Doko Village – ‘n Verassende wenfoto

Dit is seker baie selde dat ‘n fotograaf dink sy foto is ‘n wenfoto en ek vermoed, die meeste wenfotos is ‘n verassing vir die outeur.  ‘n Mens weet as jy ‘n goeie foto het, maar die kompetisie is baie sterk in die klub en jy kan nooit seker wees of die beoordelaars van jou foto gaan hou nie.  Hierdie maand het ‘n foto my aangenaam verras en baie beter gedoen as wat ek verwag het.  In die proses het ek ‘n hele paar dinge geleer.

In my voorbereiding vir die Mei kompetisie het ek aanvanklik besluit om nie in te skryf nie omdat ek doodeenvoudig nie geskikte fotos gehad het om in te skryf nie.  In my soeke na ‘n tema foto, het ek afgekom op ‘n paar fotos wat ek met ‘n Sony mik en druk kamera geneem het tydens ‘n werksbesoek aan die Demokratiese Republiek van die Kongo.  Die area is baie afgesonder en om daar te kom is so ‘n beslommernis, dat ek nie eers die moeite gedoen het om my gewone SLR kamera saam te neem nie.  Ons was een middag laat op pad en het die kans gebruik om ‘n paar fotos te neem.  Die omgewing is baie ruig en daar is verskeie klein dorpies langs die pad waar die inwoners kan handel dryf of die pad gebruik om hulle produkte na ‘n groter dorpie te vervoer.

My beplanning was om met HDR te werk en ek het stelle van drie fotos met verskillende beligting geneem, maar ek was nie tevrede met die resultate nie en die HDR het onnatuurlik gelyk.  Die spesifieke foto was baie besig en die fokuspunt was nie vir my sterk genoeg nie.  Dan was dit ook geneem met ‘n “swakker kamera” en ek het die fotos in die argief gelos waar dit waarskynlik sou verdwyn het.

Vir die kompetisie het egter besluit om uit nood weer te probeer.  Hierdie keer het ek voor begin en die HDR verwerking baie afgskaal en net die drie fotos na ‘n 32 bit TIFF formaat verwerk.  Hierdie stap doen nie die normale HDR verwerking soos ons gewoond is nie, maar gee baie meer detail inligting vir verdere verwerking van die foto.  Die verwerking is in Photoshop CS6 gedoen.  Ek het die hele foto eers donker gemaak en met layers selektief lig terug gesit in die foto.  Op die manier kon ek die fokus plaas op die huisie en selektief op die bome.  Verder het ek aandag gegee aan die wolke om die lig te beklemtoon.  Die foto het dadelik baie sterker gelyk en al wat gepla het was ‘n paar bossies in die voorgrond wat ek uitgekloon het.  Die laaste stap was natuurlik om terug te keer na JPG formaat

Die resultaat was ‘n aangename verassing vir my.  Hierdie foto het weer vir my bevestig dat die nie help om ‘n foto te forseer nie.  As die verwerking eers op die verkeerde pad is kan jy maar net sowel stop.  Indien jy dink daar is potensiaal, laat die foto eers rus en probeer later weer met ‘n vars aanslag.  DIe kwaliteit van die kamera maak in sekere omstandighede ‘n groot veskil, maar as jy goeie lig het, verdwyn hierdie voordeel vinnig.  As jou goeie kamera by die huis lê omdat hierdie kamera te groot is om rond te dra het hy natuurlik ook geen voordeel bo die mik-en-druk kamera nie.

HDR verwerking het ‘n definitiewe plek in fotografie, maar die tipiese HDR resultaat waaraan ons gewoond geraak het is nie altyd ‘n gepaste resultaat nie.  Dit wil vir my voorkom dat in die meeste landskap en natuur fotos, HDR verwerking baie subtiel aangewend moet word.

Kamera	Sony DSC-HX10V
Lens	4.3-68.5 mm f/3
Lensopening	f/3.3
ISO	100
HDR Reeks sluiterspoed	1/125, 1/250 (-1 EV), 1/60 (+1 EV)
Formaat	JPG
Toekenning	COM, Beste van kompetisie (Mei 2014)
Titel	Doko Village

Hier is die drie fotos waarmee ek die verwerking begin het, elkeen veskil 1 EV van die volgende foto en is gebruik om ‘n 32 bit TIFF leêr te skep.

0 EV	-1 EV	+1 EV

Die enigste probleem met die foto is dat enige regverdiging om ‘n nuwe lens te koop waarmee ek drie soortgelyke mik-en-druk kameras kan koop, nou net bietjie moeiliker word, maar ek is seker ek sal ‘n gepaste motivering kry wanneer ek in die toekoms voor die probleem beland.

