing and our venue at the Heath Citizens being less affordable, we dropped from 9 to 6 meetings per year. We got involved with battles/exchanges of work with Wantage, Exmouth, Melbourne, South Africa, East Anglia and Staffordshire. Thanks must go to Laura Parker who coordinated these evenings. Thanks also to Patricia Lloyd for organising a number of internal competitions, and an enjoyable day trip to Newport. We were coming to the end of 2019 and our days or evenings were numbered so after 40 years, the last RPS AV Group in the UK to meet on a monthly basis came to an end.

Our nal meeting was the Christmas Party on 9th December 2019. Martin Fry FRPS EFIAP APAGB one of our most regular guests, sent us some of his Seasonal Sequences to show at our meeting, as unfortunately he could not be with us. The evening was a suitable nale to the 40 years the Group has been meeting.

Next on the horizon may be an RPS South Wales Regional day of AV, so watch this space.

As current Chair of the National RPS AV Group and 2 times organiser of the South Wales RPS AV Group, I would like to thank everyone past and present who has been involved as attenders, guests, helpers or organisers for their contribution to the success of the South Wales RPS AV Group.

Long Service

Following on from the “History of the South Wales RPS AV Group article, at the nal meeting I was privileged to be able to present Phil Bennion LRPS and Treasurer of the Group with a certicate for 19 years volunteering service. He is shown here with his wife Enid who has not only supported Phil, but helped at many meetings and who has made our Group more cups of tea and coffee than I could try to count. Thank you both for your long service.

Photograph courtesy Linda Gibbs

Great Yorkshire AV Day

Tim Harvey

As Bob Dylan wrote, “Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and blood” and for me that was my time in AV until I came along to the Great Yorkshire AV Sunday on a damp November day in Horsforth, Leeds.

Some 30 years ago, as a youngster still in my twenties, I produced sequences using 2 Zeiss Ikon projectors and a Pollock manual fader (which I still have!) and used to attend the Leeds AV group and the Great Yorkshire AV Sundays when they were held in Wetherby. I have a rather ancient checklist of all the equipment that was required for one of my shows, including naturally a stop watch and a book of timings and notes for each sequence. There are over 30 items on the list, for those were the days of ‘steam driven’ AV, as someone in the Leeds AV group described it (though to be fair almost everyone else had moved onto tape driven sequences by then). A far cry from the IT driven productions of the 21st century!

So, after a considerable break linked primarily to family commitments, I found myself thinking about returning to those long lost hobbies from my youth. I did a bit of Googling, made contact with Bryan Stubbs, and a few weeks later was on the relatively short road to Leeds Trinity University to see how things had changed over the past few decades. I must admit to having a bit of concern over the itinerary – was the entire morning really going to be taken up with half-nished works in progress? I needn’t have worried – all 12 sequences were very rounded and of a high standard, taking us on an intriguing voyage of exploration and bringing home to me the major advances in the hobby that IT and digital photography has delivered.

One of the big surprises to me was the inclusion of video footage in AV, mixed in with the traditional still images, and also the way that sequences can be enhanced by the use of gradual zooms and pans. The latter worked particularly well on the sequence For The Fallen by Willem Van Herp, while Andrew Chadwick’s sequence on the Hull City of Culture (‘Urban Legends’) was primarily video. Sound quality and voice overs were generally of a high standard and image quality was almost uniformly good – I was very impressed by Alan Tyrer’s excellent close framed images in his moving Bomber sequence.

Denitely the most unique sequence for me was Dave Thompson’s amazing Big Top – set to the soundtrack from The Greatest Showman, this was entirely animated with around 1000 separate images. This was clearly a major piece of (art) work, something I can very much appreciate, having done a few ’cartoon’ sequences myself in the past.

Everyone got some feedback, which was always positive and helpful and was more about tweaking rather than anything major. Hopefully everyone present learnt something that will lead to enhanced sequences in the future.

In the afternoon we were treated to the work of AV News editor, Alastair Taylor. Despite a few technical issues before the tea break, he managed to explore an interesting consideration of the choice of music for AV, putting forward a good case for more sequences based on songs and authentic unscripted material (including from BBC Sounds). After all, AV should be 50% images and 50% soundtrack, and arguably the latter should perhaps be more varied?

The second half of his slot showed us his progression from LRPS to CPAGB and ARPS, with some excellent sequences and more impressive third images. That Picture was a novel take on what might otherwise have been a traditional Taj Mahal travelogue, while Another Day in Paradise again made excellent use of holiday pictures to tell the shocking tale and aftermath of the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004.

Taking advantage of the closure of Shrewsbury prison, Beyond The Wall provided a passionate inside view of the prison system, that nevertheless still managed to include some lovely third image dissolves.

So, 30 years on from all that ‘toil and blood’, AV has clearly moved on and I feel has benetted from improvements in technology. The only slightly worrying consistency from all those years ago is that I did still feel I was perhaps the youngest person in the room…and I am myself getting rather close to a signicant birthday!

A MESSAGE FROM THE FESTIVAL DIRECTOR

Edgar Gibbs, FRPS, MPAGB, AV-AFIAP, successfully led the 22nd and 23rd Royal Photographic Society International Audio Visual Festivals in 2016 and 2018. He is once again taking on the role of Festival Director for the 24th Festival in 2020. Reecting on the previous Festivals, Edgar commented: "At both Festivals the audience was treated to a range of excellent international Audio Visual programmes and I am looking forward to receiving this year’s entries. It is an event not to be missed”.

IMPORTANT DATES

If you would like to attend The Royal Photographic Society 24th International Audio Visual Festival 2020, it will be held on Saturday 26 September and Sunday 27 September 2020.

Entries for the Festival can be sent to the Director from Saturday 1 August 2020. No entries will be accepted after Friday 28 August 2020.

THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ART (FIAP)

The aim of FIAP is the promotion of photographic art through various photographic events. FIAP was founded in 1946 by Dr M Van de Wijer, a Belgian, who wanted to establish links between different national photographic associations throughout the world. The rst Congress took place in 1950 in Bern, Switzerland, to ofcially establish the foundation of FIAP when delegates from ten countries attended. Today FIAP is afliated to more than 85 national associations over ve continents and represents the interests of nearly one million individual photographers.

Both the 2016 and 2018 Festivals were granted FIAP patronage and the application for FIAP patronage for the 2020 Festival has also been granted. The 2016 Festival and the 2018 Festival attracted 122 AV entries from 14 countries and 112 entries from 13 countries respectively. To have your AV programme played at this prestigious Royal Photographic International Audio Visual Festival is really special as the quality must be of a suitably high standard.

With the limited number of FIAP patronised AV festivals, it is anticipated that there will be a large number of entries again this year. As much as the Festival organisers would like to show every entry it is unlikely that this can be achieved. FIAP use the term "preselection" and requires that at least one member of the Festival Jury makes the decision about which AV programmes will be shown over the Festival weekend. It is part of the judging process; a principle supported by FIAP and if necessary, pre-selection will be carried out by the Chair of the Jury.

THE JURY

The names of the members of the Jury were submitted to FIAP in order to obtain patronage. The three Judges making up the Festival Jury, who are all successful AV authors, are Howard Bagshaw ARPS MPAGB (Chair), Graham Sergeant FRPS, both from the UK and Musse Anger. Musse lives in Italy but she is originally from France and as well as English, speaks a further four languages.

HOW TO ENTER THE FESTIVAL

Please go to www.rps.org/iavf where you will nd a link that will take you to all the information you need, including the entry form and information for entrants. Please read the 'Information for Entrants' document carefully to ensure that your AV programme, completion of the entry form and submission of other documentation fully complies with the Festival rules.

ATTENDING THE FESTIVAL

Being in the audience at an international AV event is always a great opportunity to see excellent International AV programmes, but it is also a great social opportunity to meet up with friends within the AV community and catch up on the latest news.

