Royal Photographic Society Digital Imaging Group News June 2019

DIG News - June 2019

‘Red Deer in the Mist’ by Lynda Mudle-Small ARPS Joint winner of the DIG monthly competition for May

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DIG MONTHLY ONLINE COMPETITION

June 2019

Another successful month with some dreamy works gaining first and second placed. Congratulations Lynda on your winning Red Deer work and to all who took part.

It is really simple to enter so why not have a go yourself next month.

Instructions about size and email address etc are on our web page HERE

Lynda Mudle Smith ARPS I love taking photographs of flora and fauna, but I am never quite satisfied with them until I have put my own stamp on them. There are so many beautiful 'magazine quality' photographs of the natural world out there, they are technically perfect highly admirable reproductions of what a photographer has seen in front of them. I appreciate the hard work that has gone into taking such photographs and the technical excellence of them, but it is impossible to separate the work of individual photographers no matter how famous they are.

My photograph of deer on Exmoor was technically perfect but did not inspire me, especially with the plain brown background of dead bracken. I had some photographs of silver birch woods, which I worked with to get the background effect I wanted. I then used some fog filters to create the atmosphere as well as using some soft focus. It may not be an exact replication of what I saw in front of me, but it is my photograph and I am pleased DIG members liked it.

Can I now ask that more DIG members enter this friendly competition?

So far this year our small group of photographers from Cornwall have won the competition four times! What is up with the rest of the country? It is time you showed us what you can do, surely we can get over 20 photographs up on the site, and why stop at 20, let’s have 50 or one from every county.

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2nd placed was ‘Blue Heaven’ by Eileen Wilkinson ARPS

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Then we had two joint 3rd’s

‘Fishing in the Evening’ by Lindsay Southgate

‘A Walk in the Park’ by Paul Bather ARPS

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MEMBER DISTINCTIONS This month we congratulate the following members for achieving their Distinctions.

Brian McCarthy FRPS

Market Rasen

Zoltan Balogh ARPS

Eastleigh

Yvonne Green LRPS

Bognor Regis

Do remember that when accessing these ‘DIGITAL CAMERA’ online links to only click where it says ‘’4 images” as other links and enticing arrows are to adverts!

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WELCOME to our new members this month… Margaret Murphy LRPS Barbara Springall LRPS Peter Bosley LRPS David Hughes ARPS Alastair Purcell Greg Dunn LRPS Lisa Persky Alan Bovik Michael Wilson June Hanson Caroline Oades Patrick Pauwels Paul Joyce LRPS John Shaw LRPS Lorraine Grey LRPS Clive Dunkey Bajinder Panesar LRPS Jo Sutherst ARPS Prue Heron Chris Griffin Anne Whiteley LRPS Kevin Smoker Jane Perriss LRPS Adrian Conneely James Lamb Will Hughes ARPS Jacquie Sweeney David Georghiou Paul Simons Mike Jordon

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Beccles East Cowes Torquay Godalming Chard Calgary, Canada Los Angeles. USA Austin, USA York Reading Melton Mowbray Antwerp, Belgium Ismaning, Germany Solihull Chatham Rugeley Coventry Blakeney Hassocks Horley Exeter Seaford Lostwithiel Norwich Colchester Sale Kilmarnock Farnham Aylesford Guildford

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DIG PRINT EXHIBITION Our travelling print exhibition is now on at Swindon Library, Link Centre, Whitehill Way, Swindon SN5 7DL till June 28th. Check HERE for the opening times prior to visiting.

For those of you unable to attend here are some shots of the exhibition – courtesy of the DIG Exhibition Organiser Sue Totham. Thanks Sue.

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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.

DIG Eastern Centre

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DIG South East Centre

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DIG Thames Valley

DIG Western Centre

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DIG Yorkshire & North East Centre

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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.

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

CREATIVE EYE - GLASGOW

CREATIVE EYE - GREENWICH

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CREATIVE EYE _ HOUGHTON HALL

CREATIVE EYE - BRISTOL

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ACCOLADES FOR ACCOLADE 4 Thank you to those members who contacted the team following the publication of the most recent online DIG Accolade – the magazine that celebrates DIG member Distinctions.

A great issue in ISSUU! It is so interesting and inspiring to read the stories of the distinction candidates. The enlarged layouts at the end are a great idea. Keep them coming!

Anne Woodman Yet another successful publication, I thinks its brilliant to be able to see the panels in print the way you have produced them with a story to each one.

Sheila Haycox Wish I had access to something like this when I did my A. This is great well done.

