November 2009

Pan & Tilt
November 2009.


6th October
PAGB AV Kalidoscope 2

After the usual announcements, Bob the Chair introduced the evening's entertainment. Twelve short AV's produced by the members of East Midlands Audio Visual Group. The pictures and sound track had been digitised and was presented using the Society's digital projector. The first up was entitled 'Love Affair' and started with a sequence of clever fades of sparkling water and reflections. These steadily drew back until members could recognise Venice. The voice over was a women's voice describing how she had first come to Venice and immediately fell in love with the place. We were then treated to a series of pictures of Venetian buildings punctuated with a return to reflections on the water. Next up was 'Alpine Magic'. Here the authors had selected a number of photos of Alpine flowers starting with those in the valley and steadily working up to the snowline. The sound track was music only. Nice but not exciting. Next was 'Daylight in Concert', Daylight seeming to be a young pop group. The music was presumed to be examples of their work. The shots were available light of the performers with all the various colour associated with such performances. Not everyone's cup of tea. This was followed by 'Double Double Glazing' which was a documentary on how a valuable church stained glass window was removed and restored and how a protective outer glazing was fitted to protect it. There then followed what many thought was the best of the evening, it was called 'Downtown'. We were treated to Pet Clark's big hit of the sixties. The pictures showed the story of the song, lots of night shots, an elderly man who eventually finds a friend downtown. The last to be shown before tea was entitled 'Liberty and Tolerance' which in pictures and words told the story of the Amish community in Lancaster County in the USA. The Amish have tried, through their religious beliefs to avoid using any modern mechanised devices. They travel about in horse buggies, they wear the same clothes their forefathers wore two hundred years ago. The AV tried to show some of the difficulties in this modern world the Amish were having in maintaining their way of life.

To start the second half we had 'The Last Flight' which recounted the period leading up to Glenn Miller's last flight from war torn England to France. The photos were taken on location using 40's re-enactors playing the parts. There was no commentary but Glen Miller's In the Mood music accompanied the sequence. The story was told by way of words on the screen. Next was a photo tour of Namibia in Africa. Lots of animals and desert. Then on to Dvorak's Prague which one is left to assume the pictures of buildings and sights are those which inspired some of Dvorak's music. The buildings come thick and fast, too many for some. The title of the next sequence was 'Spaghetti' which left most a little bemused as it had nothing to do with that food product. The opening and closing pictures were of a frozen water fall which could have been mistaken for spaghetti. However, the sequence was all about an Alpine walk and climb where group set out to reach no less than ten peaks at over 4,000 metres in just six days. The photos were stunning and the enthusiasm of the commentator shone through. Tollesbury Wick Marshes was the subject of the penultimate AV and we were shown close ups of old tyres in the mud, abandoned rotting hulks, a few shots of creaks and board ways. The pictures were presented with some special arty effect which added to their impact. The last showing was 'Waltz of my Heart' which was memorable because of the operatic style of the female singer and the distortion introduced by our inadequate speakers. The pictures centred on a porcelain figure which moved and rotated about the screen whilst the background kept changing to represent the words of the song. We must get some better speakers for our audio visual presentations. On the whole, a good evening.


Wednesday 7th October
FSLPS Interclub Digital Projected Competition held at Beckenham

This was the first competition to be held under the new rules. Six clubs compete on the night each with eight entries. Instead of the use of a plus mark to break a tie, each club also had to enter tie breaker. In the event of there being a tie, those clubs in the tie have their breaker shown. The judge has to say which image he thinks is the best without awarding a score. Our Judge for the evening was Jeff Penfold ARPS. In this heat the six clubs and their scores were:

Place	Club	Points
1st	Bromley Camera Club	71.5
2nd	Carshalton Camera Club	66.5
3rd	Beckenham Photographic Society	66.5
4th	South London Photographic Society	64.5
5th	Greenwood Camera Club	63.0
6th	West Wickham Photographic Society	59.5

It will be noted that Carshalton and Beckenham tied and their tie breakers were used to set the order. Certificates were shared between Beckenham, Bromley and Carshalton. West Wickham's highest scoring entry was Dennis Noble's 'Eilan Donan Castle by Moonlight'. The top two clubs go into the final rounds. Our thanks to Beckenham who handled the projection without a hitch.


13th October
Digital Monochrome by Steve Wilbur

Steve started his talk by showing some of his early monochrome prints. These were scanned from negatives and printed using just black ink. All things considered, an acceptable result said Steve but with problems of grain and tonality. He said they would not stand enlarging. He then went on to state some of the do's and don'ts of digital monochrome. If scanning a B&W negative, use RGB setting this will help smooth out some of the problems of grain when scanning a silver based film. When ever possible use 16 bit colour and RAW files rather than JPEGs. If shooting digitally, then shoot in colour and convert to monochrome in the computer. Most cameras will shoot monochrome in 8 bit single channel JPEG's.