Please visit www.rps.org/iavf to access the link that will take you to another website where you can complete the booking form so that you can order your Festival session tickets, lunches and a place at the Festival Dinner on the Saturday evening.

THE VENUE FOR THE 2020 FESTIVAL

In 2016 and 2018 the Royal Photographic Society International Audio Visual Festivals were held in Dean Close Preparatory School, Cheltenham, England. It proved so popular that the Festival is returning there again this year. The full address of the venue is The 1914 Centenary Hall, Dean Close Preparatory School, Lansdown Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL51 6QS. The Hall has a raked auditorium allowing excellent viewing of the AV programmes. Additionally, Dean Close School has ample parking, is close to a Premier Inn (other accommodation is also available) and has easy access from the M5 motorway.

KEEPING YOU INFORMED

The RPS HQ will be emailing Festival News to individuals to keep them up-todate with the latest information. If you have not received a copy of Festival News by the time this article is published and would like one sent to you, please email director.iavf@virginmedia.com and Edgar Gibbs, Festival Director will ensure that you are placed on the distribution list.

Linda Gibbs MPAGB AV - AFIAP

Assistant Director

RPS International AV Festival 2020

But will I recognise it at the end.

Raymond Hughes

The editor’s call for articles about how sequences get made set me thinking about how often where we start with a sequence may not be where we end up. The idea that suddenly bursts into your head and you can already visualise the nished production only to nd something totally unrecognisable from the original idea when it appears on the screen. My particular experience was a good number of years ago now when I saw a short sequence of images of the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin and thought ‘I’ll have some of that’. A bitterly cold March 17th saw me against the crowd barrier in O’Connell Street snapping away for all I was worth the sequence already forming in my head. The only problem was when the parade nished, it took the best part of half an hour to get my knees working again, they were so cold. Oh, how we suffer for our art. As I perused the several hundred images that I had gathered I began to wonder what would Patrick make of American marching bands, half naked Brazilian Samba dancers and leprechauns celebrating his life. The transition had begun and I started to consider if I could include Patrick himself in the sequence. My rst thought was of a monk drinking a pint of Guinness but no, too irreverent. So, on to another string on the AV worker’s bow, research. I discovered that Patrick had told me all I needed to know by writing about his life in ‘Saint Patrick’s confession’. Inspired by that, I could hear words forming “I am myth, I am legend, I am fact, I am ction”. “I am but a simple countryman, a sinner of little learning, the least of the faithful”. I had the opening for my script.

What would Patrick make of American marching bands, half naked Brazilian Samba dancers and leprechauns celebrating his life?

But will I recognise it at the end continued …

I was on a tread mill at the local Gym, (and that tells you how long ago we are talking) thinking how this sequence might develop with “ I am myth ,I am etc. repeating in my head. Looking out over the nearby wild life pond as a mist started to clear I saw my rst image. Outside, grabbed the camera and a series of misty morning shots. Another misty morning provided several more of the opening images. I live close to Slemish Mountain central to the Patrick story, very convenient. We were off and running now. The confession driving the script the script dictating the images. The music is Clannad’s ‘Lady Marian’. Three and a half minutes in and we have a dreamy waterfall fading to a sunset as Patrick wonders while his life ebbs away “How will I be remembered in Ireland”.

Bang, instant change to shots of the Dublin celebration to a sudden loud rendition of Sousa’s ‘The Washington Post’ and the Saint Patrick’s Day parade, two and a half minutes of it nishing with a third image dissolve of a river coming down O’Connell Street. I didn’t get frozen knees for nothing.

The sequence returns to Patrick’s narrative and the ‘Lady Marian’ music to take us to the end. The script ends when Patrick identies himself as the narrator for the rst time and a composite image of Patrick’s church at Saul and a statue of a monk, the nearest thing I could get to represent the saint.

Now completed, I arrive, sequence on stick at the RPS (Ireland) meeting to show the members and await the plaudits for my masterpiece. Always straight to the point “far too long” was Molly McConaghy’s comment. “Too many parade images” advised the Rev Gordon Gray. What did they know just because they were A.V. winners at International level didn’t make them experts? It was my sequence for which I had suffered frozen knees.

So, to the rst festival and it received polite praise from the judge but he thought the parade section was “far too long”. Where had I heard that before? When a second judging came with the same comment it was time for humble pie and back to the lightbox and a ruthless culling. The parade section was reduced to just twenty-one images shown in around forty seconds reducing the sequence by almost two minutes. Back at the RPS meeting, much better reviews and not one “we told you so”. But an admission from me that perhaps peer review can be right.

The edited sequence would go on to gain several awards and would be one of the sequences for which I was awarded my ARPS.

If I can return to the start of this article, I had set out with a denite idea to make a simple sequence recording a celebratory parade. The images for that prompted questions of how appropriate the parade actually was for its purpose. Research reinforced that thinking and what might have been an introductory few images explaining the celebration expanded to become the sequence and the original idea was reduced to a forty-second-bit part. I am sure that many of you reading this will have had similar experiences and that to me is part of the joy in what we do.

Now what to do with several hundred parade images, photo harmony perhaps?

www.rps.org/groups/audio-visual

Alastair Taylor ARPS CPAGB/AV

We have a new section on the RPS website!

We are in great debt to Sheila Haycox who volunteered to populate the AV Group pages on RPS website which went “live” in the autumn. The RPS website and AV Group section represents a step change from the previous web platform and your committee has used this as an opportunity to make access to on-line information a key feature of its activities.

Finding the new website is easy. Either type in the URL (as above) or navigate to the page by clicking on the Become a Member button at the top right corner and scrolling down to Groups under the Discover our members’ Benets heading. There are 15 Special Interest Groups and as well as Audio Visual, you can look at the work of our fellow enthusiasts. There are some interesting activities.

On the right hand page is a screen shot from the AV Group home page and below the header, there is a range of tabs. Click on these to access:

Why not visit the pages and explore?

GN 2019 News

Looking back at the Great Northern AV Festival

Laura Parker

My rst Great Northern AV Festival was a very cold weekend in Manchester. Thanks to the late start time I had the chance to go for a walk on Saturday morning and saw people in shorts and ip ops as I fell to the pavement on the ice. Oh well, it takes all sorts. The weekend denitely improved from there. With sessions lasting about an hour there was plenty of time for breaks in which the tea/coffee and biscuits were owing and there was lot of catching up to do with far ung AVers.

Here are some of the highlights for me. Judith Kimber’s Safe was beautifully written, both the words and music, and was a worthy winner of the festival. I found Chris Bate’s AV about Fort George fascinating, with a detailed explanation of how and why the fort was built, the engineering behind it and it’s continued use today. It is denitely going on the list of places to take my dad if we’re ever in the area. (It’s not the rst time I’ve found places to take him from an AV, the Concorde museum was huge hit.)

Although there were lots of serious topics covered, there were some lovely light hearted sequences too, and these were interspersed throughout the weekend, to keep the atmosphere jovial. The Sweet Tooth by Barbara & David Pickford was one such sequence, and had us all laughing before the lunch break, (and just in time to satisfy my own sweet tooth with the fantastic selection of cakes for dessert).

One of my absolute favourites of the weekend was Alastair Taylor’s Midsummer Madness. In the style of a tourist advert, with authentic accent, and a clever and witty script, a trip to see family in Sweden showed what the Scandinavians get up to in all that daylight.

Thanks to the organisers of the festival, it all seemed to run very smoothly and everyone had a good time. I’ll denitely be going again in the future, and would urge anyone looking for an enjoyable weekend to do the same.

