Patron: Graham Dainty

Office Bearers:

President: Ian Smith

Vice President: David Tose Past President : Stephanie Forrester

Secretary: Liz Collett

Treasurer: Anne Diack

Committee Members: Kevin Tyree,

Rosemary McGeachie, Sandra King, Les

Ladbrook, Val Wardell

Editor: Rosemary McGeachie

r.mcgeachie@xtra.co.nz

Southland Photographic Society

http://www.southlandphotographicsociety.com

February 2016

Southern Exposure

Meetings held at Age

Concern Rooms in Forth

Street, Invercargill at

7.30pm on the first &

third Thursday of each

month. Social Night with AVs and

Print Display

NB: Please bring End-of-

Year Prints shown on the

last night in 2015, for

display again this night.

Close-off: A,B & C Grade

Open (1)

Entering Competitions

Terminology

Beyond Snapshots

Close-off: NHx (1) & PJ (1)

Call for images for

Southland Arts Festival

Member’s Portfolio

Assess Images

God may have created man before woman, but there is always a rough draft before

the masterpiece.

Supper Duty for Meetings

28 Jan: Annie Carmichael, Yves

Broers

4 Feb: Burford Family

18 Feb: Anne Diack, Peter

Aalders

4 February

28 January Faux Blurry-Shit (Oops, sorry – Fine Art!)

Perhaps you have taken a pic that is a touch less sharp than you would like. Don’t despair! You may be able to make it into ‘Fine Art’ in Photoshop by the following method. With your less-than-ideal shot open in Photoshop, copy the Background Layer by hitting Ctrl+J

and then go to Filter→Blur→Motion Blur. With the angle set to 90°, increase the Distance slider until you have a vertical, streaky effect that retains the form of the picture but loses the definition. This recreates the blurring caused by moving the camera during a long exposure. The amount used depends on the size of the image, but 200px is a good starting point.

At this point, you may wish to lighten or darken your pic (depending on the exposure of the original shot). Click on the Adjustment Layer in the Layers palette and choose Levels. You then can move the sliders until you are happy with the result.

Sorry – the above instructions are for PCs. Apple users will have to

make the appropriate changes.

18 February

Which of my photographs is my

favourite? The one I’m going to take

tomorrow. - Imogen Cunningham

Subs are Due by 31

January!

Please note, that unless

you are a currently paid-up

Member, points gained in

Competitions will not be

credited.

2

When you do get that shot though,

it will be worth it.

2. The decisive moment

Henri Cartier-Bresson (well known as a street and people photographer) believed that you need to choose the precise moment when something happens to hit the shutter release. Most of

the time, it requires patience.

How to do it: You need to think of a scene you would like to capture, visualize it. You may want to capture the comings and goings at a coffee shop in your city. You may want to have someone with a red coat sitting outside, sipping coffee. You should then set up and frame your shot, then sit there until the scene unfolds. Someone with a yellow jacket may sit down, which might work too. So be flexible, but be patient, sooner or later the shot will

unfold.

3. Abstract and creative blur

This technique can be used to make slightly, or completely, abstract images, depending on the shutter time. The longer the shutter time, the more movement there is, and the more blur you will see. Blurring can be the result of your subject moving, you

moving the camera, or both.

How to do it: Set your aperture to f/5.6 or higher (smaller opening). Attempt this in low light conditions, just before and just after sunset. Set your shutter time

to 1/10th of a second or longer. Release the shutter and move the camera quickly from left to right. You can rotate the camera, move it up and down, or even just shake it in your hand while the shutter is open. In this technique, you will be moving the camera and the scene could have moving elements in it too (i.e. a car or a bus could be driving past, or people could be walking in the scene). The results will be random and unusual, but with practice, you can create some

pretty compelling abstract images.

4. Low light exposures

The goal in low light exposures is to have the scene in focus, and only one part in the scene moving. This is particularly interesting at night when you get light trails from a vehicle driving through your

scene.

How to do it: Set your camera up on your tripod. Select an aperture setting of f/8 to f/11. Set your shutter time to expose correctly for the scene. Depending on the light your shutter time could be anywhere from 1/10th of a second to three or four seconds. As it gets darker, your shutter time will need to increase. Set yourself up in a position where something will be moving – cars, boats or even people can work well for this. Take a few shots to see how it is all working and make any adjustments. The important technique here is timing. If you want to get a shot with the car lights streaming through your shot, time it so that you release the shutter as the car is in the best place in your scene, similar to the

decisive moment.

