No 23 - 2010 - The Royal Photographic Society

Northern Region No 23 2010
NEwsletter 2010
Don’t
Fence
Me In
Norman Robson
goes flat out for his
photos – literally!
I
enjoy taking most subjects in photography - mainly landscapes, sport and images with pictorial content. I admire
those photographers who have the patience to do Natural
History which I know takes considerable time, effort and
technical competence to achieve a good quality image.
Most of my landscape images are of a selected area from
the whole scene and zoomed in close bringing out the subject matter - be it a building, tree, animal or any thing that
suits the image really. I have had some success with portraits
done mainly with available light. I feel I don’t do enough
portrait work to warrant a full lighting setup, although I do
take some, mainly family shots now and then with flash on
camera.
The majority of my photography has been done around
the North East, Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District Area,
and very little in other countries. In the past few years I have
2
concentrated mainly on my local coastline. I have had reasonable success with images doing well in club competitions
and gaining three awards and quite a number of acceptances in internationals using about ten images taken at my
local sand dunes at South Shields. The extent of the dunes
doesn’t cover a very large expanse, probably 800 metres long
by about 200 metres wide, with a skate park in between and
the highest point about five to six metres above ground
levels on all sides. Taking a photograph of the whole of the
dunes would include too many distractions, lamp posts on
the coastal road, trees from the nearby park, roofs from
the restaurant buildings nearby and even Tynemouth in the
distance. For images that work well you need to pick out
an area with some point of interest in it and move in close
until you get the image that pleases you most. Fencing and
sometime areas of broken fencing or wind damaged fencing
NEwsletter 2010
make interesting images. Most of my images on the dunes
are taken from a low viewpoint, either lying down or kneeling, which is some effort for me now as getting up again is a
problem. I choose this viewpoint to cut out any obstructions
protruding into the skyline. Once as I was lying down maybe
four or five minutes waiting for the clouds moving into the
picture to my liking, a chap came over to ask if I was all
right. I think he thought I had collapsed or something. I have
realised over the years that the best time to visit the dunes is
after a windy day so any footsteps have been filled in showing a nice smooth surface or even on a windy day when,
with a slower shutter speed, you can see the sand drifting
over the surface. On such days you are often the only person
there. The past year has been a bit of a disaster. Whoever
has been responsible for keeping the sand at bay decided to
incorporate builders’ red plastic fencing in some areas and
it is not very photogenic. Lots of it has been trodden down
and bits of the red fencing blow about in the wind. I hope he
gives up the idea of using it in the future but, unfortunately,
I am sure it is cheaper and in some places it has worked well
and done the job, though I can’t help hoping they return to
using the wooden fencing soon.
[Norman has recently recovered from two hip replacement
operations – Ed]
3
NEwsletter 2010
Cliff Banks LRPS AFIAP PSA3*
traces the journey he and Arnold Hubbard FRPS embarked
upon to discover how they could continue their love affair
with infrared photography in the digital age
F
or many years I have enjoyed taking infrared pictures using
Kodak infrared film and when the digital explosion occurred
I felt it must be possible to produce the same quality from
the computer.
The drawbacks of film
was having to load both
the camera and developing
tank in total darkness, ie
in a darkroom bag inside a
fully darkened room. then
printing in the darkroom
before one could see the
results.
First attempts were
made
using
pseudo
infrared programs in
Photoshop however the
end results lacked the
quality of film with the
rich blacks in the sky and
glowing whites of the
leaves and grasses.
At this stage Arnold Hubbard and myself decided to fully
investigate a digital solution that produced the quality we
were looking for.
Firstly we checked to see if our Nikon D70s were capable
of recording infrared. A simple check for any digital camera
is to photograph a TV remote that was being operated
and pointed towards the camera. If in the resulting picture
there is a white circle of light emitting from the remote TV
programmer you are in business.