Great Northern AV Festival 2019 Results

New Horizons - 14 Entries

Winner - Reconciliation by Derrick Holliday

L&CPU Gold Medal donated by the Lancashire & Cheshire Photographic Union Copy of PTE AV Studio Pro supplied by Igor Kokarev of WnSoft.com

2nd Place - La Vallee des Saints by Mo Martin

3rd Place - Lovatnet Lake by Peter & Carol Hyett

Highly Commended - My Private Peaceful by Jim Waddington

Commended - Will You Speak For Me by Jenny Baker

Audience Vote

Winner - Reconciliation by Derrick Holliday

Great Northern Festival Ribbon and a Great Northern USB Flash Drive

2nd Place - Sound of Silence by Brian Pere

3rd Place - La Vallee des Saints by Mo Martin

Above – Derrick Holliday receives his award from Ron Davies

The Howard

Gregory Memorial Trophy for the Most Creative

Soundtrack: It's Good To Talk by John Smith

Great Northern AV Festival 2019 Results

Great Northern - 41 Entries

Winner - Safe by Judith Kimber

PAGB Gold Medal Royalty Free Music CD from AKM Music

2nd Place - There Was Never Anybody Like Him by Richard Brown

3rd Place - Inn On The Pass by Keith Leedham

Highly Commended

The End Of All Our Exploring by Mark Allen

God’s Paintbrush by Malcolm Imhoff

Shifting Shores by Malcolm & Jenny Gee

Commended

The Valiant Soldier by Ian Bateman

The Great Paternalist by Tony Collinson

Visions Of Africa by Lisa Bukalders

Above - The fantastic team behind the

Great Northern AV Festival

Persistence Pays Off

New Horizons Success for the Exmouth Photo Group

Ann Owens CPAGB, EFIAP

The latest edition of AV News dropped through my letterbox. I have a strong interest in AVs - but since going over to an Apple Mac, the preferred software, Pix2Exe, only worked on a PC - which I’d abandoned. However, in the intervening years, I have maintained my interest and attempted to keep abreast of the software, and who was doing what in this genre.

I knew about an active special interest group at Exmouth Photo Group, who meet regularly to learn more about making an AV - and which have been very lucky indeed in having not one, but TWO MPAGBs within their membership!

So, it was with great interest that I learned that this little group had enjoyed unprecedented success at the recent Great Northern Competition, held in Chorlton, Manchester. It was open to all residents of Great Britain, including Northern & Southern Ireland, and overseas residents if they attended.

A recent addition to the competition is New Horizons - intended to encourage newcomers and the less experienced AV worker to enter and attend the Festival. It is restricted to those authors who had not previously won awards in a major competition. Verbal comments were given on the day from the Judges and written feedback sent after the Competition.

I was really delighted to read about the successes on the day of this group of local AV enthusiasts who had travelled to Manchester for the weekend. You know me? I had to get the “lowdown”! A phone call to the Gold Medal, winner Derrick Holliday, was called for!

I’ve known Derrick for a number of years, and our paths have crossed a few times when we attended WAVES (Western Audio Visual Enthusiasts) meetings in Trowbridge. This is where I have been able to see a couple of his “work in progress” AVs. Because of the long travelling distances, an initiative was set up by some members of WAVES called RIPPLES - a sort of “rippling on” effect from WAVES but more focussed on local areas. Down here in Devon, we were lucky enough to have Sheila Haycox who kindly opened her home to several of us, keen to work on AVs and to get more individual help.

This is where Derrick rst showed his work.

In my chat with Derrick, I recalled seeing a black and white sequence he showed at WAVES and then RIPPLES , and consequently, it was entered in the WCPF AV competition. I loved it; it was very emotive, I thought. I asked him to us more?

Derrick replied “I have had an interest in making AVs for some 4 - 5 years. At rst, they were fairly simple affairs, and shown at our club, where members have Project Evenings. These are evenings where we show what we’re currently working on - and this was where a few of us showed what was effectively a collection of images set to music!

Then Ian Bateman joined our club! A prolic and talented creator in this genre, we soon found a special interest group of others keen to explore this new way of presenting our images being set up. With Ian’s more specialist help and encouragement, the group grew in condence and imagination, and the rst venture into the world of Audio Visual competition was through the WCPF’s Audio Visual annual competition.

Tommy was one of my earlier efforts. I found the statue, a WW1 soldier crafted in steel by Ray Lonsdale, on the seafront at Seaham, in Durham. I took ve images - but it wasn’t until I returned to Devon, that I thought it would make an AV! The poem which accompanied the statue provided the words - and this was a fairly simply AV, with the words running across the images.

I was soon advised that a voice over would have been better! After several more attempts, which included a return visit to Seaham for more images to be taken, I was nally satised with the end result! I was delighted when Mr Bateman said I’d “stepped up” with this latest effort!

So - the rst lesson I learned was that AVs needed “crafting” - and this means working and reworking them to make them the best you can. This certainly proved to be the case with the sequence I submitted for the Great Northern Competition.

‘Reconciliation’ tells the story of Coventry Cathedral and its rebirth from the ravages of the second World War bombings. This saw quite a few reincarnations - with music changes, scripting and voice overs.

Persistence Pays Off continued ...

I was fairly pleased with my latest effort - and plucked up my courage to ask a top worker in AVs to give me his “honest feedback”. This he did.

And no holds were barred! My “best” effort was pretty well torn to shreds! With a feeling of deep depression - I picked myself up after three days of gloom - and tried again! Taking into consideration the feedback comments I’d asked for - I had another attempt at redrafting this AV. Well - what’s the point of asking for feedback, then ignoring the advice?

It was this ‘nal’ nal effort which was entered for the Great Northern Competition - and it won a Gold medal in the New Horizons section! So much was learned on this journey - not least that “persistence pays off”.

Initially drawn by the contrast of the conjoined buildings, along with the artwork and design of the mid 20th century, whilst photographing there I came across the back story of the Cross of Nails and the 300 or so Centres for Peace and Reconciliation around the world, each of which have a Cross of Nails from the burnt trusses of the original Cathedral.

In fact, the Exmouth Photo Group’s Special Interest AV Group enjoyed much success at this competition!

Mo Martin was second with her La Vallee des Saints

Peter and Carol Hyett were third with their Lovanet Lake

Jenny Baker was Commended for her Will You Speak For Me

Wow! That was a brilliant result! Well done to all - and if nothing else, it proves that a small special interest group, keen to expand their knowledge and hone their skills, really does work.

I hope we’ll see some of these entered at the next WCPF AV Competition - or perhaps their newest work? This is scheduled for Saturday 4th April 2020 at Woodbury Village Hall, Flower Street, Woodbury, Devon, EX5 1LX from 10.00am. Two very experienced judges, Clive Rathband and Joan Ryder Rathband will attend and give comments on the day.

Images below courtesy Mo Martin LRPS “While travelling through Brittany I came across La Vallee des Saints and its 99 granite giants. I discovered that on 27th July 2018 St Piran, the Patron saint of Cornwall, was to be erected as the 100th statue, so marking the 10th Anniversary of the project. My AV showcases some of these statues and the erecting of St Piran!”

We worked jointly to produce 'Lovatnet Lake' The purpose of the AV was to tell the story of two natural disasters that struck Lovatnet Lake during 1905 and 1936, and how they impacted on the lives of local people.

Images above and below courtesy Carol Hyatt LRPS and Peter Hyatt ARPS

Images from “ Will You Speak For Me ” above and below courtesy Jenny Baker

I was involved in a fund - raising project to raise money to help people and elephants live together in harmony. As part of this project an album of music was especially written and I decided to use one of these songs, together with some images I had taken on a trip to Botswana, to illustrate the plight of elephants in their struggle against ivory poachers.

Shifting Shores

AV Enthusiasts Malcolm and Jenny Gee rise to new heights to obtain images for their Great Northern AV Festival entry Shifting Shores. All images courtesy Malcolm and Jenny Gee

We contacted the friend of a friend, who is an excellent pilot, and has access to a four seater Cessna light aircraft. Planning the ight was quite an involved exercise, with Carl our pilot, to ensure that we covered the whole of the North Norfolk Coast from both the landward and seaward directions, and did a number of circuits at certain points of interest along the coastline. In all we took just over 200 images on a ight that lasted for an hour and a half. It was an amazing experience, but a very busy one!!!!!