5. Long exposures

As the name suggests, these are longer shutter times. In some cases, they may be 20-30 seconds long, but for some really

interesting images, you will want

Continued on Page 3

6 Ways to Use Shutter

Speed Creatively

In many ways, shutter speed is an inaccurate term. A shutter always opens or closes at the same ‘speed’. The key value is how long the shutter stays open, hence shutter time. The shutter time becomes more than simply a moment in time, it could be a split second (literally) or a few seconds. The resulting image will capture and freeze the moment or, with a longer shutter time, there will be blurred movement. This is the fun part of photography. In many ways, your camera can “see” events that

happen which you cannot.

1. Freezing the moment

Normally these are sports images, the winning goal, or the knockout punch connecting. They are intriguing to most people and are compelling because we can’t freeze the moment in our eyes. Depending on the lighting conditions you need to make sure you have a shutter time that captures the players in mid-action. You also need to take the lighting into consideration, and

maybe push the ISO up to help.

How to do it: Set your aperture to an aperture setting of f/2.8 or f/4.5. This will allow for a quicker shutter time, which will in turn freeze the action. If you are shooting a sporting event in the sunlight, you may need to have your shutter time set to 1/1500 or faster. If this is still not freezing the action, make the shutter time even quicker. Try and anticipate the action and release the shutter at the moment you think it will happen. Be aware that your focus will need to be spot on. With a wide aperture, you run the risk of mis-focusing and missing a shot. I once heard a sports photographer say this ‘If you see the goal in your viewfinder, you missed the shot’.

3

your body from the hips up. Timing is key, release the shutter when you think the subject is in a good position in the frame. Follow through, don’t stop the movement when you release the shutter, keep moving with your subject (and at the same speed as the subject) until the shutter closes (think golf

swing).

Adapted from: http://digital-photography-

school.com

The animals were bored. Finally, the lion had an idea. "I know a really exciting game that the humans play called football. I've seen it on T.V.’ He proceeded to describe it to the rest of the animals and they all got excited about it so they decided to play. They went out to the field and chose up teams and were ready to begin. The lion's team received. They were able to get two first downs and then had to punt. The mule punted and the rhino was back deep for the kick. He caught the ball, lowered his head and charged. First, he crushed a roadrunner, then two rabbits. He gored a wildebeest, knocked over two cows, and broke through to daylight, scoring six. Unfortunately, they lacked a placekicker, and the score remained 6 - 0. Late in the first half the lion's team scored a touchdown and the mule kicked the extra point. The lion's team led at halftime 7 - 6. In the locker room, the lion gave a pep talk. ‘Look you guys. We can win this game. We've got the lead and they only have one real threat. We've got to keep the ball away from the rhino, he's a killer. Mule, when you kick off, be sure to keep it away from the rhino.’ The second half began. Just as the mule was about to kick off, the rhino's team changed formation and the ball went directly to the rhino. Once again, the rhino lowered his head and was off running. First, he stomped two gazelles. He skewered a zebra, and bulldozed an elephant out of the way. It looked like he was home free. Suddenly at the twenty yard line, he dropped over dead. There were no other animals in sight anywhere near him. The lion went over to see what had happened. Right next to the dead rhino he saw a small centipede. ‘Did you do this?’ he asked the centipede. ‘Yeah, I did.’ the centipede replied. The lion retorted, ‘Where were you during the first half?’

‘I was putting on my shoes.’

to keep the shutter open for 15-20

minutes. Long exposures require

the use of a 10 stop Neutral

Density filter. This filter will block

out the light sufficiently to allow

you to open your shutter for long

periods of time.

How to do it: Set up your camera on a tripod. Set your aperture to anywhere between f/11 and f/16. In these images, you will want to have an exposure time of 15-30 seconds and longer. You will need a cable release to go beyond 30 seconds on your exposure. You want a lot of movement in the scene, whether it is light trails or clouds moving across the sky. The longer you have the shutter open, the more surreal the image will

become.

