SHUTTERNEWS DEC 2022

Hello BCC Members

The arrival of Trophy evening and the year-end braai announce the end of our formal photographic year and the arrival of the festive season. Somehow these events seemed to arrive very quickly but looking back it has been a busy and pretty successful year.

There were some great images at Trophy evening and very well done to our worthy winners and likewise to those members who received acceptances during the event. It is always good to end the year off on a high note and this was achieved with forty-five people attending the evening.

Our Marievale braai was likewise well attended and whilst the bird photography might not have been favorable, the company at the picnic spot more than made up for it.

On behalf of the Committee, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all Club Members for their contributions and for sharing beautiful images over the year. For those members going away over the festive season, please travel safely and may all of you have a Blessed Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

See you all in the New Year!

Barry C

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

COMMITTEE 2022

CHAIRMAN BARRY CLAYTON VICE CHAIRMAN & COMPETITION MANAGER DAVID MACINTYRE

SECRETARY DENISE SMITH CLUB TREASURER JACQUES TALJAARD OUTINGS & EVENTS HANNES BRONKHORST

MARKETING COORDINATOR CHARMAINE ZIETSMAN EQUIPMENT COORDINATOR HANNES BRONKHORST

PHOTOGRAPHY COORDINATOR NICO GROBBELAAR CLUB EDITOR CHERYL KNIGHT

COORDINATORS & ASSISTANTS 2022

SALON COORDINATOR JACQUES TALJAARD

ADMINISTRATIVE & CLUB NIGHTS ASSISTANT RUZAAN BLIGNAUT CATERING COORDINATOR CHARMAINE ZIETSMAN

SMITH

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PSSA?

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

Boksburg Camera Club meet every third Wednesday of the month at Baanbreker Primary School, 1 Boerneef Street, Parkrand, Boksburg.

o Time: 18H30 for 19H00

o Judging starts @ 19H00

Our remote members join our Club nights via the online portal. Entries must be submitted via the online portal o www.photovaultonline.com Club

KNOW YOUR STAR RATING

Sizing: Images must be sized to a maximum of 1920 (Horizontal) x 1080 (Vertical) Pixels. Physical print size for the print category is A4-A3 and the digital copy of the print is 1920 x 1080 Pixels.

Save your images in JPG. File sizes should not exceed 2MB. Use your Photo editing software to resize your images.

Verify your star rating on Photovault. This ensures that your photos are being judged fairly When you are promoted to the next Star rating, remember to change your Star rating on Photovault before our next Club Night or entry into a Salon

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

WHY SHOULD YOU ENTER SALONS?

We encourage all our members to enter in Salons as often as possible. Photographers are invited to submit their images in various categories for possible inclusion in the salon exhibition.

A Panel of Judges scores all the submitted images and chooses approximately 20% for exhibition.

The images that are chosen are known as “Acceptances” and these are the “Salon Acceptances” that are required for Club promotion.

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

What are salons and why do we do them?

To be able to exhibit your work on a salon, you had to obtain the approval of the judges. Today it is still the same in photography that all entries received are evaluated by the jury and only those found acceptable will be exhibited.

And this is how we think of a photographic salon today – an exhibition of photography.

Photographers are invited to submit their images in various categories for possible inclusion in the salon exhibition. A panel of judges scores all the submitted images and chooses approximately 20% for exhibition. The images that are chosen are known as “acceptances” and these are the “salon acceptances” that are required for Club promotion.

The acceptance rate will be different for each event and is set by the jury but within the parameters set by the organizations which approved the exhibition (salon) and lend their name to it (patronage).

In South Africa, PSSA as the national organization representing amateur photographers, uses a guideline for acceptances for PDI (projected digital images) salons at between 20 and 25% and up to 35% for prints and Audio Visuals. Overseas you may see rates between 25 – 45%!

The prime reason for presenting a salon is to see work that you would otherwise not see and share that with all our members and the public.

The entry fee is there to cover cost and if there is a surplus that is a bonus.

Salons are either National ones where only photographers from South Africa (as well as all members of PSSA worldwide) may enter or international ones where photographers from all over the world compete.

A list of salons is published on the PSSA website, in Club newsletters and entry for SA salons is generally via PhotoVaultOnline.

Conditions of Entry

The salon conditions of entry document (salon brochure) will provide all the detail of the event such as:

• Timetable – Closing date, judging dates, when results will be available and exhibition dates.