Above Image: Lapwings at Cley-next-the-Sea, North Norfolk Coast

Top Right Image: Wells-next-the-Sea, North Norfolk Coast

Bottom Right Image: East Runton, North Norfolk Coast

Coming of Age

All Images in this article courtesy Graham Sergeant FRPS. Image above from his awarding winning AV production The Dance Goes On

Graham Sergeant FRPS

INTRODUCTION

Acelebration of the 'Coming of Age' of audio visual production took place recently at the 21 st National Audio Visual Championship held in Leeds (5th and 6th October, 2019) in Leeds Trinity University. This memorable event gives us a timely opportunity to reect on modern AV production and where it stands today.

The purpose of this two - part article is not only to highlight the range of subjects tackled by current AV Producers, but to introduce potential newcomers to what this modern communications medium and artform has to offer. It's time to 'spread the word'. Please show and discuss the contents of this article with anyone who you think might be interested in the idea of AV and who might like to join our AV community!

PHOTO HARMONY

Before launching into the history of AV, for newcomers it might be useful to distinguish between ‘Photo Harmony’ and AV. The ever-popular Photo Harmony is in many ways the forerunner of modern digital AV. Commonplace in the Analogue days, these productions used 35mm slides and two projectors usually with a simple sound track comprising one or two pieces of music. Photography took precedence and great emphasis was put on the 'Third Image' – the image that emerged during the transition between two main slides in a 'sequence'.

Today Photo Harmony sequences are still produced using digital software and continue to attract many enthusiasts. While Photo Harmony is a 'standalone' medium, it can also make an invaluable introduction to modern digital AV which utilises a much wider range of techniques and in general tackles a wider range of subjects.

HISTORY

The forerunner of Photo Harmony and modern digital Audio Visual production saw their origin arguably in the 'Magic Lantern' which originated in the 17th Century using handmade glass slides and candles as the light source – and all this even before the invention of xed image photography! (Needless to say recorded sound tracks and the electronic control of projectors were to come at least a couple of hundred years in the future!)

Coming of Age continued …

Slide lm in the 20th Century saw the emergence of 35mm projectors for both Photo Harmony and AV use. Hand controlled devices were used initially to switch between the two projectors to be followed by electronic controls such as the popular Imatronic system.

The ultimate in the 1970s and 1980s was multi-projection. Kodak promoting both their slide lm (Kodachrome) and their projectors, launched a series of Road Shows with elaborate sound tracks.

For the individual/club group the ultimate much sought-after projector was the double-headed Royale produced by the veteran AV Producer, Colin Balls. The Royale used compact audio cassettes to provide both the sound track and pulses to control the projector.

THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION

The Digital Revolution occurred at the turn of this Century. In 2005, the last 'tape/slide' winner of the RPS Nationals was Mollie McConaghy. In 2003, the rst recorded digital production to win a major award was Peter Coles and Sheelagh Peel with Sarah which won the Digital AV Champion award.

DIGITAL AV IN PERSPECTIVE

While most revolutions are usually very mixed in their outcomes – arguably in AV it's been a case of 'win-win'. 'Pictures to Exe' the 'Industry standard' software, (at the moment designed for PCs, was created by Igor Kokarev and his team and is both relatively inexpensive (at around £120 with a free 30-day trial if required), and very competent in use.

In terms of the visuals, any aspect ratio can be used as well as the inclusion of HD (or even 4K) movie footage where deemed appropriate.

A variety of visual transitions can also be incorporated. For the sound track, the WAV-form allows us not only to 'see' cutting points but gives us the ability to 'cut on the beat' in music tracks. It is also possible to introduce as many individual tracks as required (although 3 or 4 are usually sufcient). Audio mixing and raising or lowering the volume on individual tracks is simple and straightforward.

As for the visuals, in the two projector days, straight cutting between shots wasn't really possible, today it is, thus avoiding interminable visual mixes. This simple facility editorially helps to 'tighten' our productions together with a variety of other transitions to enhance our work.

A SERIOUS ART FORM

What's so special about AV and why should it be taken seriously?

As a life-long student of the Mass Media, particularly Film, (both Documentary and Feature), and TV – the question that comes to mind is: 'What's so special about AV and why should it be regarded and treated as a serious communications medium?

Over the years I've met a number of Camera Club members who frankly regard pre - digital, analogue AV productions with disdain – as a 'Mickey Mouse' medium.

With great respect to Walt Disney, some cartoons in the early days were somewhat 'basic'. However, the cartoon industry has grown into the 'animation' industry with the digital revolution playing a leading role in the conversion.

Elsewhere, in the early days of the cinema and 'silent' lms, the pianists who improvised the musical accompaniment to early lms were the precursor of the likes of John Williams, ('Star Wars', 'Jaws', Schindler's List', and many more). John Barry wrote the score for 'Out of Africa', 'Dances with Wolves', Bernard Herrmann, 'Psycho', 'Taxi Driver' and 'Citizen Kane', Richard Rodney Bennett: 'Far From the Madding Crowd'.

All of these composers and many others have raised the status of lm music to new heights – contributing to the creation of atmosphere, mood, tension and on occasion, humour, in feature lms and indeed AVs. And yet there are still music critics who dismiss lm music as not being a serious genre.

Coming of Age continued …

Regarding British Television

While the best of it is undoubtedly world -class and in many ways is a worthy role model for AV Producers, it often tends to be 'formulaic' with its 30, 60 and 90 minute time slots. How often do we see 'padding' to ll these slots? Then there are the seemingly endless 'talking heads' and an obsession with 'Presenter-led' programmes.

One of the worst offenders in this respect is the otherwise excellent Sunday evening 'Countryle' where the Producers repeatedly have their Presenters walking towards the camera, pausing to say their 'piece', then walking off out of frame. Even worse is 'Coast' where the main Presenter will often say his 'piece' over his shoulder while walking.

In essence these 'devices' can best be regarded as time llers (or time wasters!), something that, by and large are avoided by AV Producers. In contrast, in AV productions the use of a variety of voices as 'voice-overs', narration and the occasional caption allow for the 'compression' of information in story telling, offering the Producer a potentially elegant 'essay' form. The nett result is that often weighty messages can be delivered very effectively in no more than 10-12 minutes – often less making digital AV an ideal medium especially for social media, such as YouTube, etc.

A personal example, may help to clarify the point. Like many people who bought a house in the 1960s and 1970s, the simple regulation that the main breadwinner could borrow no more than three times their annual income meant that house prices remained closely allied to average incomes. With subsequent de-regulation, (a political decision) and the sale of council houses and not re-investing the proceeds in more social housing, (another political decision!) house prices in the UK have escalated and made housing (whether buying or even renting) almost unaffordable for the younger generations without substantial help from afuent parents. (And for those without the 'Bank of Mum and Dad?')

Given this serious social issue, where according to SHELTER as many as 20 million people in the UK today, live in 'compromised accommodation', I decided to research the problem more fully. The result was an AV dealing with the major issues connected with housing. The AV lasts for just 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

The plan for A Question of Politics is to publish it on YouTube as an experimental project to see if it stimulates 'political discussion' especially at election time and in MP’s surgeries.

A MODERN COMMUNICATIONS MEDIUM

To draw this matter to a close for the moment, the 'Digital Revolution' has seen the creation of a modern, and in many ways, unique communications medium and art form. As we shall see in Part Two of this discussion, the recent National Championship in Leeds offered the opportunity to view a very wide range of subject matter from Photo Harmony to AV programmes covering documentaries, drama, political debate, family history and one of the most difcult genres, humour.

The exciting reality today and the potential for tomorrow is that if you want to 'speak to the world' for whatever reason – perhaps to promote a particular cause, as indicated, you can publish your programme on YouTube where you can literally reach audiences counted in millions, Worldwide! Unbelievable? Try Googling: 'United Airlines breaks guitars.' At the last count this site had received over 16,000,000 'hits' Welcome to AV, the Digital Age and the Social Media!