If you have an ND filter, set up your shot first, use autofocus to get everything in focus, then switch your camera to manual focus. The reason is, once you put the ND filter on your lens, the scene will become very dark. If your camera is on autofocus, it may struggle to find a focal point. If that happens, your lens will “hunt” for something to focus on and you won’t be able to get the shot, or it may be out of focus. So, once you have focused your image, switch to manual focus and mount the ND filter onto your lens to make the shot. Be aware, long exposure photography can really eat up battery life, so carry spare batteries if you have them,

especially on cold winter evenings!

6. Panning

This technique, when done correctly, can produce amazing results, but it’s not easy. Panning is when you focus on a subject that is moving, and you move your camera in a horizontal plane with

them.

How to do it: Firstly, stand with a wider stance than normal. When you pan with your subject, move

ADULT: A person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle. CANNIBAL:

Someone who is fed up with people.

COMMITTEE: A body that keeps minutes and wastes

hours. (NB: Not the SPS Committee!)

SECRET: Something you tell to one person at a

time.

TOOTHACHE:

The pain that drives you to extraction.

The Difference between Grandfathers and Grandmothers A friend, who worked away from home all week, always made a special effort with his family on the weekends. Every Sunday morning he would take his 7-year old granddaughter out for a drive in the car for some bonding time, just he and his granddaughter. One particular Sunday however, he had a bad cold and really didn't feel like being up at all. Luckily, his wife came to the rescue and said that she would take their granddaughter out. When they returned, the little girl anxiously ran upstairs to see her grandfather. ‘Well, did you enjoy your ride with grandma?’ ‘Oh yes, Papa’ the girl replied, ‘and do you know what? We didn't see a single dumb bastard or lousy sh*thead anywhere we went today!’

Brings a tear to your eye, don't it?

A plane passed through a severe storm. The turbulence was awful, then things went from bad to worse when one wing was struck by lightning. One woman lost it completely. She stood up in the front of the plane and screamed, 'I'm too young to die,'she cried. Then she yelled, 'If I'm going to die, I want my last minutes on earth to be MEMORABLE! Is there anyone on this plane who can make me feel like a WOMAN?' For a moment, there was silence. Everyone stared at the desperate woman in the front of the plane. Then the man from Otago stood up in the rear of the plane. He was handsome, tall, well built, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Slowly, he started to walk up the aisle, unbuttoning his shirt as he went, one button at a time. No one moved. He removed his shirt. Muscles rippled across his chest. She gasped... Then, he spoke...

'Go get me a Speights, --then iron this.'

You don’t take a photography, you make

it. - Ansel Adams

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still. -

Dorothea Lange

Of course, there will always be those

who look only at technique, who ask

‘how’, while others of a more curious

nature will ask ‘why’. Personally, I have

always preferred inspiration to

information. - Man Ray

4

10 best photography tips

for beginners

New to photography? Need some beginner-friendly photo tips to help you get up and running with

your camera? This might help.

1. Don’t stress about the quality of your digital camera It’s easy to find yourself going round in circles when it comes to photographic equipment, and all too easy to believe that the camera gear you own is holding you back. But really, it isn’t: any camera is capable of producing a

stunning picture.

Yes, there are some digital cameras that will give you a wider dynamic range and others that may

have a more responsive AF system.

But ultimately, the success of a photo comes down to its composition – what you choose to include (and leave out) of the picture, and how you arrange it in

the frame.

2. Choose the right shooting

mode for the job

Aperture Priority (A or Av on the mode dial) is the one to choose if you want to control the depth of field – how sharp your photos are from front to back. As a result, it’s a smart choice for portraits, landscapes, macro photos – pretty

much everything!

Aperture Priority is a semi-automatic mode: you set the aperture, and the camera then sets a corresponding shutter speed for a ‘correct’ exposure, based on

the camera’s reading of the scene.

Shutter Priority (S or Tv) works the same way, although you control the shutter speed instead, with the camera setting an appropriate aperture. This makes it a good shooting mode to plump for when

you’re shooting sports and action.

Program mode (P) is like an advanced fully automatic mode, where the camera sets both the

aperture and shutter speed.

