Royal Photographic Society Digital Imaging Group News February 2019

DIG News - February 2019

‘Canada Geese over a Canadian Lake ’ – Lynda Mudle-Small ARPS Winner of the DIG monthly competition for January

DIG PRINT EXHIBITION We have got off to a good start with entries coming in nicely. By the time you get this DIG News it is likely that the deadline for OS members will have passed, but the UK members might have just a few hours left.

Remember even if you are bringing the prints to the AGM you still need to have completed and sent in your entry form and the three digital copies of your prints.

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

BOOK YOUR AGM LUNCH For those of you attending in person you may book a light snack lunch and then pay on the day. You may also bring your own packed lunch if you prefer. Food bookings need to be made in advance with a deadline of Feb 20th. Email your choice to digchair@rps.org Jacket Potato with salad garnish Fillings: Cheese, Baked beans or Chilli Please state which ‘filling’ you require in your email Soup roll and butter

£2.50 .50 £2.00

Tea/coffee, biscuits, crisps, nuts can be purchased from the bar.

AGM ONLINE For those of you unable to make it in person to the AGM there is the opportunity to attend the business meeting online using Zoom software. You will not see the print selection, nor hear Irene Froy’s presentation, but it does give you the opportunity to watch, listen and participate in the AGM and even to ask questions and vote.

However we must stress that this is a beta trial and although we have tested the idea and are fairly confident it will work, if something fails or causes problems on the day we will simply switch it off. There won’t be time to kill any gremlins. We will need to keep to time for the live meeting at Smethwick.

WHAT IS ZOOM? Zoom is a high quality video conferencing service which is rather like Skype but reliable with many extra features.

DIG members will be eligible to attend the AGM meeting via Zoom. They will be in ‘visuals and listen only’ mode but able to ask questions via ‘chat’ and to vote on the predetermined questions.

HOW TO BOOK Email digchair@rps.org prior to Feb 20th with your RPS membership number. This will be cross referred to the DIG membership list and a confirmation email will be sent out with the Zoom url.

We do hope some of you will give it a try, if only to help us with this experiment. If it is successful it may well enable us to roll out other meetings online in the future.

As far as we know DIG are the first group in the RPS to try an online AGM facility and giving you the opportunity to vote and have your say.

DIG MONTHLY ONLINE COMPETITION It was a really close competition this past month, with only 1 point between the first placed image and the joint two 2nd placed works.

There were even some great shots that didn’t feature on the winners rostrum at all. Congratulations to everyone, especially Lynda who’s winning image is on the cover of this publication.

If you don’t normally enter the monthly comp do give it a try. All you have to do is email an image to digwebs@rps.org sending a file that is 600px wide. We do the rest for you. Everyone, whether you entered or not, can vote at the end of the month. HERE is where you will find the Monthly Competition web page.

Canada Geese over a Canadian Lake I love photographing birds but am always looking for ways to present them in a more creative style. The photo of the Canada Geese was taken with an uninteresting bright blue sky, so I started to look in my folders for a more interesting background. What could be more appropriate than Emerald Lake in the Canadian Rockies?

I applied several textures and filters to the landscape until I had achieved the effect I wanted, added the geese and applied another filter. I use Photoshop Elements with my own textures and filters from Color Efex Pro and ON1.

Joint 2nd place were the following two images.

‘The Tree’ – Michael Berkeley LRPS

‘Roof Tiles and Windows’ – Peter Boazman

TRAINING VIDEOS Picture Adjustments from Ken in his first video tutorial this month.

Notes from Ken……

All processing is done in the Raw Converter with a bit of cloning in Photoshop along with using the Nik Filters for several B&W effects.

Time - 40 mins.

I show you a few transform tricks in Photoshop that might interest you and finish up creating a painterly effect using Photoshop filters.

I have attached a list with all the steps to save you writing it down.

click the images to view the tutorials

DIG MEMBER GALLERIES Two interesting galleries to view this month. Both might be considered Travel work; such is the diversity of our DIG members. Outsiders often think we are all about fiddling and diddling but we know that all genres and styles are acceptable in our DIG world.

To view the galleries just click on the images

WELCOME to our new members this month…

John Ainsworth ARPS Eve Wilson Melanie Goode LRPS Stephen Cowey Bernard Todd LRPS Ian Pilling David Scrivener Aiden Doyle Timothy Barber Phillip Rogers John Wilcox LRPS Peter Pullan Colin Walker

Bognor Canterbury Bristol Dunfermline Leeds Belgium Maidstone Bournemouth Bristol Wrexham Peterborough Australia Carterton

David Ferguson LRPS Susan Teagle LRPS Anthony Curling Nicole Theis Duncan Jobson James Dixon Lesley Doyle David Banks Mark Hackerby Margaret Dane LRPS Heather Field John Gough

Denny Basingstoke Gerrards Cross USA Wickford Market Drayton Bournemouth Colchester West Bridgford Esher Tavistock Canterbury

NEW DIG Yorkshire & NE Centre With thanks to a small group of enthusiastic members DIG Committee are delighted to report that we now have a new Centre. The volunteers are in place and currently working to establish a venue and forward programme.