• Awards – Medals and other awards which can be won.

• Categories of entry and their definitions.

• Names of the judges.

• Entry fees

• How to enter

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

UNDERSTANDING SCORING

CLUB NIGHTS

AWARD POINTS

No Award 0 Bronze 1 Silver 2 Gold 3

Certificate of Merit (COM) 5

OTHER AWARDS

AWARD POINTS

Digital Photo of the month - Category Winner. 1

1st & 2nd Place Set Subject Winners 1

1st Place Cell Phone Winners 1 Trophy evening score of 11 or higher 1

Digital Photo of the month - Category Winner. 1

1st & 2nd Place Set Subject Winners 1

1st Place Cell Phone Winners 1 Trophy evening score of 11 or higher 1

NATIONAL PSSA SALON POINTS

AWARD POINTS

Salon Acceptance 1 Judging at a Club or Salon 1 Salon Com or Medals 2 Salon Winner of Category 3

INTERNATIONAL SALON POINTS

AWARD POINTS

Salon Acceptance 2 Salon Com or Medals 3 Salon Winner of Category 4 All points earned

SCORING

Our Score Keeper for 2022 is Kerry Mellet.

If you have any queries on your Promotion Status or your Points and what you need for promotion, chat to Kerry so that she can assist you.

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

RANKING GUIDELINES

Grade Judging criteria

One Star Correct Exposure

In Focus Element of Composition

Correct Post Processing Picture clean and well presented.

Two Star Correct Exposure In Focus Element of composition

Some knowledge of when and where to crop Correct post processing Image clean and well presented

Three Star Element of composition

Correct exposure

Some knowledge of when and where to crop Should begin to show understanding of line, shape and form Correct post processing Image clean and well presented

Four Star Element of composition

Correct exposure

Some knowledge of when and where to crop Should understand line, shape and form Correct post processing Image clean and well presented Should show a full grasp of all the above principles and should show work of entry level National Salon Standards.

Five Star The language of visual elements and design principles to convey information emotions, thoughts, ideas, concepts or feelings Relies on the understanding and mastering of the craft to successfully communicate National Salon Standards plus entry level International Salon Standards.

If there are members that would like to have a Mentor, please feel free to chat to us.

Boksburg Camera Club have several Members who are more than willing to impart their knowledge and skills.

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

Month Set Subject Definition or explanation of what intended content should be.

January 2023 Back Light / Rim Light

February 2023 Churches

March Elements

April Vintage theme (mono)

Backlight in photography involves positioning the main light source for a photograph behind the primary subject. Rim lighting is a technique that puts light around the edges of a subject.

Can be the church in its entirety, or parts of a church, internal or external, but must be clearly identifiable as being part of a Church.

An image depicting/representing one or more the of elements - earth (soil), wind, fire, water

A vintage look is a process of giving an aged look to an image. For this purpose, it uses details and recognizable symbols to transport you to a particular age or era visually. It must be aesthetically as well as content appropriate (aged or vintage). Typical example being a black and white image of a 60's vehicle

May Mechanical Image depicting/containing mechanical action/activity. Typically of a device or machine that uses moving parts. For example an image of an open mechanical wristwatch which uses springs that are wound to power gears and move the hour and minute hands. The image must portray the mechanical activity

June Body Scapes

An artistic style where closeup photographs of the human form convey the impression of landscape. A notional landscape formed by a body.

July Empty road Image where the road must be the key subject but must have nothing on it (animal, car, insect, stone, lines etc) that become the focal point. The location of the road is also important and must be included (i.e. In the Bush, a desert, City Centre, etc)

August Macro The strictest definition of macro photography is that the subject is photographed at 1:1 magnification in other words, the subject is life-sized in the photo. However, most people use the term “macro photography” to refer to any photograph that depicts a close-up and extremely detailed image of a small subject. Your image can be either.

September Abstract An Abstract Image is a method of expressing ideas and emotions with photographed image elements, without the intention of creating a traditional or realistic image. By avoiding and going beyond the usual representations of an object, scene, or any particular element, it reveals details that are normally ignored and triggers the viewer’s imagination. Abstract composition means focusing on basic elements instead of realistic representations of the scenery in front of you. However, the result must be a visually appealing image with strong focal points, wisely chosen leading lines, and balance

October Silhouettes An image with the dark shape and outline of someone or something visible in restricted light against a brighter background

January (2024) Power of perspective

Image must demonstrate the power of perspective in that the perspective of an image determines what kind of story you want to tell and what kind of mood you want viewers to feel when they look at a photo. The power of perspective is beyond the consideration of your photography subjects; it is about the angle of your camera, your proximity to the subjects and what you include in the frame that plays an important role in your final image.