In Part Two we'll look at the range and diversity of subject matter in AV as reected in our 'Coming of Age' celebration at Leeds Trinity University last October, 2019.

email: gav.sergeant082@gmail.com

Images below and on previous page from A Question of Politics

Report by Bob Sherrard with photographs by Ray Bridges.

The KCPA AV Competition 2019, organised by a small group of enthusiasts led by Tracy Hughes, KCPA President and Philip Smithies, Tonbridge CC, was held on 12th October at Leybourne Village Hall, West Malling, Kent.

Twenty nine members from twelve afliated clubs and societies entered forty four productions that were judged by Gerald Kitiyakara LRPS. In his summing up Gerald considered there had been "a good cross-section of different genres in this competition, from detailed documentary to pure photoharmony and including an offering or two of a multi-media presentation. The quality of photography in most sequences has been good to very good, making it difcult to select the award specically for Best Photography”.

“The same can be said for other elements for which there is a specic award, such as sound, transitions and creativity. It is difcult to contrive humour, but I have found that humour per se has been very sparse in this competition [but one stood out to qualify for the award]. New or rst time entrants have had a good showing, some being strong contenders”.

Ray Bridges' of Maidstone CC (pictured right) sequence titled Annabel Lee was placed as the overall winner with good photography of beach scenes and images of a model that provided an aura of mystery to support the wonderfully clear narration of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.

“There have been some very good documentaries, in which their strength has been based on well researched information and well crafted narrative, with the verbal narration being suitably paced and delivered clearly to retain the attention of the audience all the way through. In contrast, documentaries with no verbal/oral communication, which rely upon written captions on the screen to set the scene, if too detailed and long can be a distraction, especially if placed adjacent to or superimposed upon an interesting image. The audience is then in conict between trying to read the caption and look at the image to which it relates".

Second place went to Royal Hospital for Seamen Chapel by Roger Stevens (Bexleyheath CC) for a well crafted documentary. The Width of a Room was awarded third place. This sequence by Chris White (Maidstone CC) was thought provoking and rather different with the mood enhanced by black and white images. The Bob Brisley Award for the best newcomer went to John Watson (Hailsham PS) for his documentary on Carter's Steam Fair. Best Transitions were shown in Snowdonia- Better in Black and White produced by David Mills (Hailsham PS).

The sequence achieving the Best Sound award was Ferrari Under the Skin by Richard Martin (Bexleyheath CC). In Winter's Grip by Bob Sherrard (Hailsham PS) achieved the Best Photography award. The Croquet Match by Ray Beckwith and Marion Creed (Hailsham PS) won the Most Humorous award. Barbara Piper's (Staplehurst) sequence An Artists View achieved the Most Creative award and the ve Highly Commended certicates were awarded for Just Dance by Melanie Chalk (Folkestone CC), Nightride by Mike Kersting (Isle of Thanet CC), Emergence by Douglas Hands (Tonbridge CC), For the Love of Sarah by Jean Mills (Hailsham PS) and Impressions Gone Loco by Don Foster (Maidstone CC). Bring Him Home by Peter Allen (Bexleyheath CC) won the Audience Vote.

Gerald considered the main objective of any sequence is to engage the audience, entertain, impart interesting information or convey a message, possibly quite personal, in an engaging way. He considered most sequences seen today fullled this to varying degrees and overall, it had been a very enjoyable competition. This feeling was reected in the views of the audience as they left at the end of the afternoon. It is hoped that more will see how their photography can be enhanced by audio visual production and be encouraged to participate next year.

Winner Ray Bridges pictured right.

Report by Anne Harbron

The Northern Audio Visual group held their AGM at St John’s Church Hall, Snods Edge on Saturday 19th October 2019 with an attendance of 30 members. Ron Henry, who had supposedly retired as Chairman, at the previous AGM, has very kindly carried on in the role, as it has not been possible to nd a replacement. However, Ron made it perfectly clear that this next year as Chairman is denitely his last.

Anne Harbron agreed to continue as secretary for one more year. Unfortunately, at the last minute, Anne was not able to attend the meeting and Howard Wilson, a previous secretary, took her place for the recording of the minutes. Stuart Edgar and Kevin Allonby retired from the committee and three new members were elected to the committee; Mrs Kath Gilbert, Mr Harry Gilbert and Mr Tom Violet. Paul Hogarth was re-elected as Treasurer.

After the completion of the AGM Howard Wilson (pictured below left) gave a presentation about how he met the challenge to achieve PAGB Distinction in AV, followed by a showing of his award winning AV The National Arboretum.

This was followed by three members sequences which were shown to an appreciative audience. The sequences had been sent to Judith Kimber LIPF, DPGAB/AV and her pre recorded comments were replayed to the audience following the viewing of each sequence. We then enjoyed the rst part of our guest speaker’s presentation. This was by Derek Mathieson FACI (pictured below right) on editing video and what the video settings in our cameras mean, before we broke for lunch.

After lunch Derek continued with his interesting presentation of showing his My Travel Videos which took us around the world from Pickering in Yorkshire to Melbourne in Australia.

During the second part of the afternoon another seven members sequences were shown. To complete the day’s events the winner of the 2018 Great Northern New Horizons, Mrs Heelis, by Brenda Stone was shown.

The meeting closed with a vote of thanks to those who had made it possible, especially to the ladies who provided tea/coffee and an excellent lunch.

The next meeting is to be held at Snods Edge, on 21st March 2020 when the guest speaker will be Sheila Graber, an animator who has worked on several high prole broadcast shows for the BBC. Sheila’s talk will be about how we may produce and include digital animation into our AVs.

Dear Editor

After reading your article in AV News, referencing committee discussions on the cost, format, and frequency of AV News, I would like to make a few comments

There is nothing new about this problem. I can remember frequent discussions around such subjects when I was on the AV Group committee as Programme Co-ordinator way back in 2002/2003 (and also up to my time as Chairman). Back then we had an Editor (Ian Gee FRPS) who insisted on producing AV News in A4 format because he thought it looked more `professional’. For several issues AV News was indeed published in a glossy A4 format, it went down like a lead balloon with the members.

Many such discussions have been held at committee level regarding the cost of printing and postage, and the option to produce and distribute digital copies has already been debated to death. Although we live in a digital age most readers I believe still prefer to receive a hard copy.

The suggestion of producing three copies per year in hard printed format of A5 has merit and may prove nancially sustainable and perhaps benecial. It would also be preferable to a digital version which also comes with distributable problems re non-members/non-paying readers.

Best wishes.

Keith Scott

Please send your letters to the editor at magazine @avnews.org.uk

Best entry

Jan Demuzere - Protected Area (Belgium)

Runner - up and best entry by a South African citizen

Luana Laubscher - God bless Africa - Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika (South Africa)

Results and Winning Images

Judging panel

Our grateful thanks go to a wonderful international jury who had a very difcult task making selections amongst some wonderful entries.

Above left: Dr Sally Hinton EFIAP PPSA AV-AAPS MAPS (Australia)

Above centre: Gail Stent FPSNZ (New Zealand)

Above right: Bryan Stubbs ARPS (United Kingdom) (Jury chair)

Celebration: Results and Winning Images

Certicate of Merit (no particular order)

John Hodgson Voyage of a Lifetime (Australia)

Malcolm Imhoff A Host of Angels (United Kingdom)

Ger Sauer Prinsjesdag (The Netherlands)

Len Cousins A life saved (South Africa)

Acceptances (no particular order)

Adri van Oudheusden A celebration of Spring (South Africa0

Marcel Batist Leds in Concert (The Netherlands)

Heepko van Kaam The summit of Kilimanjaro (South Africa)

Oliver Gargan Fair Of Muff (Ireland)

Irmel Dunaiski An Extraordinary Landscape (South Africa)

Lilian Webb My Birthday Treat (Ireland)

A Lyons, B O'Sullivan

& Fr P Egan A Moment in Time (Ireland)

2020 International Theme Audio Visual Salon hosted by AV Makers South Africa

We are proud to announce our salon for 2020. The theme comes from Ria Katzke LRPS APSSA AFIAP and is your interpretation of 'STOP '.