Having established this we then used a Cokin A007 opaque
filter in front of the camera lens and were able to produce IR
pictures. The early results showed some
hot spots which were caused by light
entering from the sides of the Cokin filter
holder. This was cured by making a garter
of one inch wide garter elastic and fitting
this around the filter holder.
Both Arnold and I produced some
good pictures with this method the
only drawback was exposures in daylight
were typically 2 to 4 seconds at wide
open apertures, resulting in short depth
of field but worse than that one needs
almost totally calm weather or blurred
pictures occurred.
4
Around this time Arnold acquired a Nikon 990 digital
camera which had been converted for infrared use, the
results were a great improvement the only drawback being
the time for the camera
to process the information
and store it on the flash
card was in some case
minutes during which
time you could not move
on to the next picture and
also the limitation of the
focal length of the lens of
the compact.
Having
satisfied
ourselves that good
results could be produced
from a digital camera in
2007 we both had our
Nikon D70s converted for
IR. Now we had the full
interchangeabilty of our
lens systems, the ability to
instantly view the picture in black and white on the camera
screen and we are enjoying our infrared photography very
much. In order that one can view the picture in black and
white rather than looking like a colour negative on the
camera screen it was necessary to go into the camera menu
and set the white balance whilst focussing on a leaf that you
would expect to be white in the end result. You can check
to see if your camera is suitable for IR conversion by visiting
the site www.lifepixel.com.
When the images are imported into Photoshop they
will be RGB again looking like a colour negative. Convert
the image to black and white by your
favourite conversion tool i.e. Channel
mixer, or the Photoshop filter for B&W
conversion. It is then time to make fine
adjustments in levels, luminosity, shadow
highlights etc to suit you requirements.
In post processing the pictures in
Photoshop we are also enjoying swapping
the red and blue channels to produce
creative pictures which I cannot show in
this article as this issue is only in mono,
These effects can be seen on the website
www.lifepixel.com/Videos/basic-infraredphotoshop-info.html.
NEwsletter 2010
Opposite page
above: taken on Nikon 990
below: Trembling Tree using red filter method
This page
top left: Courtyard taken on Nikon D70
top right: Warkworth taken on Nikon D70
centre: Jervaulx Abbey taken on Kodak IR film
below left: Thorp Perrow taken on Kodak IR film
beloe right: Studley Royal taken on Nikon D70
5
Rules Rule OK?
NEwsletter 2010
Alec Ponton
asks you to make his life easier by following these simple
guidelines when submitting articles
M
ost of you who submit articles for publication in the
RPS Northern Newsletter are not authors or journalists, but
photography enthusiasts who have something to say. For
some time I have been threatening Jane Black with this list
of dos-and don’ts to help you present your material in a
way which conforms with the
Newsletter’s house style and
incidentally saves me time and
occasional difficulties.
My task is to mould your
articles into a visually pleasing
product which is also easy to
read. The job, obviously, divides
into two basic parts: text and
images.
Rule 1.
Always keep the two
separate. Avoid the
temptation to illustrate
your text pages. Never,
never, never use Microsoft
Publisher for professional
design and print.
Let’s start with text. I have a book
called Copy-editing which runs
to more that 400 pages, so what
I have to say here is the tip of a
very large iceberg. I do ‘technical’
editing of the texts for clarity and
style, correcting spelling, etc,
but some of this work can be
avoided if you follow some fairly
simple guidelines.
There used to be a website
which said something like ‘I
am God, I am responsible for
everything in the universe
except Microsoft.’ Some of you
who have grappled with the
vagaries of Vista or other ill-prepared Microsoft upgrades
may sympathise with this sentiment. However, the trouble
with Microsoft Word is it does want to tell you what to do.
This may be fine if you are typing the odd letter, or working
in an office where Word is your main programme, but for the
designer, the built-in formatting can be a nightmare, as texts
often have to be unravelled before reformatting for desktop
6
publishing. In addition, you may have your own way of doing
things, like indenting the first lines of paragraphs, or adding
a space between paragraphs.