February (2024) Self portrait

The simple definition of a self portrait is a picture of oneself. Selfies can also be described as such; however, there's a clear difference between the two. Self portraits are carefully composed, wellthought-out, and meant to create a lasting impression of yourself. Selfies are usually taken quickly with a smartphone camera and deleted if unsatisfactory. Do not submit a selfie. The author must also activate the camera – we rely on your honesty for this.

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

OPPORTUNITIES EVENTS & OUTINGS

Should any of our members have ideas for Outings and Workshops please feel free to chat to Hannes, Dave, Barry or Douglas and share your outing ideas.

All ideas are welcome. We look forward to hearing from you.

PHOTO OPPORTUNITY COMING UP

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

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Trophy Night Winning Images

The winning Images from this year's Competition.

Altered Reality - Laetitia Kenny - End of the Road Architecture - Jackie du Plessis - Abstract Ceiling Beginners - Zenia McQuirk - Globe Reflections

Floral & Still Life - Jackie Cilliers - Rare Earth Iris Monochrome - Jan Viljoen (Kierie) - Happy Hippo Rays

Nature Birds - Jan Viljoen (Kierie) - Shallow Water Catch

Nature General - Jan Viljoen (Kierie) - Wait for me please Mom

Open Pictorial - Theo van der Merwe - Puma Energy

Photojournalism - David MacIntyre - They say get Straight back up He Did Portraiture - Willie Pieterse - The Smoker

Scapes - Vivienne Murray - Wanderlust and Desert Dust

OVERALL WINNING IMAGE - Happy Hippo Rays by Jan Viljoen

“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

GESTALT PERCEPTION IN PHOTOGRAPHY

by Anton Gorlin https://antongorlin.com/

Gestalt psychology is an attempt to find laws and principles of how our mind organizes the seemingly chaotic world and describes how we get and perceive meaningful information. The psychologists have formed a bunch of laws and principles showing how our br ains work. Since gestalt perception is about organizing things, it blends nicely with the composition because it serves the same purpose. And we artists can apply these concepts to the art to improve the perception of our works. The most efficient applicat ion lies in design but we also could steal a few things and use it for photography.

GESTALT LAWS PHOTOGRAPHY APPLICATION

LAW OF PROXIMITY

Law of Proximity states that we perceive objects located near each other as a group. This way we use a group of objects as a composition building block rather than a single object.

This separation doesn’t add much to the story here but is very good for illustrating the principle. The storytelling example would be to show some hint of relations between the groups.

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

Law of Proximity example – notice, how the tree is very distinct from all other trees hence the name of the photo – “Outcast”.

LAW OF SIMILARITY

We also group obj ects which have some sort of similarity. The can have a similar shape, colour, size, etc. The usage is the same as for the proximity – we can use a group of related objects as a composition accent. It also helps with the storytelling.

In this instance, the dark and light groups help us to read the photo and create some story behind it. Th e photo above is called a “Wedding” or a “Dance”. This would not be possible without the Similarity Law grouping.

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

We can easily name this photo “Leaders” because it just makes sense with the two bigger yachts.

LAW OF CLOSURE

Law of Closure supports the Suggested Lines principle and extends it to the Suggested Shapes. This means tha t our brain fills the gaps and forms shapes with whatever lines are present in the photo. This law is fundamental and useful as it allows to build shapes inside of the picture, make accents and control the flow of the viewer’s eye. I’ve covered this topic in the Composition Building Blocks section.

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

Law of symmetry describes o ur brain’s tendency to look for symmetries and group objects around this principle. Humans are mostly symmetrical, and this way of things is natural for our perception. It’s also easy to break this law increasing the tension –break the symmetry where it i s suggested. The important thing to understand here is that we are not talking about something precisely symmetrical, an approximation is usually good enough when we are talking about photography.

We visually combine brackets into three groups without even thinking to combine the adj acent brackets Some of these laws are pretty challenging when it comes to the actual implementation.

