Christmas greeting

JUDGING PHOTOGRAPHS by Evelyn Gibson

I read an article recently in the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain’s Magazine and I wanted to rush out and give it to all our judges. I just found it so interesting and I learned a lot from it.

I have taken some of the salient points from it, and I hope by sharing it, it will also be a great learning for many other judges as well as an understanding about judging photographs.

The author of the article was Ken Holland from England and he opens the article by saying “My first entry into a camera club competition was a slide of the Red Arrows in full flight. The judge’s comment was “I’m not really interested in aeroplanes. Next slide please” It was after that I started to take a keen interest in photographic judging”

He has since then been asked to run a series of seminars for new judges. He did a lot of research on it, did some myriad checklists in use by American camera clubs and found almost nothing on the subject had been published. From this his series that he uses for his seminars grew into a book “Looking at Photographs” and it is from this book that the extract on his article was taken.

 

How to judge

When presented with a set of photographs, look at all of them briefly, and perhaps note your initial reaction. Then look again in some detail. Ask yourself basic questions about them: consider the message of each photograph, its technical competence and presentation. We all know that in South Africa the time restraints put on us as judges, this is not always possible.

Also if there is time to compare them, this of course can be done when judging prints but not with projected images unfortunately until of course when it comes to selecting a final winner in each category or overall.

Once you have made your decision, it is as well to stick with it. While it may be tempting to look at the pictures again and change your mind, photography is often (but certainly not always) about initial impact. If this was sufficient for you to decide to award a picture the winning place, it is unlikely that you will change your decision later.

 

What to look for

In general terms, what to look for in a picture is one of the most difficult things for a judge, but it is what lies at the heart of judging. How does a judge compare, say, a good landscape with a good portrait, and decide which is best?

Very simply: any photograph conveys information. A Judge’s job is to decide how well that information has been conveyed. The effectiveness of a photograph depends on the eye of the photographer, and the skill they have employed in its production.

Although a photograph may be technically perfect, it can be quite dull if the subject matter or approach is boring. A judge could look for the sort of photograph which has impact because it is out of the ordinary, and is something that many people would not notice in everyday life.

 

What’s it all about?

A photograph is really about three main things: the subject, its purpose, and its interpretation.

The principal subject of a picture should be clearly defined and draw the viewer in. If it is unclear, or if it is in conflict with other dominant parts of the picture, or if there are several main subjects scattered about the picture, then a picture may lose some of its message. A simple picture is usually more successful than a complicated one.

The purpose of the photograph is all-important. A judge should decide whether the photographer has achieved this purpose. Ultimately, this is where a judge decides on the relative merits of two very different, but possibly very good photographs.

The interpretation of a subject is very personal. The photographer decides on the interpretation by using a variety of methods: lens choice, viewpoint, recording medium, lighting, shutter speed, printing, format and so on.

A judge must decide on whether the interpretation does the subject justice, and enhances the picture. Don’t say how you would have taken the picture: everyone has their own approach.

Each of these three ingredients contributes to a complete photograph. They can be combined in a variety of ways, and it would be impossible to define the optimum balance, as each photograph might require a different approach.

 

Photographic seeing

However when making a decision about the relative success or failure of a photograph, a judge could consider the following aspects and perhaps comment on them when presenting :

Choice of format. Does the particular subject benefit from a landscape or portrait format?

Exposure Although we all have our own thoughts about what looks natural, there is no such thing as “correct” exposure. A photographer may have deliberately gone for an approach that is either dark or light, or high or low in contrast : the judge must try to decide whether it enhances the image.

Placing of the subject within the image Again, there is no correct place, but some are more successful than others. Often, a centrally placed subject place on the “intersection of thirds” seems more acceptable. Don’t expect every photograph to abide by the “rule of thirds”, though, as a judge, you must decide whether the arrangement suits the subject.