Friend Google provides the following:

Verb - (of an event, action, or process) come to an end; cease to happen. "his laughter stopped as quickly as it had begun"

Noun - a cessation of movement or operation. "all business came to a stop"

As usual, the judges will base their judgements on how well the sequences interpret the theme. In other words, they will place an excellently produced sequence with little relevance to 'STOP' lower than a slightly less accomplished sequence with far greater relevance.

Salon Director: Jeff Morris AV-AFIAP AFIAP LRPS AV-DPSSA APSSA

Email: avmakerssouthafrica@gmail.com.

Full details will be published soon on the AV Makers South Africa website, in our monthly newsletter and elsewhere .

IPF AV Festival Winners 2019

Judged by Howard Bagshaw, ARPS, MPAGB. & Ron Davies, FRPS, FIPF, EFIAP, FACI (M),

Category Name Sequence

Novice Martin Tobin Knockanne Hill

Shannon CC

Intermediate Pat Collins The Beauty and the Beast

Celbridge CC

Club Celbridge CC

Advanced Section

The Goodly Barrow

Ribbon S O’Donoghue, LIPF Revealed

Shannon CC

Ribbon M O’Brien, LIPF

Shannon CC

Ribbon L Webb, AIPF, ARPS

Celbridge CC

Third Liam Haines, LIPF

Offshoot PS

I must think about it..

The Three A’s

The Corruption of Innocence

Second Rita Nolan, LIPF Avondale’s Proud Eagle

Celbridge CC

First J Kimber, LIPF, DPAGB/AV Safe

Bangor & North Down CC

Sound Production J Kimber, LIPF, DPAGB/AV S afe

Bangor & North Down CC

Photography L Haines, LIPF

Offshoot PS

Script Rita Nolan, LIPF

Celbridge CC

The Corruption of Innocence

Avondale’s Proud Eagle

Overall J Kimber, LIPF, DPAGB/AV S afe

Bangor & North Down CC

Audience Vote J Kimber, LIPF, DPAGB/AV Safe

Bangor & North Down CC

IPF International Section Winners 2019

Judged by

Howard Bagshaw, ARPS, MPAGB. & Ron Davies, FRPS, FIPF, EFIAP, FACI (M),

Category/Sequence

Name

Judges ’ Mention (Howard) Andrew Gagg, FRPS (ENG)

King Krak and the Dragon

Judges ’ Mention (Ron) Margaret Finlay, AIPF (Ireland)

Tragedy of Doolough

Honourable Mention - Ribbon

The End of all our Exploring Mark Allen, DPAGB/AV (NI)

The Lovers, The Moon, The Magician Diana Belsagrio (Italy)

Sweets Il Triangolo Magico Multivisione (Italy)

Third (Bronze Medal) Richard Brown, FRPS, FIPF, FACI(M) (ENG) A Place of Shadows

Second (Silver Medal) Massimiliano Falsetto, EFIAP (Italy)Three Love Stories

First (Gold Medal) Gruppo Fotoamatori Sestesi, BFI (Italy)

Mnemosine

Audience Votes

Internationals Day 1 Bronze Medal

Charles Hulse, FRPS, AV-EFIAP, AV-FAPS (Australia)

Writ in Water

Internationals Day 2 Bronze Medal

Andrew Gagg, FRPS (England)

King Krak and the Dragon

HINTS and Tips 21

Assign an icon for your exe file

Malcolm Imhoff FRPS FACI(M)

Make your AVs stand out from the crowd! In PTE you have the option to assign your own icon to your exe le, rather than the default generic PTE one.

First create your icon. It needs to be very simple because the size is only 32 x 32 pixels. I nd it easier to make it in Photoshop rst at a larger size, say 250 x 250 pixels (see example Fig.1 left) and then resize it down to 32 x 32 pixels.

Next save it as an "ico" le (Windows Icon or Favicon *.ico) in the folder containing your AV project. If you can't see an option to save in this format it's likely you are working with a 16 or 32 bit le, so you will need to convert it to an 8-bit le (Image > Mode > 8 bits/channel).

Finally open your AV project, navigate to Project Options > Advanced and check the box labelled "Assign icon for executable le". This will ungrey the "Choose Icon" button, enabling you to search for your newly created icon (Fig. 2 left)).

Next time you save your project the le will have your own personalised icon to identify it (Fig 3 right).

Peter Young

There are three types of soundtrack to be found in an AV: Words (commentary, dialogue, interviews); Music (aspects of which I covered in my previous article); and Sound Effects (SFX). It’s often easier to add music than to create an imaginative soundscape, but with a little forethought, it’s possible to add key sound effects that will serve the story and add drama to your AV.

I’m drawing on the language of the movies to provide a vocabulary for making important distinctions for the AV Practitioner. AVs can exhibit many of the characteristics of movies, so it’s useful to understand how the tropes and the grammar of movie construction can be used effectively.

The Sound of Silence

Do you need to ll every second of your soundtrack with sound? Actually, Yes. Even though you’ll be including what you think of as ‘silence’. Silence is not the sterile absence of all sound (if your soundtrack at-lines, it may seem like an equipment malfunction), but the background noise, the low-level ambient sound that easily slips below your awareness most of the time.

Your microphone or sound recorder may be far more sensitive to ambient sound than you are. Take a moment to become aware of the hum of the refrigerator in the next room, the sound of the trafc in the street outside, the sounds of nature when you’re out in the countryside. So, if you’re making an AV about a impressive building, you could add presence by including the echoing footsteps or the murmur of visitors.

We human beings are far more interested in the signal, so the noise gets little attention – until you get to the editing suite. It is good practice for the sound recordist to record a minute or so of ‘nothing happening’ (known as ‘wildtrack’), the background ambient noise, so that in the editing process, if there is a need for lengthening a pause, you’ll have a ready means of matching the general ambience.

In Practice

As part of your photoshoot, plan some time for recording the ambient noises in the various locations you nd yourself in. It’s tricky to take photographs and record sound at the same time. Far better to focus on one modality at a time: just pictures or just sounds. Put your recorder on a tripod rather than handholding it, as then every rustle or adjustment noise will be picked up and spoil your recording. It’s also a good idea to used a wind-muff to diminish spoken plosives or wind noise.

Types of Sound effects

John P. Hess (of FilmmakerIQ.com) outlines three kinds of sound effects that you might want to use:

Ambient

Ambient provides psychological cues for the space, location, to give the illusion of being in certain context, such as a railway station, by the seaside, in the street, inside an art gallery. Ambient sounds are non-intrusive, and are comprehended out of conscious awareness.

For one of my AVs, to give a sense of time passing, I wanted a grandfather clock ticking in the background for the whole duration.

I found the loudest ticking clock and recorded for sometimes up to a minute before a guided tour in the next room interrupted.

No matter. I got several takes and then edited them together in Audacity – a simple job to align the ticks and tocks.

Other sounds I’ve recorded on location are the sounds of waves on a pebble beach; water splashing from a fountain, the water pump feeding the fountain, and people walking down the street.

Library SFX

Some sounds are difcult (or expensive or dangerous) to capture: explosions (guns, bombs, volcanoes), glass shattering, screams, lions roaring, and so on. Or you want a dog barking, but your own dog sounds too friendly, or is unwilling to perform to order. In each case, you can download what you need from a sound effects library (some are free). Such collections cover a whole range of spot effects.

Spot FX

These are any sounds of short duration associated with some observable action. Although AVs do not usually include live action, it’s still effective to enhance an image or a transition between images with a relevant sound. For example, bells, whistles, sirens; doors closing, dropping things, breaking things, hitting things. All of these bring more life to the still image. Although there is a slight discontinuity as the sound has duration whilst the image is static, this is a convention which people get used to.