Groete

Bernard Richard (LPSSA 5*)

Centurion & Midrand Camera Club joint print exhibition 2014

You are hereby kindly invited to submit entries for the annual print exhibition for 2014 to be hosted from 1 to 11 July (Yes, it is a winter exhibit this year). True to our tradition, we attempt to introduce new and exciting elements to this annual event:

• This year our venue is the spacious and newly revamped art gallery in Centurion (at the Centurion Library). It is open to the public and the event is widely publicised by the Tshwane municipal services.
• We are hosting this exhibition jointly with Midrand Camera Club. The event promises to be quite a substantial exhibition and is an ideal opportunity to showcase some of your best shots. There are also three valuable prizes to compete for.
• We have decided to print this year’s entries on specially primed canvas to blend in with the environment of the art gallery!

To simplify the entry process, we invite members to make use of the Centurion Camera Club’s fine art printing service.

• All you need to do is to upload your entries to a dropbox folder and make the required payment to the Centurion Camera Club account.
• You then just need to attend the exhibition to find your photos exhibited, neatly mounted and stretched to a wooden frame.
• The cost of a printed photo is only R150 each and is about half of the normal commercial rates for mounted canvas media. Remember the prints are yours to keep after the exhibit.
• Please note that you may use alternative printing services, as long as conforms to our exact format ( Click here for entry form with further details).
• You will be limited to a maximum of four entries but we will be more than happy to accept even a single entry.

Our rules as per the entry form:

1. Minimum resolution is 5 Megapixel, lower resolution submissions will be rejected.
2. Format preferably TIFF, but JPG saved at highest possible quality is also acceptable. Printing requires the highest available resolution!
3. File naming as for club entries, eg: "3_Karoo Landscape_John Smith.TIF"
4. Photo's taken from 1 July 2013 may be entered ( does not have to be a previous club entry )
5. Please note that canvasses are framed to exact A3 dimensions ( 297 X 420mm ). Your print will look best if sized to these dimensions exactly, but may be of different aspect ratio as long as the longest side is exactly 420mm. In such cases remember you will have white space on the canvas to make up the difference.
6. We strongly advise that you profile your monitor as without it there is otherwise no guarantee that the photo will print as displayed by the monitor. This procedure ensures that your monitor displays both accurate colour rendition and tonal range and will also ensure that your images projects correctly at club evenings.
7. The ICC profile of the printing process for the specific canvas-ink combination will be made available to photographers so that soft proofing can be implemented. Soft proofing allows near exact reproduction of the tonal range and colour rendition of the final printed image on a properly calibrated monitor. A tutorial will be issued to guide members who wish to implement soft proofing. of the final printed image on a properly calibrated monitor.
8. Photos remain the property of the photographer and can be collected after the exhibition at club evenings.

Our aim is to exhibit around three entries per photographer as the venue is spacious and we really want to fill the space with an abundance of exhibits.

The opening gala event will be hosted on Tuesday 1 July. Light snacks and wine/ soft drinks will be served and will be a great opportunity to relax and to meet with fellow photographers. The prints will be on sale to the public and photographers will have the opportunity to appreciate the value of their work.

IMPORTANT: The deadline is Sunday 15 June at 24h00, so you need to start to select your best images of the last 12 months (May 2013 – May 2014) and watch this space for further details. Please direct any queries to: arnold.theron@gmail.com

Arnold Theron ( Exhibition coordinator )

Working At Night

We were staying in a hotel in Lucerne, on the fourth floor. Just after sunset I looked out of the window, and the light was beautiful. There were also dramatic cloud formations, which always provide good photo opportunities.  I took my tripod and camera and took a couple of photos. They were busy working on the road, so there was earthmoving equipment on site and red danger lights, which created a nice mood.

Back home when I downloaded the photos they were nice, but not as vivid as I recalled the colours to be. I decided to play around with this picture using HDR, and the photo then really came alive. I used Lightroom to crop and adjust the lighting. I created -2EV, 0EV and +2EV copies of the photo and then exported them to Photomatix to do the HDR magic.  I played around in Photomatix to get the right settings, and now I have a photo that matches my recollection of that scene.

Gerry Steyn

XMas Lights

While travelling through Switzerland, I was very fortunate to be at the right place at the right time. We were in the city of Bern, and I was waiting for Anli to join me as she was at a business meeting. We arranged to meet at the square in front of the Bundeshaus, i.e. the Parliament building, at 20h00.

While I was waiting the sun was setting, and I walked around, set up my tripod and took some photos. After a while, a crowd started gathering. I asked around, and a local lady explained to me that a show was about to start and that I should stay as it was very spectacular. I waited for a while and the show started. It was all in German, so I understood nothing, but the music and light show made up for that.

The Bundeshaus is a very old building with lots of character and textures. They used massive projectors to illuminate the building, and a story was projected onto the building. I took over 200 photos, and each one is different. The lighting changed often, with soldiers running around the building, the building filling up with water, you could see the water level rising in the windows, and then the building flooding. Many effects were created on the building, freezing over, on fire, painted in bright blue and red colour, it was just amazing! Everything done with projectors covering the whole building, in vivid detail! I just kept on taking photos, I have many excellent photos from that shoot. Minimal processing was done to the photos and I only had to remove a portion of a crane which was doing work behind the building.

Sometimes we do need lots of luck to get the right photos!

Gerry Steyn

Since you don’t want to leave me alone.