Steve then went through some of the processes of converting colour to monochrome. He showed that desaturation or greyscale conversion did not always give the best result often leaving the image a little flat. He recommended use of Channel Mixer and to set the channels to Red 30%, Green 60% and Blue to 10% as a starting point. Adjustment of the sliders can then be used to achieve the desired effect. Another technique demonstrated was to use an Adjustment Layer for Hue and Saturation. Then, briefly, Steve showed some of the special software available to make conversion to monochrome with more control even if with some added complication.

Our speaker then moved on to printers and discussed some of the problems of generating a true monochrome print using colour printers. The danger is the colour profile may not adequate and for the print to show a slight hint of colour which varies from the dark to the light areas. A better method is to use small gamut inks in a printer but to get good results, accurate colour profiles are required for each paper used. The latest Hybrid printers which include several black inks of varying lightness can more easily give excellent results. Such printers, Steve said, such as the Epson R2400 can be relied on to produce good results plus giving control over whether the image is 'cold', 'neutral' or 'warm'. If printing using just a single black ink, set the resolution to the highest the printer will allow, at least 1440 dots per inch, preferably 2880. Be aware of the effect of different papers and their compatibility with the inks being used. Be aware of 'metamerism', the effect of the viewing light on the apparent 'colour' of the viewed prints. Under some conditions certain ink paper combinations can create a greenish brown hue to the print.

Steve concluded by demonstrating techniques of 'burning' and 'shading' areas of images. He first used the selection method and showed some of the problems associated with the technique. He then showed his more favoured technique using adjustment layers. He showed how to put something into a burnt out area of a picture using the pattern maker. By selecting a small similar area which is not burnt out and creating a pattern from the selection. This is then blended into the burnt out area using an adjustment layer. Toning and colouring techniques were also demonstrated using gradient maps.

Steve ended his talk by showing some examples of his more recent prints. Chairman Bob closed the meeting by thanking Steve for his comprehensive coverage of the subject and he hoped more members would have a go at monochrome work.


Thurdsday 15th October
FSLPS Inter Club Colour Print Competition at Bromley

Herewith the results of the FSLPS inter-club comp last week Selsdon was way ahead, followed by Bromley who were in the same league really. The three remaining clubs were well behind but all very close. So we came fourth and are into the Plate comp. The comments on our print was complementary though obviously not grabbing top marks

The winning entries were much more interesting than our efforts. A total of seven tens were awarded, three to Bromley Camera Club and four to Selsdon Camera Club. The Certificates went to Mike Gleave ARPS, DPAGB of Bromley for his 'A touch of Colour' and to Ron Smith ARPS od Selsdon for his 'Inner Courtyard, Ightham Mote.

The scores were, Selsdon CC, 72.5; Bromley CC,68.5; South London PS, 64; WWPS, 63.5 and Greenwood CC 62 points. So we came fourth amongst a very close last three. A better result than our Digital Projected Heat.


Saturday 17th October
Outing to Sheffield Park

Of the six members who attended this trip none chose to make the train ride. Instead we all stayed on the Railway at Sheffield Park Station and enjoyed lunch there. Afterwards we all made our way to Sheffield Park Gardens where there were more opportunities of photographing the Autumn colours. The weather, unfortunately was not on its best behaviour remaining cloudy for most of the time with just a few brief bursts of sunshine.




20th October
Print Heat 1

Tony Deller once again found himself standing in as Chairman and Norman posed as Print Secretary. After reminding member's of forth coming events and the cancellation of the November Outing, Tony introduced the Judge for the evening, Jeff Penfold ARPS. Jeff began with the colour prints and proceeded with each one to describe what he liked or how he thought a print might stand some improvement. There were thirty-one colour prints from which Jeff held back eight from which he made his final selection of four. awarded. In monochrome, there were twenty-one prints shown from which again eight were held back for making the final selection of four. There were no Hon. Men's in either class. Tony closed the meeting by thanking the Judge and the members for their entries.

Results:
Colour Prints

1st	Red and Green	Bob Richards
2nd	The Red Cuillins, Isle of Skye	Norman Bernard
3rd	Three Brothers	Lorina Dean
4th	Metropolitan Peace	Tony Deller

Mono Prints

1st	Passing Light in the Valley	Alec Mahood
2nd	Under the Pier	Derek White
3rd	Girl with Hat	John Hill
4th	The Lyke Wake Walk	Vic Tokarski

27th October
Aspects of Argentina by David Wood ARPS, DPAGB

David Wood opened his talk by describing how he took a party of photographers to Argentina a few years ago. How, to get there, they had to fly via a Spain to get to Buenos Aires. Argentina, being a large country there was a limit on how much they could cover made more difficult by always having to fly back to Buenos Aires before going to the next destination. The first centre was the Argentinean Lake District which, in winter, becomes a skiing resorts. After many shots of snow capped volcanoes and local flora we moved on to a village in the Andes which entailed a road journey over a 4000 metre high pass. Here the land was arid with multicoloured rock formations and large cactus plants. They then moved on to stay on a cattle ranch where they were able to visit the local swamps, see piranha fish and caiman. Their last destination was the Iguazu National Park where the World's largest waterfall pours over its rocky ledge into a gorge. Whilst not the highest waterfall, it is three kilometres wide. So ended our tour of Argentina.