Foley

In movie credits, you will often see ‘Foley artist’ (named after Jack Foley, who worked for Universal Studios, starting with creating sound effects far Showboat. He died in 1967). These are the people who create the sound effects by performing and recording them after the lming has taken place. Recording on set does not work as there are too many other noises around; Foley is always added in post.

Foley effects are split into three categories:

 Footsteps. Yes, they make the sounds of the footsteps of all the actors on screen.

 Cloths (clothing).

 Props, such as coffee mugs being put down, water poured into a glass, and so on.

You need Foley for small spot sounds: a creaking door, a whoosh to indicate something happening at speed, or splashing noises that indicate you’re in the bath.

Sometimes, an actual recording doesn’t sound right. If you want to add atmosphere for a burning log re, then sticking your recorder in the replace is not going to get the result you want! Instead, scrunch up sheets of cellophane wrapping. And if you want to suggest falling rain – which would be very difcult to record in practice, you can simulate it effectively by using the sound of frying bacon. Perhaps I should have stayed at home and recorded the beach by tilting a box of dry beans.

For an excellent overview, listen to Antonia Quirke’s radio programme which explores the world of the Foley artist. “What we do is create reality by doing something that’s fake,” says Ruth Sullivan. So turn down the music track, and turn up the sound effects track...

D - I - Y

There is a sense of satisfaction to be had from creating every aspect of the AV yourself. One advantage of using your personally recorded sounds means that by not using other people’s music or effects you are saved the business of sorting out copyright issues and permissions. And you can proudly say “all my own work”.

Foley References:

Filmmaker IQ: Introduction to Foley and Sound Effects for Film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jznye0iqYE

Quirke's Cast and Crew: Foley Artists

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002r3x

© 2020 Peter Young

Sound for AV Mixing Two or More Music Tracks

Malcolm Imhoff FRPS FACI(M)

In AV News issues 216 and 217 we have dealt with shortening and lengthening a piece of music. More often than not you will want to use more than one piece of music so you will need to "mix" the two or more pieces together. The skills and techniques for doing this are exactly the same and this article shows how you can do it.

Many AV workers will be quite happy to use the music as recorded but it is very rare for me to use music "as is". Almost always I nd it desirable and necessary to edit and rearrange the music to suit my purpose but of course you don't have to do this if you don't want to.

In AV News 218, I showed how I visualised the music chosen, and identied which parts of particular tracks to use. The example was from my "Grand Circle" AV where I used four pieces from John Barry's "The Beyondness of Things". Not only did these tracks have the right mood and variations of pace, but their structure lent themselves to being edited and individual sections used or removed. I'm going to use the same example to show how to mix two or more pieces of music. Fig.1 (page 58) shows the Multitrack view in Audition with music arranged on separate tracks and positioned precisely. It looks very similar in Audacity or the latest versions of PTE.

Fig.2 (below left) is a close-up of the start of Track 1. It is often a very good idea to use the rst track on a CD. After all, the composers and producers have carefully thought about what would make a suitable opening, and that is the case here. Note that I have also used the actual start of the music, but of course you don't necessarily have to do that.

Fig.3 (below right) is 2'38" into the music where I want to crossfade from Track 1 to Track 2. Note that I have only used two thirds of Track 1 and have not used the start of Track 2. I have selected these points by listening and looking at the music and nding suitable places where there is a natural break, such as a change in the tune, the end of a bar, a pause, or a change in volume. This can be clearly seen on the screenshot. At this point the volume of Track 1 is faded from 100% to zero while the volume of Track 2 is raised from 0 - 100%. It's best to do this by listening, and it is easier if you zoom into this short section to enlarge it. The transition should be seamless.

Fig.4 (top left) is the crossfade from Track 2 to Track 3. Note the difference in the volume envelope for each track. Track 2 is faded out gently over 2 seconds using a subtle S-shaped curve, while Track 3 is faded in suddenly (about ¼ second). The reason for this is that in the AV we move from Arches National Park to Monument Valley.

I chose this track because it has a "cowboy" sound to it and this is the start of what I call the "John Wayne" theme which I have used to make a dramatic change of location.

For the end sequence, at the majestic South Rim of Grand Canyon, I used the beautiful expansive theme called "Give Me A Smile". The crossfade from Track 3 to Track 4 is shown in Fig.5 (bottom left)

Note that Track 3 is faded out before its end as we don't want an end yet. And Track 4 is faded up part way in as the actual tune begins after a short intro.

In this case there is an overlap between the two tracks so that both are playing at the same time but trust me it sounds perfectly natural.

There is an interesting point to make about the nal end (tautology?) of the AV soundtrack. Normally it is good practice to use the end of a music track, just as we used the beginning of the rst track. That assumes that the music does have a denite end and not an arbitrary fade out. In this AV though, I have not used the end of the last track. This is because when I listened to the music it seems to come to a natural end, and then continues for another two minutes, quite repetitively I thought. Maggie called this "pithering", a term I love, so I got rid of it. You can see this in Fig.6 (above), and when demonstrated you can hear what I mean.

The main point I am trying to make is that you need to know your music, listen to it, analyse it, and adapt it for your own purpose.

The end result is a 12 minute soundtrack which although composed of many parts of four separate pieces of music, has a wholeness and harmony throughout. The rst time I entered "The Grand Circle" into an AV competition the judge complimented me on using a very appropriate piece of music, and he clearly thought that it was one single piece ripped from a CD and used from start to nish. I was chuffed, as that is my aim when making an AV soundtrack.

Photoshop – Sharpening Images

Keith Scott FRPS DPAGB AV-AFIAP

With reference to the May 2019 issue of AV News, specically the article entitled ‘Hints & Tips 18’, ‘Sharpening photos for AV’ written by Malcolm Imhoff. In his article Malcolm states “I do not use the sharpening controls in Photoshop as in my version they seem pretty crude. Maybe I’m not using them correctly and maybe Keith Scott could be persuaded to do a feature on how to do it in his Masterclass”.

Thanks for the compliment Malcolm, but I’ve never considered my Photoshop ramblings to be a Masterclass or anything other than page llers for AV News.

Malcolm also states that for some years he has used a separate application for sharpening called Focal Blade. For those that don’t know, Focal Blade can run as a lter plugin for Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop Elements, Photo-Paint and several other image editing software packages. It can run as a smart lter in Photoshop and is specically designed for controlled sharpening purposes. It isn’t the only sharpening software plugin as there are several others available at various prices from different companies, and generally they’re good. However they will not be discussed currently because this article is primarily aimed at Photoshop.

Used sensibly sharpening can ‘lift’ a good image to an excellent image, but if over sharpening occurs it can spoil an otherwise good image by introducing unwanted artefacts and produce a gritty appearance.

Image sharpening is normally the nal editing step and should be undertaken at 100% of nal size for proper visual assessment, although sometimes sharpening may be carried out at other stages of an edit for specic purposes.

It’s also important to understand what sharpening does not do. It does not and cannot bring an unsharp out of focus image back to sharp focus. An out of focus image is never going to look sharp, it will always be out of focus. Applying sharpening to such an image will simply make it appear to have more grain.

An image with soft denition due to ‘slight’ camera shake, or ‘slight’ subject movement, ‘may’ sometimes be recovered to a practical state of acceptable sharpness by using the ‘Shake Reduction Filter’, or by cleverly manipulating Motion Blur distance and angle within the ‘Smart Sharpen Filter’. However, these are really recovery processes and not traditional image sharpening techniques. We may cover such techniques in a future issue.

Traditional sharpening is an illusion created by changing the contrast of adjoining pixel edges, especially pixels of dissimilar colour or tonal value. It’s the editing software playing tricks on our eyes to ‘simulate’ an image being sharper than it is - the illusion. Furthermore, sharpening can be categorised into three distinct sections i.e. capture, creative, and output, only two of which are applied at the post taking stage using image editing software.

