Amersham Beyond Group - 4th June 2020

Meeting Notes on Creative Photography and Photo-Art
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spb
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Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:04 pm

Amersham Beyond Group - 4th June 2020

Post by spb » Fri Jun 05, 2020 5:09 pm

Face to face meetings have been cancelled due to COVID 19 but the June 2020 meeting was held on Zoom and a recording of the meeting can be viewed by APS Members here.

MONTHLY CHALLENGES

All Amersham Beyond Group Challenge images can be seen at Amersham Beyond Group on Flickr.

For APS Members only this month's images are also available for viewing and commenting at the APS Members Only Facebook Site
IMPORTANT - please spend time viewing and commenting upon the images - this is our primary source of feedback at the moment. Authors are also encouraged to provide commentary on their creations here.

#12 PAPER

#13 POP ART

and the latest;

#14 JOINERS AND COLLAGES
For information on the origins and intent of Joiners and methods by which they may be created see the notes from last month’s meeting here. These notes have now been updated with additional software found to be useful by members this month.

A different take on Joiners is the photo mosaic; a mosaic of one image constructed from hundreds or thousands of other images. Recommended software to achieve this automatically is AndreaMosaic (£0 Win/Mac).

Another source of inspiration for collages is the Dada Art Movement of the 1920’s which sought to offend the artistic and political elite after the senselessness of WW1. It did this by creating whimsical, nonsensical, downright silly collages (amongst other art works) to incense the public and the critics.

Having reviewed the Joiners submitted by the members this month, I concluded that many of us (encouraged by me) had taken the shortcut of making a joiner from a single image. The problem with this approach is that our brains instantly re-assemble the individual images and see the original with little added value. David Hockney’s early Polaroids were rather similar, although the lack of a telephoto lens meant that he had to take his images from a close position thus slightly distorting the perspective.

Hockney later developed the idea of introducing the passing of time and different viewpoints into his images to make the process of seeing harder and slower but more rewarding. He even incorporated film processing errors and ends of film rolls to add interest and complexity.

Having cracked the technicalities of producing Joiners, we might further develop them in the coming weeks with these thoughts in mind.

The next Challenge is;

#15 FINE ART FLOWERS
The previous Challenges have been quite technical which has not appealed to all members, so I thought that it was time to get back to basics with this new one. By ‘fine art’ I mean an image that would not look out of place on a gallery wall. The subjects will most likely be abstracted from their natural environment and the resulting image could be a record, impression or interpretation of one or more flowers and/or their associated foliage.

Successful commercial fine art flower photographers of note include Sue Bishop and Polina Plotnikova.

BACK OF BEYOND - DIARIES
Tethering. Studio or tabletop photography can be a slow and frustrating process but made more enjoyable and efficient by the process of Tethering the camera. This is achieved by a wired (or wireless) connection to a nearby laptop, desktop or tablet. That screen provides a large preview of each image as it is captured and the associated software gives complete control over the camera without having to touch it. The ability to control focussing from a much bigger touchscreen is especially useful for close-up work.

Most DSLRs support tethering but not all. This can be a strategic decision by camera makers - My Olympus OM10 is not supported but the OM5 and OM1 are supported. However Olympus have recently decided that the OM5 Mk III is now an 'enthusiast' camera not a 'professional' camera and support for tethering has been removed.

Camera manufacturers have their own dedicated software for tethering. There is also a wide choice of third party software (for Canon and Nikon, at least) and Lightroom can also tether many cameras. If you already have a compatible camera, a suitable device and the cable that probably came with the camera, there’s nothing else to buy.

Sensor Cleaning. With photography ongoing but camera servicing difficult at the moment your sensor may be showing signs of contamination. I wrote about dealing with this issue in 2010 but it remains relevant today, although additional products are now undoubtedly on the market and self-cleaning sensors are much better now.

Cheers, Steve

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