Depth of field The area of a photograph that is in sharp focus affects its impact. Some subjects require a great deal to be in focus; others might require just the main subject to be in focus, with the background thrown out of focus to add depth. In general, every photograph needs some part of it to be kept in focus, but there are exceptions to this.

Psychological links and contrasts. This involves the subject, and the use of “photographic seeing” For instance: a clown and a nun picture together would provide an interesting contrast, and inevitably create impact. Two people looking at each other would provide a psychological, but not physical, link.

Visual contrast Again, this will provide impact; perhaps a bright red tractor in a green field, or a smooth glass bowl against rough wood. This is often more difficult to achieve in black and white than in colour.

Eye scan This is the way in which the eye is encouraged to “read” the picture. Is it easy for the viewer?

A whole picture is not necessarily a sum of its parts. Try not to dissect a picture into small pieces. You could apply these thoughts to any photograph: “Why was this image made?” and “What is the photographer trying to show me?” Try to get into the mind of the photographer.

 

Making your comments in public

The way in which you present your comments is vital; you whole approach and attitude can make a tremendous difference, his advice was :

• Give the appearance that you have enjoyed judging the photographs, it reassures the audience, even those members whose work has not been received too successfully!
• Be confident in everything that you do. In this way, you will appear to be sure of your decisions.
• Try not to fall into the trap of describing the picture when the audience can see it for themselves, as this wastes time.
• Don’t lecture: you will have only a certain amount of time to discuss each picture.
• Be totally honest. After all, you have been invited to judge these pictures, which applies that your opinion counts for something, and that it is respected. Be bold enough to say what you think: the audience will usually respect you for it.
• Don’t attempt to say how a picture has been taken; you can often get it wrong, invite an explanation from the photographer later.
• Try not to let yourself become prejudiced by what you have seen before. Often a judge may comment that they have seen a similar picture, and that somehow it makes the present one seem inferior. Few images are ever truly original, and a successful picture will always be successful, even if it has been done 1000 times before.
• Remember it is a competition, and therefore the best or strongest image, in your opinion, is the winner! 10 judges given the same task may come up with different winners. All you can do is give your own opinion.
• Talk about a picture as though you were a “critical friend” of the photographer.
• Keep an open mind. You may have very strong feelings about many aspects of photography. Judging a competition is not an arena for you to present them in.
• Above all, speak with modesty and humility.

 

Photographic interpretation

It is extremely difficult to teach photographic interpretation: it can really only be encouraged. As a judge, you will be doing your bit to encourage good photography. Your comments about the technical aspects will be virtually without dispute and are easily explained. Therefore, your comments about technique may be more forthright than comments on subject matter, creativity, and whether you are attracted to the image.

If you cannot appreciate another photographer’s work, don’t assume it is their fault. It just may be that you have missed the point of the photograph, and all judges may be guilty of this.

Keep you words kind and encourage a positive approach, never be scathing or negative. Keep your comments in perspective. You are addressing a friendly camera club, so keep your approach friendly, humorous and lighthearted.

Treat others’ work with respect, photography is something we all enjoy, and to take it too seriously may not be helpful. Keep the emphasis on praise: judging should be evaluative, not critical.

These were the thoughts of Ken Holland ARPS, they are not hard and fast rules. Judging photographs will never be an exact science and that is good. This for me was extremely thought provoking and I learned a lot as a judge. Thank you Ken, I have sent him a message through Facebook and I will buy his book when in the UK in February. Check out www.lowenna.co.uk.

2011 Bloemfontein Salon resultate

Geluk aan al die lede wat suksesvol deelgeneem het aan die 2011 Bloemfontein Salon.  Hier is ‘n verkorte lys van resultate soos deur ons lede verwerf is.  Die volledige lys resultate, met al die ander deelnemers, kan op die PSSA webblad afgelaai word.