Please do not type email addresses in blue. I don’t know
whether this is a hidden feature of Word, but it can be a
nightmare to get rid of. Even
when I think I have eliminated
all colour from the Newsletter,
the printer has sometimes
called me to say there is a
colour lurking in its depths,
which would mean additional
wasted printing plates for that
colour if it is not got rid of.
Rule 2.
Avoid any formatting
except straightforward
punctuation, eg, full stops,
commas, etc. A single return
is enough for paragraphs.
Do not use tabs at all. Do not
indent first lines. Do not use
superscript, eg 10th, instead
of 10th, or fractions like ¼
instead of 1/4 – please let me
do all that! Oh, and do not
have any colour in text files.
Many
people
have
had
secretarial training or have
picked up the conventions of
typing letters. However, there is a
difference between typewriting
in business for instance, and
typesetting for publication.
One of these is double spacing
between sentences, or creating
additional spaces for whatever
reason. Incredibly, in the past,
using a find/replace function, I
have found hundreds of multiple spacings in a document the
size of the Newsletter.
Rule 3.
If you are pressing the spacebar twice, you are
probably doing something wrong!
NEwsletter 2010
Punctuation is a nightmare, because, apart from
beginning a sentence with a capital letter and
ending it with a full stop, there are few hard
and fast rules. Your guideline should be clarity.
There are some points of house style which I
would like to explain. I try to avoid unnecessary
punctuation, for example, instead of Dr. J. R.
Smith, C.B.E., F.R.P.S., A.P.S.A., Hon.p.a.g.b.,
we use Dr J R Smith CBE FRPS APSA HonPAGB,
which takes up less space and is much less dotty.
The same applies to most abbreviations, like eg
instead of e.g. Don’t put a space between a
word and a punctuation mark as this may result
in a line beginning with, say, a question mark.
Rule 4.
Keep punctuation simple but effective.
Dealing with images, is much simpler. Find out
whether your images are to be monochrome or
colour. Then do the following:
3. All images must be 300 dpi.
1. Monochrome images have to be greyscale for printing.
You can maximise your monochrome image using
colour channels, but eventually it has to be converted to
greyscale. If you present a colour image for a monochrome
newsletter, I convert it straight to greyscale.
4. All images, except front cover should have a dimension
on the long side of 150 mm, more is OK, less risks loss of
quality. I use this as a standard, as nothing is likely to be
bigger than 150 mm in the newsletter except the cover.
2. Colour images must be CMYK.
5. The cover picture should have a width of 213 mm.
A brief word about formats. Most camera manufacturers
seem to have settled for JPEG plus Raw. These days printers are
happy to work with PDFs and that is how I send the newsletter
to them. Theoretically, PDFs are acceptable for images, but
can produce complications. Stick to JPEG or TIFF so long as
they conform to the above. Your main consideration is image
quality, so if you use JPEG make sure it is set to maximum, as
JPEGs lose data when compressed. And try not to overcook
your pictures with too much manipulation as they can begin
to acquire an unpleasant mottled look.
In the end, if you can’t cope with all these dos and don’ts,
send your article in anyway and I’ll sort it out even if it does
take longer. As the alternative saying goes, ‘if a thing is worth
doing, it’s worth doing badly’.
COVER PICTURE
The Blessing
During a visit to the Dingle area of Eire in September
2008 we visited our first abandoned cottage near
Brandon village. We were struck by the way the last
occupants had just left chairs, a kettle and a broken
framed image of Christ. A number of other photographers were present so with little space for tripods I had
to hand hold my Canon 400D at 1/8 sec. f 5 800 ISO.
An empty cottage left in England would not be respected
like this but vandalized instead.