However, you can rotate the camera dial to ‘shift’ the aperture and shutter speed combination in order to get a different effect

while still maintaining the same

overall exposure.

This makes Program mode a good choice for on-the-fly shooting where you just want to be sure you’re going to get the shot. 3. Don’t feel you have to use the

camera manually

It is good to champion the benefits of taking as much control back from the camera as possible for consistent results. But here’s the thing: many of the automatic camera settings give perfectly

good results.

Take white balance, for instance. The Auto White Balance (AWB) setting does a decent job in many situations. It may go a bit squiffy in mixed lighting, and it can leave sunsets looking a bit insipid, but overall it’s pretty good at neutralising unwanted colour

casts.

The camera’s autofocus system is generally a much faster option than manual focus – although you’ll get more accurate results if you tell the camera where you want it to focus by manually selecting one of the AF points in

the viewfinder.

Auto ISO can be another life-saver. Here, the camera will raise and lower the ISO sensitivity as you move from dark to bright conditions, improving your

chances of taking a sharp photo.

4. Wait for the right light

This is what photography is all about, really: thinking about the light in terms of its quality, quantity and direction, and how it

suits the subject.

To reveal detail and reduce the contrast of a scene, shoot when the light is soft and diffused. Outdoor portraits and macro photos look great when shot under bright but overcast skies. Less so at midday on a bright, clear day –

the light is just too harsh.

Landscape photographers set their alarms for the early hours for a reason. The rich, raking light at sunrise (and sunset) adds warmth and texture to rural and coastal

shots.

Experiment with backlighting and taking photos when a subject is lit from the side for more dramatic results. Shoot with the sun behind you by all means, but make sure your shadow doesn’t creep into the

photo.

In short, keep an eye on the light and find a camera position that best takes advantage of it. 5. Why it’s better to shoot in

RAW

Most digital cameras offer a choice of two file formats to record

photos in: RAW and JPEG.

If you save your photos as JPEGs, then all the choices you make in the camera will be locked into the

final image.

If you find that your pictures are too dark or too bright, or the colours looks wrong, then you’ll have no option to try and fix them in Photoshop or similar image-

editing software.

The problem is that JPEGs are a compromise: compared to some other file formats, they’re heavily compressed, and the quality gets progressively worse as you make further edits and continue saving the file. However, if you save a photo as a RAW file, then you’re just saving all the raw data from

the camera.

In fact, all digital photos are shot in the RAW file format. It’s just that if you use the JPEG option on the camera, then it processes the raw data and saves the resulting

JPEG to the memory card.

If you choose to save images as RAW files rather than JPEGs, then you have to process the images yourself, either in-camera with a compatible model or in software

such as Lightroom.

Saving the RAW file enable you to go back in time: you can change some of the picture settings after

you’ve taken the shot.

Want to try a different white balance or Picture Style, or tweak the exposure and sharpness? You

can with RAW.

Continued on Page 5

5

You won’t be able to change the aperture, shutter speed, ISO or focus point though, so get these photography fundamentals right at

the time of shooting…

6. Avoid ‘clipped’ highlights

If a photo is overexposed, then there’s a risk of all detail being bleached out of the brighter areas. These ‘blown’ or ‘clipped’ highlights look ugly, and it’s usually preferable to make sure you prevent this happening when you

take the shot.

To do this, first find your camera’s brightness histogram – the graph that can be displayed alongside a

photo during playback or Live View.

This is your at-a-glance guide to the picture’s exposure. The highlights are on the right (hey, it rhymes…) and the shadows are on the left. Or at least, that’s where they should

be.

If the histogram is pushed up towards the right-hand side of the display, then the picture may be overexposed. You can double-check this by activating your camera’s Highlight Alert function, which you’ll find in the Playback menu. It causes areas of the picture that are potentially overexposed to blink

when you play back an image.

If you this happens learn how to use your camera’s Exposure Compensation function to reduce the exposure and take another shot.

7.Listen to the shutter speed

There are many reasons why you can end up with a blurred photo, including the wrong autofocus mode being set on the camera and the lens not being focused in the

right place.

But it’s the choice of shutter speed that makes a massive difference to

how sharp your photos are.

The rule of thumb is that it needs to be equivalent to the focal length of the lens – so 1/50sec for a 50mm lens – or faster to be able to get

sharp handheld pictures.