Have a look at the photo below:

Here we distinctly see two sets of trees grouped by their symmetrical alignment Ok, but why do we even care? This law doesn’t really add to the previous photo apart from breaking the rhythm, it just sits the re. But the photo below, on the contrary, shows a usage example.

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

A great example of the Law of Symmetry. Two trees make a group and immediately create a frame for the main tree adding an extra layer to the composition.

LAW OF COMMON FATE

Law of Common Fate states that we perceive objects as a whole if they have the same moving path or we think they do. We think that the objects moving in a similar direction share the motion trends and thus a common fate.

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

We organize seemingly chaotic movement into three groups using their direction and hence common fate

LAW OF CONTINUITY

According to the Law of Continuity, we group elements that are aligned with an object, and we ar e less likely to combine ingredients that have distinctly different directions or alignments.

LAW OF GOOD GESTALT

This one is exciting. It states that we tend to filter our parts of the reality, to simplify the surrounding to find order and regular pattern. In my experience, it should be a purpose rather than a tool when we talk about pho tography. Our eyes do filter out a lot of things, but it doesn’t work when we look at the photo. So, we should deliberately get rid of all things that do not work for the story we are trying

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

to tell. We should try to present a final photo as a clean produc t. So that a random viewer immediately sees it as having a good gestalt.

LAW OF PAST EXPERIENCE

This law says that we can group objects based on experience rather than momentary layout. If we know that the objects tend to appear together or shortly one af ter the other, then we group them. There are few consequences here:

1. This law allows us to build relations between distant objects without any geometrical relation between them. But this one is less exciting than the second consequence.

2. We can impress the viewer by breaking this law. We need to include some objects that fail this rule, i.e. show some rare combination.

Past experience says camels should be in the desert and yet, they are enjoying the breeze

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GESTALT PRINCIPLES

The main gestalt principles are emergence, reification, multi - stability and invariance.

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

This principle tells us that we perceive an object as a whole, not as a collection of parts. It has little application to photography.

REIFICATION

Reification is a practical law. This principle states that we can perceive more sp atial information that it is present in the picture. It confirms one of the composition principles I describe elsewhere in this article – the suggested lines building block. Our brain tends to expand and build on top of what we see. We extend these shapes with some illusory contours.

Wikipedia example of the Reification Gest alt principle

Of course, these shapes do not apply to photography as is. Rather, we need to understand the principle – how some objects create or suggest some other shapes that do not, in fact, exist in the original photo. The simplest application is suggested lines.

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

Reification in most cases is a way to sub divide a photo into multiple imaginary shapes

MULTISTABILITY

Multistability describes ambiguous perception going back and forth between several interpretations of an image. Some sort of the optical illusion. It has a wide application in design and graphics and no so easy to do in photography.

Wikipedia example of the Multistability gestalt principle. One use is to se ek Pareidolia objects in our everyday life.

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

I’ve chosen the most prominent Mult i - stability example I have (out of the whole project)

INVARIANCE

Invariance suggests that we perceive objects in the same way regardless of their rotation, deformation, and scale. If we recognize an object, we can quickly identify it in any state.

Classical Invariance example. This principle has many applications in photography and art i n general. Scale, figureto - ground relation, linear perspective. The fundamental idea is to use Invariance and represent a well - known object in unusual conditions or environment.

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

We know the human size, so with this comparison, we emphasise the size of the mountains On the contrary, we could do something opposite:

Another example with the opposite thing – filling with a different sense using a different s cale HOW TO USE GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY

This chapter is the most theoretical one in the whole article and doesn’t show any practical tips or techniques. Yet, it serves a useful purpose – gives another perspective and expands our understanding. It’s not that ea sy to transform these laws and principles into some magical recipes. These laws are beneficial for planning shots and telling a story. They tell you how to separate part of the photographed objects and how to build relations between them.

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

Like any other theory, it has its critics. The main arguments against Gestalt Psychology are:

1. Lack of experimental data.

2. Descriptive nature of the principles rather than explanatory.

Such critics make sense, and we should not blindly believe any of these. Instead, let’s try everything out ourselves and see if it works.

CONCLUSION

Gestalt psychology is another take on formalizing the human perception of art. Right or not, it definitely has something behind it and it helps to understand how we tend to organize things. This could help us to create better stories and convey without any words better.

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams

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“If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph.” Ansel Adams