We may consider capture sharpening to be the amount of sharpening applied in camera at the initial taking and saving stage of an image le. This may vary according to the settings chosen on your camera. I use DSLRs and always shoot in RAW format (Nikon NEF) with no sharpening applied, preferring to sharpen either in Adobe Camera Raw or in Photoshop during editing and to specic areas and levels that I choose. Some simple point and shoot cameras with limited menus and controls saving only jpegs, may automatically apply a small amount of overall image sharpening.

For the purpose of this article we’ll ignore sharpening at the capture stage and assume sharpening is under our full control and undertaken post capture in editing software. Creative sharpening may be applied sometimes during editing or preferably as a nal step, it may involve sharpening different elements within an image to different amounts for creative effects, perhaps using alternative sharpening tools or methods to obtain diverse sharpening properties.

Output sharpening should always be the nal step and is dependent on intended image use i.e. internet, projection, or print. Different outputs will require different amounts of sharpening. Low resolution internet images in the narrower sRGB IEC 61966-2.1colour gamut will normally require the least. Such small low-resolution images can quickly look gritty or pixelated with over sharpening. Projected images for AV work, perhaps 1920 x 1080 pixels in the same colour gamut will normally require a moderate amount.

Be very careful not to over sharpen as artefacts will appear on large projection screens that may be unnoticeable on a small computer screen.

Photoshop - Sharpening Images continued ...

Images intended for printing, especially large prints on high gloss papers will usually require the largest le size and highest image resolution in the Adobe RGB (1998) colour gamut (or whatever specialist printing ink-set gamut you are working with). Prints will usually require the higher level of sharpening. Furthermore, the type and quality of printer and papers need to be considered, not all printers or papers are created equal! Therefore, tests with a specic printer, ink, and paper combination or knowledge based on experience will play an important part in your sharpening decisions. In all cases the sharpening should be applied at 100% nal image size to assess the effect correctly. It’s frequently a mistake to sharpen a large image intended for printing, then reduce its size for projection, irrespective of the different colour gamut because the effect can radically change.

Before getting into the nitty gritty of sharpening techniques we should also consider that not every image requires sharpening, and those that do may not require sharpening of the entire image. Cityscapes and landscapes are examples of images that may well contain an element, or even a large amount of sky, and such areas rarely benet from sharpening. Whilst it’s perfectly O.K. to sharpen the main subject matter to help it stand out skies are often better depicted with no sharpening whatsoever, or in some instances the converse i.e. a ‘small’ amount of softening.

Photoshop is renowned for having different ways to achieve the same or similar results, and sharpening is no exception. In CC version 20 there are at least nine standard methods to sharpen, and more than a dozen if we combine advanced techniques. Some have been in Photoshop for years; others are quite new.

We are going to concentrate on Adobe Camera Raw which ships with Photoshop as a plugin, and Smart Sharpen from the lter’s menu. Both use comparable controllable sliders. Before using either method it’s advisable to duplicate the layer (Ctrl+J) then convert to a smart object. This will allow subtle adjustments later if necessary.

Open your image into Camera Raw by clicking Shift+Ctrl+A or use the lters menu command. It doesn’t have to be a raw le; this also works on psd, jpg, and tiff les.

On the main Camera Raw menu click third icon from left to access the sharpening control panel, indicated by top left arrow on adjacent image. All default settings can of course be changed to suit your personal requirements, and any custom settings can be made and saved for future use. To access such settings, click the small menu box indicated by the lower red arrow.

I suggest using the before and after view mode of the Camera Raw screen (small Y shaped icon bottom right of screen) with the two comparison images full size so the effect of any slider adjustment can be compared. These two images can be moved around to obtain the most appropriate view by holding down the space bar and dragging them accordingly. Holding down Alt or Option key on a Mac and moving any slider, with exception of those with ‘Color’ in their title, will temporarily turn the image into black and white so that better assessment of effects can be considered without distraction from colours.

This is the same as ‘Detail’ function in Lightroom Develop Mode. Sharpening can be adjusted using the Amount slider between a range of 0 to 150, the amount needed will vary with each individual images. Don’t overdo sharpening, be subtle. The Radius (thickness) of sharpening ranges from 0.5 to 3 pixels, and Detail from 0 to 100. By holding down Alt or Option keys on a Mac and moving the Mask slider between 0 and 100 a variable black and white mask will appear indicating where sharpening will be applied. (same in Lightroom). White areas will be sharpened whilst black areas will not. Set at 0 no mask will be visible (everything white) therefore the entire image will be sharpened, this adjustable mask is a useful and little-known controllable sharpening tool. See image on next page for the before and after view showing the sharpening mask

Before and After View of Sharpening Mask

Malcolm suggested the sharpening tools on his version ‘seem pretty crude’. This is understandable if it’s an early or pre CC subscription version of Photoshop. Over recent years many new tools have been introduced, whilst existing tools have been made more powerful and rened, Photoshop is dynamic.

One such tool that has been greatly improved since its original form is Smart Sharpen. From the main menu select Filters, then Sharpen, then Smart Sharpen. A control panel will present itself (see image right)

As always, the default settings can be adjusted to suit each image requirement, many of the slider’s functions may look familiar. On this panel the Amount slider has a much larger adjustment range than in Camera Raw i.e. 0 to 500. Also, the Radius has greater adjustment from 0 to 64 pixels. A Reduce Noise slider is included with a range from 0 to 100%. These slider combinations provide precise sharpness control from very subtle to quite severe.

A drop-down menu for ‘Removing Blur’ offers three choices i.e. Gaussian Blur, Lens Blur, or Motion Blur. For general sharpening purposes Lens Blur should be selected. Motion Blur can be selected when correcting subtle subject motion or camera shake, but to do so we need to determine the precise angle of movement and distance.

Sometimes when sharpening is applied Shadows or Highlights may appear stressed. In such instances this smart sharpen tool can easily address those issues by using the Shadows or Highlight sliders to fade out the stress appearance leaving midtones untouched. Unlike in Camera Raw there isn’t a Mask slider, however masks can always be applied in a conventional way to hide areas that don’t need sharpening.

Alternatively, any area needing sharpening can be selected and copied to a new layer where sharpening is then applied leaving the original layer unaffected. The High Pass lter is another good sharpening technique, but its already been covered in previous editions of AV News.

March/April 2020

21 March

East Anglian AV Competition

Margaretting Village Hall, Ingatestone, Essex

Contact: dickwilliamsav@yahoo.co.uk

21 March

3rd N&EMPF Audio Visual Competition Newark Show Ground Newark, Nottinghamshire

Contact: david.gibbins@ntlworld.com

5 April Yorkshire AV Day Leeds Trinity University

Contact: bryan@stubbsav.com

Speaker: Keith Leedham

18 April

Latow Canada International Festival

Contact: psparrow@cogecoca.ca

25 and 26 April

Smethwick National AV Competition

Venue: The Old School House, Churchbridge, Oldbury, B69 2AS

Contact: raydowding@btinternet.com

Spring 2020 and Beyond

8 May IAC BIAFF

Showing of Peter Coles International Winners, Stratford Upon Avon www.theiac.org.uk

30 May Trophee de Paris International AV Competition http://tropheedeparis.fr/

6 June Cine Camera Club de Cannes

3rd International Festival of AV Creativity

Contact: contactcccc@cannes4c.com

6 June CLIC TRIEL, Photo Club of Triel sur Seine, 7th La Coupe Lumiere International www.lacoupelumiere.com/index.php/en/

26 and 27 September

2020 RPS International AV Festival Centenary Hall, Dean Close Preparatory School, Lansdown Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL51 6QS.

Contact: director.iavf@virginmedia.com

The RPS AV Group Committee

Publication Information

AV News is published three times a year by the AV Group of the Royal Photographic Society. It is distributed free to Group members and is available to others for an Annual Subscription of £22 in the UK, £25 in Europe and £27 elsewhere – contact Keith Watson at k.n.watson@virginmedia.com

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Any items concerning Audio Visual and Multimedia are welcome, including reviews, technical details, events, photographs, letters and queries. All contributions should be submitted to the Editor at: magazine@avnews.org.uk

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