It’s easy to forget to check the shutter speed when you’re concentrating on getting the shot

though. So keep your ears peeled: if you can hear the shutter both opening and closing, the chances are you’ll end up with a blurred

photo.

8. Don’t be afraid to make

mistakes

The top professional photographers (the credible, consistent, creative ones) didn’t wake up one day, decide they were going to be photographers and immediately

start taking great photos.

They did what the rest of us did: fumbled awkwardly with dials and buttons, became disheartened when their pictures turned out too dark or too bright and felt a flutter of excitement when they managed

to take a sharp photo.

As landscape legend Ansel Adams is widely quoted as saying, ’12 significant photographs in any one

year is a good crop.’

If one of the world’s greatest photographers wasn’t too worried about his hit rate, neither should you be about yours.

9. Kill the beep

You know the annoying beep that happens when your camera gets something in focus. It may not improve your photography, but it’ll make the process more enjoyable

for you and everyone around you.

10. Look at the background first

The quality of the background can make or break a photo, never mind

how stunning your subject is.

Keep an eye out for bright and colourful objects and other elements that draw attention away

from the focal point.

Adapted from: www.

digitalcameraworld.com

Husband (a doctor) and his wife are having a fight at the breakfast table. Husband gets up in a rage and says, ‘And you are no good in bed either,’ and storms out of the house. After some time he realizes he was nasty and decides to make amends so he rings her up. She comes to the phone after many rings, and the irritated husband says, ‘What took you so long to answer to the phone?’ She says, ‘I was in bed.’ ‘In bed this early, doing what?’

‘Getting a second opinion!’

Two Irishmen were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking up. A blonde walks by and asked them what they were doing. Paddy replied, ‘We're supposed to be finding the b… height of this flagpole, but we don't have a b… ladder.’ The blonde took out an adjustable spanner from her bag, loosened a few bolts and laid the flagpole down. She got a tape measure out of her pocket, took a few measurements and announced that it was 18 feet 6 inches. Then she walked off. Mick said to Paddy, ‘Isn't that just like a blonde! We need the b… height - and she

gives us the b… length.’

The couple was 85 years old, and had been married for sixty years. Though they were far from rich, they managed to get by because they watched their pennies. Though not young, they were both in very good health, largely due to the wife's insistence on healthy foods and exercise for the last three decades. One day, their good health didn't help when they went on a rare vacation and their plane crashed, sending them off to Heaven. They reached the pearly gates, and Saint Peter escorted them inside. He took them to a beautiful mansion, furnished in gold and fine silks, with a fully stocked kitchen and a waterfall in the master bath. A maid could be seen hanging their favorite clothes in the closet. They gasped in astonishment when he said, ‘Welcome to Heaven. This will be your home now.’ The old man asked Peter how much all this was going to cost. ‘Why, nothing,’ Peter replied, ‘remember, this is your reward in Heaven.’ The old man looked out the window and right there he saw a championship golf course, finer and more beautiful than any ever built on Earth. ‘What are the greens fees?’ grumbled the old man. ‘This is heaven,’ St. Peter replied. ‘You can play for free, every day.’ Next they went to the clubhouse and saw the lavish buffet lunch, with every imaginable cuisine laid out before them, from seafood to steaks to exotic desserts, free flowing beverages. ‘Don't even ask,’ said St. Peter to the man. ‘This is Heaven, it is all free for you to enjoy.’ The old man looked around and glanced nervously at his wife. ‘Well, where are the low fat and low cholesterol foods, and the decaffeinated tea?’ he asked. ‘That's the best part,’ St. Peter replied. ‘You can eat and drink as much as you like of whatever you like, and you will never get fat or sick. This IS Heaven!’ The old man pushed, ‘No gym to work out at?’ ‘Not unless you want to,’ was the answer. ‘No testing my sugar or blood pressure or...’ Never again. All you do here is enjoy yourself.’ The old man glared at his wife and said, ‘You and your damned bran muffins. We

could have been here twenty years ago!’

I am not interested in shooting new things – I am interested to see things

new. - Ernst Haas

There are no bad pictures; that's just how your face looks sometimes. -

Abraham Lincoln