A meeting was held in late January to establish if there was sufficient support for an official DIG Centre in the area. RPS and DIG members attended. Some of the volunteers weren’t even DIG members at the time but have since joined – so that really is enthusiasm for you.

We will feature the new team and more information in next months DIG News but for now here is a shot of the attendees at the exploratory meeting.

DIG ACCOLADE The DIG Accolade editorial team have been exceptionally busy the past few weeks. Thanks to Simon and Holly, plus the member contributors.

Accolade 3 is a bumper publication and can be viewed HERE. The team get lots of super feedback from members and the general enthusiasm for this publication is increasing all the time. The editor has also taken onboard the comments that members wanted to see larger and better quality hanging plans. In A3 this has been improved and we certainly work to the kaizen principles.

“I just wanted to compliment you and your team for your Dig Accolade 3 - fantastic!”

Colin Harrison FRPS “Super! This is really interesting and useful. Many thanks for all your hard work.

It’s great to see all the successful panels but thanks must also go to those members who are brave enough to share their failures. Showing all these varied panels gives members a much better idea of what is required, and the level it has to be at, than just reading the guidelines. Good preparation before going to an advisory day. And great viewing for those of us not currently aiming at the next distinction.”

David Pearson ARPS

“Well done, team!

This is not just an absorbing read, but also highlights so very many fine images AND the thinking behind them. There is nothing I would criticise in your work, your content and the presentation.”

Andrew Haynes “Thank you for a splendid magazine. I am working towards an ‘A’ and the content is interesting and useful. I look forward to the next edition.

Well done” Gill Price LRPS “A very interesting issue. I like both being able to have stories on successes and failures and it has worked very well. A good idea to have the hanging plans at the back of the issue so that we can see them better” Sheila Haycox ARPS “I think it is great - and not only because I am in it! Really interesting to see the different approaches & thoughts - and I think that including some stories from those who didn’t succeed improves it. Also agree that the larger hanging plans are a good addition.

Well done for a lot of hard work!”

Lorraine Clifton LRPS “Hello, from France, Many thanks for all your thought and hard work in putting this Accolade edition together. It’s the first I’ve seen.

Working through it is like a seminar on photography. I’ve been educated and inspired.”

Gerry Phillipson LRPS

“Thank you for all your hard work, it is amazing reading and so good to see all the successes both achieved and in progress.

Is it possible to buy a hard copy of the edition? It is something worth keeping. “ Alison Small LRPS

Editorial note. See the item below about a special printed edition.

ACCOLADE FOR RPS ADVISORY DAYS Due to the success of Accolade the DIG Committee, in agreement with the HQ Distinctions Manager Andy Moore, are producing a special limited edition of Accolade. It is printed to the quality of DIGIT magazines and the articles within provide a good selection from the past issues, with thanks to our members for high quality images and to willingly share their images and experiences.

Copies will be available at the AGM and shortly after that will be on the RPS Online shop. The price is modest to cover mainly the postage and packaging: £3 for UK and £5 for overseas orders.

Packs will go out to the Regions when they organise Distinctions Advisory days. Again a small £3 donation will apply. DIG Centres will also have copies available.

We hope that by sharing this DIG publication more widely that it will inspire others to achieve their Distinctions. It also showcases DIG members work and demonstrates the benefits of joining our group.

Special thanks to our DIGIT Editor, Gary Beaton, for putting together this special edition for us and giving us a splendid publication to be proud of.

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

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

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

Nomination forms can be downloaded from our AGM web page www.rps.org/DIG

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

By clicking on any of the Ads it will take you to the RPS Events pages where more information can be found about the meetings.

Scotland Centre

North West Centre

Thames Valley Centre

South East Centre

Southern Centre

Western Centre

DIG AGM SPEAKER

SIG LINK By clicking on any of the Ads it will take you to the RPS Events pages where more information can be found about the meetings.

Contemporary – East Midlands Travel Group

London Region Exhibition

A UK MEMBER This months UK member is from Swansea – is that a cheer I can hear from all her fans down there in South Wales?

Susan Ashford ARPS I am as passionate about flowers as I am photography, and like nothing more than setting up still life arrangements to include fresh flowers.

Flowers are an endearingly popular subject to Photograph, and until fairly recently I usually captured pretty flowers in their natural condition, as is the Red Rose here.

I always shoot in Raw, because in as much as I prefer to capture my image "in camera ", I have the desire to refine / amend it as well as adding my own creative input.

Lanterns and seed pod, was set up in natural window light, and is purely the result of using layers and Blending Modes, simply experimenting until I find a style that is pleasing to me. I enjoy rolling through the Blend Modes, which transform images in subtle or dramatic ways.

Photography is unique as an Art form in that light is one of its main raw materials.

Selecting form, texture, colour, etc harmoniously is a challenging yet rewarding task, `I would like to think I have the balance here in this Cala Lily image.

Lastly my inspiration from the style of the Old Masters and Impressionists, resulted in this image titled " Sunflowers and Grapes ", resulted from applying textures on layers and a final overlay of painterly style.

