August 2014 Edition

Welcome to another edition of Camera Clips. The banner this month comes from an image of Eucalyptus Caesia ‘Silver Princess’ Nuts by Kerry Malec. I was really taken by this shot Kerry. You can see the original image on Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/110246081@N02/14544540619/

This month I have a few articles relating to the workshop session entitled—”how do you do that?” This session convened by Helen Whitford, highlighted the post processing skills of a number of the clubs members. Helen and Richard showed how to remove distracting elements with selection tools in Nikon Capture. Mark Peddlar demonstrated merging of images to create a montage in photoshop. Jo Tabe showed how to photomerge to HDR and then tone map with photomatix. Chris Schultz demonstrated focus stacking with a range of software. Alberto Guirelli demonstrated contrast and tone adjustment using levels with photoshop. I demonstrated the technique to make little planet panoramas using photoshop and Flexify. There is a full write up of this session by Chris Schultz on the web page. http://blackwoodphotoclub.org/ In this edition I have articles from Alberto about Dodge and Burn and myself about the little planet panoramas.

At this session Jo Tabe brought along some prints. One in particular caught my eye. It was an image of an old door frame / window that she had modified to give an old Grunge look to. This had scored quite highly in competition. (Stupid me—I can’t remember it’s name) I don’t have an article from Jo, but I did explore the concept of Grunge photography. This turns out to be a codified style of photography that has become popular recently. Perhaps worth giving it a try. You can access the article here. Grunge

The other focus of this edition is matrimony. A few weekends ago I attended the wedding of two of my friends. You know this is not a popular theme in photo competitions. I can almost hear the judges groan when you put up an image of a bride. It is however something that many of the members of the club have undertaken. I have spoken to Ray, Alberto, Helen, Les and Mark about their wedding photography. I was hoping that one of these people would write an article for me. Unfortunately it was not to be. In the end I wrote about my own experiences. Although this was not a “glamour wedding” as Alberto put it, it was an occasion where the two demonstrated a lot of creativity and individual flare. They asked me to be the Wedding photographer. I think it is both an honour and a challenge to be asked to do a friends wedding. I spent some time talking to Helen Whitford and I have reproduced some of her suggestions in my article. I also gave a list of tips that I have gleaned from the web. I am first to admit that I am not the most experienced in this area of photography. However it could happen to you one day, and I hopped that my experiences might be helpful. I would be interested if anyone else has had similar experiences or advice that they might share.