Amersham Beyond Group - 5th May 2022

Meeting Notes on Creative Photography and Photo-Art
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spb
Posts: 146
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:04 pm

Amersham Beyond Group - 5th May 2022

Post by spb » Sat May 07, 2022 1:45 pm

MONTHLY CHALLENGES
All our 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 on Facebook here.

The current Challenges are;

#29 BOOK COVER

#30 TONING


Members are getting more familiar with the toning process with successful images having been achieved by several different techniques.

Chris introduced Split Toning last month. I had heard of this but never tried it. In Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw it is called Color Grading and is the process by which shadow and highlight areas can be tinted independently without losing the full colour range of the image. It is often used to give a subtle ‘feel’ to an image – sometimes a period feel. One of the reasons that I had not tried it was that there is no tool dedicated to achieve it directly in Photoshop. However there are various ways to achieve it such as Filter>Camera Raw Filter>Color Grading (CS) or via the Gradient Map (CS or Elements),

and the latest;

#31 SHADOW PLAY


I saw this primarily as a summer Challenge – something to bear in mind during those long hot sunny summer days (fingers crossed) and Chris had already been doing this during a walking holiday in Portugal, producing a series of graphic shadow images. Remember that I am looking for the shadows to create or add to the narrative and not simply something casting a routine shadow.

The next Challenge is;

#32 MOBILE APP ART


Cameras in tablets and especially mobile phones are now very good and there has been a corresponding explosion of ‘computational’ apps that change the images in dramatic and (sometimes) artistic ways. This Challenge is to create an image entirely on a mobile device using it’s camera and software apps. The aim is for an app-processed artistic image and not just a shot that could have been taken by any traditional camera. The image should not be manipulated by a desktop or laptop computer except for final re-sizing, presentation and submission, if necessary.

I took inspiration from the Mobile Photography Awards now in their 12th year which showcase superb photography. The majority of the MPA images could have been taken by any traditional camera and so for this Challenge I focussed on just two of the many categories; Digital Fine Art and Visual FX which feature images heavily processed by apps. Take a look at the galleries of past winners.

I am hoping for surprises so I don’t want to dictate any particular apps. There are many to choose from. However for those completely unfamiliar with this field I can suggest some apps that seem to crop up time and time again;

- Snapseed
- Prisma
- Distressed FX
- iColorama
- Bluristic
- Mextures (iOS only)
- Adobe Paint Can (iOS only)
- Slow Shutter Cam (iOS only)
- Hipstamatic (iOS only)

Please don’t be limited to this list and don’t worry if apps don’t work for you – it’s a minefield. Try a few until you get interesting results. I strongly suggest that you experiment before you go travelling!

Another way to explore this field is to go to image galleries such as Flickr and search by the Tags associated with creative images that you like. They will often contain Tags of the apps used. As you will see it’s quite common to run an image through multiple apps to get the desired effect – eg apps to alter the image and then to add a texture.

I always show examples when introducing each new Challenge but I am aware that members unable to make the meeting will not see these. Consequently a gallery of my example images will be available for a limited time to all members. See my Follow Up email for this members-only link.

NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will be held on Thursday 6th October 2022.

Have a great summer!

Cheers, Steve

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