Peter Stickler

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KEN PAYNE TUTORIALS Ken has been busy again this month so we have two interesting new tutorials from him. First photo stacking‌.

And next how to make a rainbow – how super is that!

click on the images to take you to the relevant tutorial video on You Tube 17

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MEMBER GALLERIES This month the two galleries we are featuring have been very recently added and the one from the talented Sheila Haycox gives exceptional value as it contains 142 excellent photos.

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A UK MEMBER A member on the DIG Facebook who has arrived fairly recently is showing us some super work. So we contacted Neil Milne to ask his to contribute to DIG News. Neil titles his selfie as ‘A brisk spring walk’ so we know he has a good sense of humour.

Hi, I'm Neil from Arbroath in the North East of Scotland. I only picked up a camera with any real seriousness around 18 months ago, an entry level Fuji mirrorless camera with a 16mp sensor.

So far I haven’t felt the need to upgrade.

An ARPS friend enticed me into joining my local club, the Carnoustie Photography Group. Between that Lightroom and Photoshop, I have discovered a passion for photography.

I don’t believe I have developed my own style yet. I definitely lean towards abstract and minimalist images. I’m pretty much still in the first flush of discovery and my head is full of ideas across all sorts of genres so I’m exploring day by day.

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Poppy I became a member of the RPS last year and joined the DIG group as I want to see how others process their work. I find it really inspiring. I always shoot in raw as I see my pictures as raw material. I can spend hours processing.

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Chrysanthemum I’m working on a year long project where I photograph the sea from the cliffs at home at all different times of the day and night and in all weathers. I make these into square collages. I'm also experimenting with manipulating images of flowers, buildings and trees to create a more ethereal look.

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Moonlight on the Water

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Bell Rock Editorial note – If this is what Neil is producing after just 18 months then look out RPS here comes Neil, is all I can say. So impressive.

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AN OVERSEAS MEMBER A Benelux Chapter colleague of mine, who does some super work, has agreed to write this month article for the Overseas Members slot. Let me introduce you to Trevor Simpson….

After many many years of photographing scenes I ran into and intentionally waiting for any people to clear out, suddenly the moment I stopped work and began traveling a lot this somehow pushed me into street photography! I remain an “observational” photographer recording what I bump into while out walking the streets at home or on our travels, but now almost never without people!

This can be anything from unique moments which tell a story, to “candid portraits” taken on the move while trying to be as “invisible” as possible, or actual interactions and connection with the subjects. The latter provides the photographer with pleasant little personal memory “videos” every time he views the image.

I use two basic methods: “hunting” and “gathering”: where in the first case I walk slowly around analysing everything happening in front of me for a moment, something quirky or gesture; and in the second case where I spot a place with potential then hang around there until something/someone enters completing my vision/composition!

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Photographers have been recording life on the streets for years. It is one of the fields of photography that does not require huge amounts of expensive kit, exotic locations or limitless technical skills. In that sense street photography is more of an “art” than a “science” which can be enjoyed by everyone.

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Another of its great joys is that it can be practiced just about anywhere and at any time: on your way to work, during a lunch break, on vacation or as part of a planned photography expedition.

However, it is not as easy as it sounds, we can all point our cameras at some random street scene, hoping to record something interesting or unique but to get a truly good image requires patience, observational skills combined with intuitive anticipation of what could potentially happen next and quick confident camera handling.

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DIGIT ARCHIVE

June 2019

Following on from last months look in the archives we thought we would ask someone who was key to making this archive possible - Tony Healy ARPS. Tony is one of our Australian members who has, in the past, been a DIG Committee member. He was one of just a handful of original DIG members who had the entire collection of DIGIT magazines. So helpfully he scanned some of the earlier copies and assisted Alan Cross to pull the entire collection together. It seemed appropriate to ask him to pick something out to feature this month.

Tony Healy ARPS The Gutenberg Legacy.

When DIG first poked its head above the parapet the members were assailed with the comment “It’s not proper photography”. As well as bearing the slings and arrows of upset traditionalists, we had to cope with the steep learning curve of Photoshop. To help ignore the “wet” photographers and help near and far flung members become familiar with the software to make your image, DIGIT was born. I always looked forward to the next issue and still do and find it just as helpful as it was then. For someone as enthusiastic as me it is hard to pick one issue out of the 80 that have been produced, for they each have their special article. However, there is one issue that has a special place for me. It is No.28 of 2005 with an article called “Transforming” by Tony Healy, and it is not a favourite because it has my name on it but because of reactions by some of the members. You rarely know how much your suggestions are appreciated. My philosophy is if you belong to an organisation you should support its activities and the contribution of this article was one that paid off. One of the pages is here showing repetitious images

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Not long after it was published, 2 images using the technique appeared on the web page of the day. Both were by Gitta Lim, a member with a great imagination who tried everything with often great results.

