Category Archives: Tutorials

Live Editing

Dylan Reynolds kicked off our first meeting of 2022 with an evening of live editing via Zoom, using photographs sent in by fellow club members.

Working with Lightroom, Dylan bravely edited the first three images blind having spent no time studying them beforehand, which is a difficult job when faced with your own pictures but much harder when you’ve never seen the image before in your life! He then spent some time showing us edits to photographs he’d previously played with and it was fascinating to see how another photographer approaches the editing process.

Dylan showed us various Lightroom tips and tricks, as well as the importance of cropping and re-thinking our main focal point, and edited in both colour and monochrome. Our thanks for all his hard work and I’m sure members very much valued his take on their pictures.

Our next meeting is a Members’ Evening Competition with an open theme. Always a popular night, competitions are a great opportunity to see a broad range of member’s photographs and to receive constructive critique from an external judge. Look forward to seeing old and new members on 19th 😊.

Tutorial: Manipulating Colour in Photoshop

Leave a reply

On Wednesday 3rd November, club member Jo Knight DPAGB QPSA BPE1* EFIAP gave a whistle-stop tutorial on how to edit our images using colour in Photoshop. Starting with a basic Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, Jo showed us how to change the overall colours in our photographs as well as make more selective hue and saturation changes.

She then went on to discuss various ways of adding tones to pictures, which can help convey mood and emotion, including the use of gradients to add both simple colour washes and more complex split tones.

Following a short break, Jo spent the second half of the evening showing members how to blend the component parts of composite images together using various techniques, including the powerful and awesome ‘Blend If’.

Big thanks to Jo for a thought provoking and useful, albeit mind boggling, evening! Colour in Photoshop is a vast topic and there was a lot of information to take in, so a handout is available in the members’ section of our website (scroll down to Helpful Tips) and a a video of the evening will be available shortly on our members only YouTube channel.

Next week we’re very much looking forward to club member Phil Dayton taking us through his speciality of Astrophotography. Members are also reminded that entries for our annual fun knock out PDI competition should be sent to Jeff Bagnall by Saturday 13th November at the latest. Look forward to seeing everyone next week 😊.

Tutorial: Low Key Portraits

Leave a reply

We had a lovely evening on Wednesday 13th October at Underbarrow Village Hall, which played host to our second portraiture workshop led again by club member Seamus Bryans.

Seamus gave an excellent, knowledgeable talk supported by the use of a presentation which he’d prepared. The talk covered all aspects of Low Key Portraiture, which as Seamus explained is predominantly made up of dark tones although still covering the full range of tones. Lighting styles were discussed and practical examples given using the models Seamus had brought along. We used continuous lighting, rather than flash, so that we could all see the effect of different lighting placements in creating the different styles.

After a break we were given guidance on how to ask the models to pose and the do’s and don’ts and then we were invited to have a go ourselves. We had been asked to bring our cameras and Seamus had recommended which lenses might be best. Generally we were shooting with as wide an aperture as possible, in manual mode and exposing to the ambient about 2 or 3 stops down. This meant that when lit with the studio lights, the subject’s faces were correctly exposed while the background dropped away to black. Everyone had a turn, some a bit more confident than others and the hardest bit was probably directing the models and knowing what made a good pose. Below are some of the resulting images from Heather Mallinson, Jeff Bagnall and Kim Rigg.

Special thanks again to Seamus but also to his two models, George and Isobel, family members who willingly put up with our efforts to capture some worthy images of them. More pictures from the evening taken by members can be found in our Facebook Photoshoots group.

This Wednesday we look forward to an evening via Zoom with Dave Mason, who will be speaking about Street photography. Guests are welcome – please see our membership page for more information. Members are reminded that the hand in date for our next competition on the theme of ‘Song Titles’ has been brought forward to 20th October. See you all on Wednesday!

Tutorial: Composition

Leave a reply

Club member Jo Knight gave a Zoom tutorial on how to compose successful images at our meeting on 22nd September. Covering 8 basic rules of composition Jo demonstrated the importance of strong focal points, choosing where to place our main and secondary subjects, and how to achieve balance within our photos.

Alongside guidance on the rule of thirds and the importance of “KISS”, Jo also looked at when it’s OK to break the rules. There was a lot to take in, so a handout from the evening is available in the Members’ Section of our website. Our thanks go to Jo for her hard work in creating a very informative night.

Our next meeting is the first Members’ Evening competition of the season, which has an open subject. Competition nights are always a favourite, as they give us a chance to view each others images and to receive constructive critique on how to improve our photos. Guests and new members are always welcome, either via zoom or in person at Castle Street – see our membership page for details. See you next week!

Tutorial: Image Editing

Leave a reply

In a change to the advertised event, our next Club Zoom meeting will be on the use of editing software to enhance our photographs.

The evening will start with Club member, and recent gold medal winner, Russell Millner demonstrating how he edits his images using Lightroom.

Next, Jeff Bagnall will talk us through how to make non destructive edits to our pictures using Adobe Camera RAW (ACR).

Then the evening will round off with Dylan Reynolds, who will show us how he achieves razor sharp images with the technique of focus stacking.

There is something for everyone in this informative evening! If you would like to join us for this Zoom tutorial please see our Membership page and click the ‘Attend as a guest’ button. It is also never too late to become a member, with access to our Club YouTube channel, helpful membership pages and competitions. We look forward to seeing you 😊.