Lede moet asseblief onthou om nog steeds, soos gewoonlik, die resultate in te stuur op die voorgeskrewe formaat vir EMMA, al verskyn die resultate op die lys.  Hierdie resultate lys is slegs van lede wat onder Centurion Camera Club ingeskryf het en lede met dubbele lidmaatskap se uitslae mag moontlik onder die ander klub sew uitslae val.

Result	Title	Surname	Firstname
Acceptance	Spoelsand 2	Coetser	Maartin
Acceptance	Sneeu by Van Reenen	Coetser	Maartin
Acceptance	Klipkoppies	Coetser	Maartin
Acceptance	Sosus in Blom	Coetser	Maartin
Acceptance	Blou Reier net Paddahappie	Coetser	Maartin
Acceptance	Oranje Veldblommetjie	Coetser	Maartin
Acceptance	Uitgelate	Coetser	Maartin
Acceptance	Gebreekte Wynglas	Coetser	Maartin
Acceptance	Nr 42 in Draai	Coetser	Maartin
Acceptance	Vlieende Skieer	Coetser	Maartin
Acceptance	Life in a box	Coetzer	Riette
Acceptance	Vuurvoet	de Jager	Esta
Acceptance	Cartwheels	de Jager	Esta
Acceptance	Eenvoud	de Jager	Esta
Acceptance	BALLITO Dagbreek	Du Plooy	Bennie
Acceptance	Witsieshoek winter	Du Plooy	Bennie
Acceptance	Twin feeding	Du Plooy	Bennie
Acceptance	Odd Leaders	Du Plooy	Bennie
Certificate of Merit	Middel Paaltjie	Du Plooy	Bennie
Certificate of Merit	Rooi Harvard	Kotze	Francois
Runner-up Bloemfontein Club Medal	Glasses in Red	Mulder	Chris
Certificate of Merit	Wynglase deur die kamera se oog	Mulder	Helouise
Acceptance	Beauty and the beast	Mulder	Helouise
Acceptance	Golden Arrow	Niemand	Cornelia
Acceptance	Everything has a place	Norris	Andre
Acceptance	Dry	Norris	Andre
Acceptance	Muslim kids	Richard	Bernard
Acceptance	Colourful Mess	Richard	Bernard
Acceptance	Cobra Parade	Richard	Bernard
Certificate of Merit	Sweet Sweet Wine	van Niekerk	Michelle
Acceptance	Klein Bietjie Wyn	van Niekerk	Michelle
Acceptance	River sunrise	Venter	Francois
Acceptance	Varsity cup Tuks	Venter	Francois
Acceptance	Only in Africa	Wilson	Charles
Acceptance	On the edge	Wilson	Charles

Inligting oor die volgende salonne is op die webblad kalender aangebring.

Time Lapse Photography–Nico Strydom

I have been interested in time lapse photography for quite some time after seeing it in action on both television shows and on the internet, but I have always been a little hesitant to try it out. After reading a very interesting article about time lapse photography on the internet I decided to finally give it a go.

Time lapse photography is nothing else but to take a bunch of pictures of the same thing over a period of time and then put it all together to create a video that plays back in a shorter period of time.

The first thing I had to do was to purchase an Intervalometer. It is a device that you connect to your camera that triggers the camera to take a certain amount of photos at a set interval. The device can also be used as remote shutter release and is a must have.
Then it was as easy as to follow the 6 basic steps:

Step 1: Choose a subject
I attended a 24 hour mountain bike event over the weekend that requires that you spend the night camping at the event. I knew that I will be awake the whole night and saw it as the perfect opportunity to give time lapse photography a go. What I was looking for, was to capture the sun rise in the morning and to see the rest of the camp site becoming “alive” during the morning. However, I was not so lucky and the weather turned on us over the evening and we woke up to a grey overcast day with no sun in sight. I still wanted to give a bash and I decided to capture the camp activity as the day was starting.

The question that you need to ask yourself is how much time you have to commit to the project. Some time lapse photography subjects need a commitment of days, weeks, months or even years.