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Infinity 11 – Gitta Lim

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Infinity – Gitta Lim The prior image is of colourful CD covers of their day, but I have no idea of what the second one was.

Although it was gratifying to see someone utilise the information so soon after it was published, it was another event 5 years later that made the point. I received a very nice email from Ann Cole LRPS (at that time) saying she had won a Judge’s Ribbon at the Projected Image comp. for an image called “Loose Nuts” created using the technique, in what, after 5 years now, constituted an archive edition of DIGIT.

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Loose Nuts – Ann Cole LRPS (at that time)

New techniques are all over the web but our DIGIT Archive still has some useful ones especially if you are a newcomer. It is a resource that should be delved into and plundered for ideas that are even easier to accomplish with modern improvement in software.

There is one story on how old ideas help reap new benefits. Dr. David Malin was and still is an astronomical photographer. Around 1975 he felt photography of the sky had room for improvement, particularly using colour film. He decided to do something about it and go back to the origins (archives) of colour photography and shoot 3 separate images of each subject using a red filter on one plate, a green filter on the next and blue filter on the final. Sounds familiar to what we now 33

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have in Channels in Photoshop. The result of these 3 combined images took the Astronomical community by storm for the colour and detail he achieved with his images on film.

Have a look through the DIGIT Archive, you never know what YOU may find.

You need to be logged in to the RPS web site first then you can find the DIGIT Archive on the right hand side menu.

LIKE DOING PANELS? Many of us in the RPS like doing a body of work and having panels as we work towards the various RPS Distinctions but have you ever thought about doing panels for other photographic organisations?

Did you know, for example, that the Irish Photographic Federation (IPF www.irishphoto.ie ) has a reciprocal arrangement with the RPS whereby a Distinction with the RPS qualifies you to enter an IPF panel. For example I have an ARPS so it qualified me to submit work at the Fellowship level of the IPF. Yes you have to join the IPF as a member and pay the Distinction fee, but it gives you another avenue to explore with your work. See the exemptions page of the RPS site for information on this and other exemption opportunities. http://rps.org/distinctions/exemptions Holding an ARPS does not mean if you join the IPF you automatically become an AIPF, you still have to take their Distinctions to use the letters after your name. But where the IPF require their members to go through all the steps of LIPF, to AIPF and then FIPF, it steps you on to their ladder of success, meaning you can go direct to A or F with your RPS qualifications. You don’t have to start from the bottom.

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The Photographic Society of America (PSA www.psa-photo.org ) also offer awards for ‘portfolios’ as they call them. The PSA name the three levels Bronze (B) Silver (S) and Gold (G). There is no reciprocal arrangement with the RPS, but you can start at the SPSA level and submit either digital files or send across prints.

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Read the rules: all the different organisations have slightly different rules. For example the PSA require you to submit new work that has not been submitted elsewhere.

The examples given here are not considered comprehensive – there are others in other countries and organisations. The MPAGB and MFIAP, to name just a couple that are two of the more popular ones. All this article aims to do is give you the little push to think beyond the RPS if you like doing a body of work and improving your own level of work ever higher by reaching to attain the various Distinctions/Awards.

Janet Haines FIPF GPSA ARPS

ADVANCED NOTICE OF THE DIG PI COMP Currently the DIG Committee are putting in many hours preparation in setting up new submission and selection software ready for this years PI Comp in September. Our new PI Comp organiser, Ian Thompson, has an IT background and has written programmes for his camera club. We are endeavouring to make it as simple as possible to upload images, and for you to get confirmation emails. The rules are being rewritten in an attempt to make them shorter, and the class definitions clear.

We have booked the new RPS House theatre to run the selection day so for the first time ever we will be able to offer 50 seats to an audience.

The date will be September 14th if you want to block it out of your diary.

Further booking information about the competition and how to book to view the Selection will come out in July.

For now here is the early information about the member PI competition.

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Apologies that DIG News is a little late out this month. I have been up to my eyes and ears in visitors, RPS Assessments and other pressing DIG or RPS issues. In between I have been trying to get some well needed sleep.

If you have any comments, questions or ideas you wish to contribute then do get in touch.

Regards

Janet

Janet Haines ARPS DIG Chair digchair@rps.org

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