Finally, use of an art paper helps bring out the artistry in the print.

Amazing to think they can get all that storage on a single SD card !

I also thought this was worth including as it is a fine example how architecture can become quite graphic given the right shooting angle and a good seeing eye.

AN OVERSEAS MEMBER Our featured OS members hails from County Kildare, Ireland this month. Welcome James Mahon LRPS. Having been a late convert to the art of photography I get great enjoyment out of trying out different genres. I will normally spend up to a year concentrating on one type of photography. I have gone through my Sports, Landscape, Portrait and Still Life phases.

I have now moved on to my latest area of interest in Street Photography. I was little apprehensive at the beginning of getting up close and personal and taking shots of strangers. However a family holiday to Venice in late summer changed all that. The place was crowded and a huge number of people were carrying cameras and constantly taking photos. It was very easy to blend in and it really removed the fear factor.

I took only one camera body, Nikon D810 and one lens - a Nikon 1735mm f2.8 with me. While this gear would be big and conspicuous in normal street shooting circumstances it worked out well in the close confines of Venice. The one drawback was the weight of the kit. There is a lot of walking in Venice and by evening time my neck and shoulders were crying out for rest.

Hurry This early morning image was captured at San Marco. The lady was a model doing a fashion shoot while the gentleman was carrying various props and lighting gear.

Bruno Ice Cream Normally I shoot my street photography in Mono but I felt Colour portrays a better sense of action and character

Congregation

Pica I liked the inter-play of reflections and signs on the shop window.

FIRST VISIT TO THE NEW HQ Thanks to Chas Hockin for making a special effort to visit the new Bristol HQ and giving us some first glimpses of this splendid new building and the facilities.

If you are visiting or need their new details then go to the web page http://www.rps.org/contact DIG Web Editor visit to RPS HQ. On Thursday 7th February the new HQ for the RPS opened its doors to the public and members alike. It was not a grand opening – that will come later, but a “soft” opening so that members could see the building.

I had contacted Mike Taylor (COO) and Michael Pritchard (CEO) in advance and I was privileged to have a mini guided tour of the premises.

The HQ will be open to members and public from Thursdays to Sundays, and only open for specific meetings or appointments the rest of the week. Normally, members and the public will only be able to see the reception area, and the gallery – which currently is displaying the IPE 161 images.

On arrival you will be greeted by reception staff, and there is a large digital display screen which we hope will be able to show members images in the future, as currently there is no other space for members and groups to show their work.

The building has numerous other rooms, most of which will be available to Groups/Regions/members via appointment.

Card index filing cabinet containing membership details from yesteryear which is housed in the Resource Room.

(Previous page) The Education Room – I believe this is the large TV screen that was used in the Distinctions Room at Fenton House. This will be available for lectures and small workshops etc. There is even a little exterior breakout area if required.

Roof top terrace – be lovely on a summers day!

The Auditorium. (Following page) This is a 100 + seating venue where Distinctions will be assessed. The projector you see at the top of the picture is a state of the art Canon projector, which can handle 4K images/video etc. The Distinctions Department are preparing details on how people should present their images, but it will mean they might have to be pixel perfect! Images will be projected onto a white screen that comes down from the ceiling. On the wall behind it, will be racks/shelving where prints will be assessed. We hope to be able to use it for our PDI competition later in the year if it is available. This would mean that we could enable members to see the event.

I also met Naomi Galliford the new Volunteering Manager and we exchanged matters of interest to us both. She has a number of large projects planned to help volunteers, which will benefit all members.

There could be opportunities for volunteers to assist at HQ to ease the burden on staff.

All in all I was made to feel welcome, and it is a vast improvement over Fenton House. Staff will now be able to feel comfortable in meeting visitors and have the space to “do things�.

Chas Hockin LRPS

Many of you will be aware that the PAGB have a Masters of Print competition and a resulting travelling exhibition. As luck would have it the exhibition will be on the walls at Smethwick PS when we are there for our AGM. So we will all get a chance to see the prints – I for one am looking forward to that extra ‘bonus’ to the day.

The prints will be around the walls of the café and halls and will remain up till just after lunch. So time to see them when you arrive through to about 14.00. At that stage they will be taken down to make wall space for DIG Exhibition prints.

Maybe this may incentivize some of you who are not yet committed to coming along to now join us.

Another ‘bonus’ to attending the AGM is that it is likely that Permajet will be with us for the day and you will be able to buy papers from them at a discount.

Our speaker Irene Froy is a Permajet lecturer, as well as other DIG members present.

The will set up in the reception area of the venue. This will mean that the front door will be locked and access to the hall will be via the side door.

So lots going on and plenty for everyone to engage with. I really would ask some of you who cannot get to the AGM meeting to please join us online. We really do want to make this test a worthwhile one and, barring no technical hitches, you will be able to participate in the business meeting.

Finally the AGM Agenda, Financial reports and details of how to book your Zoom online attendance are all on the DIG web AGM page HERE. We hope to see you there – either in virtual reality or in person.

Regards

Janet

Janet Haines ARPS DIG Chair digchair@rps.org