Step 2: Figuring it out, in other words, doing the maths
This is all about how many photographs will you require to produce your time lapse movie. It is about the length of time of the event and the length of time of the final product. Most movies show around 20 – 30 frames per second. The more frames per second, the smoother the movie will play back. Now we use the magic formula to determine how many photographs we are going to need and what the spacing of those photographs needs to be.

In my example I knew that I wanted to use 26 frames per second. The event I was photographing really did not have a determined amount of time, so I was not too worried about that. I wanted to create a video that will be about minute long. So, I knew I needed about 60 seconds of photographs and at 26 photographs per second; I had to take in excess of 1500 photographs. Seeing as I was not constrained by time, I decided to take each photo one second apart. Now that I have a plan, I was ready to get to the fun part.

Step 3: Shooting the stills
The secret is to go as manual as possible.

1. The first thing I did was to set my camera to record medium quality jpeg files. You don’t need to take RAW or large jpeg files as the output will be very small in video format and anything bigger will just consume memory space with no benefit.
2. Set the camera’s white balance to manual. Auto white balance can change and fluctuate, especially in a changing light environment. Setting it to manual helps to ensure that the photographs keep a reasonably same look.
3. Set the exposure manually. I did a reading using auto metering and then changed the camera to manual mode and set the aperture and time value manually. I also used the camera’s exposure lock to make sure that the exposure change as little as possible.
4. Now make sure that the batteries are all fully charged and there is enough room on the memory card. Set the camera on a sturdy tripod and start taking those pictures.

Step 4: Edit the photographs
All that is left is to download the photos to your computer, edit them if you want, and, assemble them into a movie.  I used Adobe Lightroom for my photo editing and it makes batch editing of a large amount of photos so much easier. Maybe the exposure or levels could use some work, or you want to adjust the saturation a bit. Try to automate everything and remember to apply the same edit to all the photos.

Step 5: Start making the movie
Again I used the Lightroom Slideshow module for this step, with the preset that was designed and developed by Sean McCormack. It was as easy as to put all the photographs into a collection and using the 24 frames per second preset to export all the photos as a movie. I also added some music to the show in Lightroom, but I still need to learn to do titles and effects. That will come with time.

Step 6: Upload and share
Finally it is just a case of sharing your creation with the world, either through the internet or on some other media that you prefer.  I can’t wait for my next attempt at time lapse photography and it will be a learning process as I go along.

Follow this link to the video on Facebook.

Nico Strydom

Amarula / Wild Photographic Competition

Are you wild about photography? We’re looking for the wildlife image that best captures the spirit of Africa.

Wild magazine would like to invite Centurion Camera Club to take part in our 2012 photographic competition. You could see your image featured in Wild magazine – plus stand the chance to win photographic equipment and outdoor gear.

This year’s competition is titled "Capture the Spirit of Africa". With our sponsor Amarula, we invite you to send in your best wildlife images (pictures of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, etc). We’ll select ten finalists who will each win a R1 000 Cape Union Mart voucher. The grand prize is R15 000 photographic equipment plus another R10 000 voucher from Cape Union Mart – just what you need for your own photo safari!

Click here for full rules and to upload your photograph. Entries close on 8 February 2012.

We look forward to seeing your wild, imaginative, exciting wildlife images.

Best of luck!
The Wild Team

(Published on the blog by request of the organizers)

Photo club Novi Sad entry date

For those who wanted to enter but didn’t make the deadline of 30 November 2011 – GOOD NEWS!

The entry date has been extended till the 8^th of December 2011. 

                  Photo club Novi Sad

                                1st INTERNATIONAL SALON OF PHOTOGRAPHY "ANIMALS"

A)  ANIMALS (color/monochrome digital)

B)  CREATIVE (color/monochrome digital)

C) FREE/OPEN COLOR (digital)

D)   FREE/OPEN MONOCHROME (digital)

The entry fee is unique - 20 Euros for all four section (16 photos)