Brian Pearson ARPS
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NORTHERN REGION PROGRAMME 2010
THURSDAY 9 SEPTEMBER–THURSDAY 16 SEPTEMBER
Lecture tour
Willy Suys MFIAP from Luxembourg
World Wide Wanderings
Thursday 9 September
St Oswald’s CC, Gladwin Road, Grindon, Sunderland,
7.15pm #
Monday 13 September
Methodist Church Hall, Brompton, Northallerton,
7.30pm #
Tuesday 14 September Cross House CC,
Ryton Village, 7.30pm
Wednesday 15 September
Edinburgh PS, 68 Great Kings Street, Edinburgh,
7.30pm
Thursday 16 September Paisley PC, 34 Findhorn,
Erskine, 7.30pm
SUNDAY 26 SEPTEMBER
Licentiateship Panel
Backworth Hall near Newcastle 10.00am–4.00pm
Entrants free, observers and friends welcome.
Tickets £10. Buffet open to all – £5
Booking essential through the Treasurer Brian Pearson.
TUESDAY 2 to THURSDAY 4 NOVEMBER
Lecture tour by Judy Boyle FRPS, FIPF
Title to be announced
Tuesday 2 November
Lockart Room, Moothall, Hexham, NE46 3NH, 7.45pm
Wednesday 3 November
Mechanic’s Institute, Percy Street, Alnwick, NE66 1AE
7.30pm #
Thursday 4 November
Methodist Church hall, Southey Street, Keswick,
CA12 4EF 7.30pm #
FRIDAY 5 to SUNDAY 7 NOVEMBER
LAKE DISTRICT WEEKEND
Glenridding Hotel, Ullswater, CA11 0PB
Lecturers:
Judy Boyle FRPS FIPF; Alan Hayward FRPS;
Les Ayres ARPS; Peter Freeman
Cost per person sharing a double or twin room £180,
single occupancy £210
The price includes two nights dinner, bed and breakfast
and the lecture programme
TUESDAY 30 NOVEMBER to THURSDAY 9 DECEMBER
RPS INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF PROJECTED IMAGES
MONDAY 11–FRIDAY 15 OCTOBER
Tuesday 30 November St.George’s Church, Morpeth,
Lecture tour by Dr, Ann Miles FRPS
7.30pm
1 Weather to Photograph and What or
Thursday 2 December
2 A Passion for Nature
St. Oswalds Institute, Church Street, Durham, DH1 3DQ,
Monday 11 October
7.30pm #
Methodist Church Hall, Brompton, Northallerton,
Friday 3 December
DL6 2QT, 7.30pm #
Harraton C.C. Bonemill Lane, Washington, NE38 8BQ,
Tuesday 12 October
7.45pm #
Lockhart Room, Moothall, Hexham, NE46 3NH, 7.45pm
Monday 6 December
Wednesday 13 October
Methodist Church Hall, Brompton, Northallerton, DL6 2QT,
Mechanic’s Institute, Percy Street, Alnwick. 7.30pm #
7.30pm #
Thursday 14 October
Tuesday 7 December
St.Helens Church Hall, Belle Vue Bank, Low Fell,
Duke of Wellington Public House, Kenton Lane,
Gateshead, 7.30pm #
Gosforth, NE9 6BR, 7.30pm
Friday 15 October
Thursday 9 December
Harraton CC, Bonemill Lane, Washington, NE38 8BQ
St. Oswald’s CC, Gladwin Road, Grindon, Sunderland,
7.45pm #
SR4 9QY, 7.15pm #
Note: 11 &15 October – Lecture 1
2011
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12/13/14 October – Lecture 2
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# denotes wheel chair access
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Regional Organiser: Jane H Black ARPS APSA HonPAGB 9 Cardigan Grove Tynemouth North Shields NE30 3HN Tel 0191 2522870
Treasurer: Brian Pearson ARPS AFIAP 2 Waterloo Place North Shields NE29 0NA Tel 0191 2575051
Committee: Arnold Hubbard FRPS Tel 0191 5285842 David & Hilary Shaw ARPS Tel 0191 5420498
Ron Henry ARPS Tel 0191 2676200 Chris Rowley LRPS Tel 0122 8560750
Newsletter Design: Alec Ponton
Web Master Dennis Atherton FRPS email: [email protected]