 

Centurion Camera Club CCC Club Night February 2014: Chante

Chante

On the 5^th of Dec 2013 I arranged with Chante and a friend of hers to take some photos. Because I do not have lighting equipment or a studio to shoot indoors we were forced to shoot outside. However my models viewed this as a casual shoot and were not prepared to start early to get the advantage of “good” light. By 01:27:20 PM we were on the roof of Menlyn (at drive-in) as they wanted photos of themselves in the old cars. Obviously at this stage the light was everything but perfect. Luckily some clouds would pass every now and then. We would run out and shoot a few shots before the sun is back. While waiting for the clouds to come we would hide under the “ Afdak” at the back of the drive-in. during one of these waits, motivated by boredom more than anything else I told them that since they are in the shade maybe I should try and take some pictures. I took quite a couple of pictures (I always take to many and then hate myself for having to go through all of them). When I looked at the pictures (See original below)I realised that even after cropping  I did not like the background  since it had lines and blemishes on it.

Original

I spend I couple of hour trying to remove the blemishes using the clone tool, brushes and any other tool I could think of. Finally I gave up and started the devious task of “selecting” the model in order to cut or copy her to a new layer as I realised that I will have to create a complete new background. The fact that she has dark hair helped as I have tried doing the same to blond models and it was not very successful as the outer edges of the hair would fade and give a unnatural photo.

New layer model only

Next I played and experimented with different colour backgrounds and by I stroke of luck I saw that brown below

Brown

Worked well when adding a gradient overlay.

 

Gradient overlay

To be honest it was more luck than skill.

Johan Bester

Platycorynus dejeani solo

 

Gerda en ek het vroeg oggend ±8:24 op 30 Desember 2013 in die veld gestap stap naby Swartruggens met die doel om veld blomme af te neem toe ons op hierdie kewertjie afkom.

Hierdie klein kewer is besonders mooi en baie seldsaam vir ons hier in Gauteng.

Dit kom in 'n baie smal strook van noord Natal, Swaziland, die bekende ou Transvaal al om sy rand in die ooste van die Kruger wildtuin, Limpopo rivier, weste kant van Noord Wes en effens afwaarts tot aan die die Botswana grens naby Gabarone. Dus die warmer dele van die land en hulle is baie lief vir die wilde melkbos (Asclepias fructicosa).

Die melkbos kewer word ±11mm lank en sy kleure verander soos wat die lig op hom val, vandaar sy naam dejeani. Sy kleure wissel van donker pers, rooi, diep pienk, oranje, donker groen, geel en donker bou, afhangende van die lig se invalshoek. In die middel van die dag is hulle nie so kleurvol nie. Hulle klou ook nie regtig vas aan die blare nie en die geringste beweging laat hulle afval en dan neem dit baie lank voordat hulle weer op 'n blaar is. Wanneer jy hom op 'n blaar wil help, rol hy eenvoudig af!

Omdat ek nie van oordrewe prosesseering hou nie, is daar baie min aan hierdie foto gedoen.

Ek gebruik Corel AfrerShot Pro vir my aanvanklike verwerking en daarna Corel PaintShop Pro 16 vir my finale verwerking. Die skerpte, kontras en swart is effens opgestoot en die beligting aangepas om reg te vertoon op my IPS skerm.

Die verstellings was as volg:

Kamera	Pentax K-30 (hy is kleiner as my Pentax K-5 en ligter om te dra)
Lens	Pentax 50mm Makro
Lens Opening	F11
Sluiterspoed	1/125 s
ISO	320
Ligsensor	Center-weighted-average
Program	Manual
Witbalans	Manual

My sukses verhouding was nie goed nie, ±1/15 want hulle beweeg konstant en velddiepte is amper nul plus hulle val maklik van die blaar af. Verder het die wind sterk gewaai en ek het die kamera met een hand vasgehou en die struik se takkie met die ander hand en die twee hande teen die kamera gesteun vir stabiliteit.

Jan H Potgieter

PSSA Monthly Newsletter

Hi Everyone

Once again thank you for reading and then distributing this email to all the members in your club.  There is lots of information in mymonthly newsletter on our PSSA Website.  There is news regarding the Honours Judging, the National Congress 2014, a great PSSA National Salon as well as news on the January issue of our Image magazine.

Please note and make sure that all our members are aware of the fact that the Wildlife Convention in the Kruger National Park (31 August till 6 September 2014) is in fact our Annual National Congress combined with an International Convention.  This will not only cover Wildlife photography, other aspects of photography will also be covered. Click here to view the program.  Attached please find a Wildlife Convention Flyer.  Please use it to promote the coming Congress/Convention.

OUR WINNERS FOR JANUARY ‘14

Club Winning Picture of the Month for Junior and Senior were:

• Junior:  Daryl Visser from Beachcomber CC with “Common Housefly Macro”.
• Senior:  James Harris van Hoeveld Fotografieklub met “Warrior”.

The judges were Neels Beyers (Cape Town PS), Lee Slabber (Fish Hoek PS) and Edward Arnold (VPS).

Website Picture of the Month was won by Louise de Lange from Swartland KK with “Crop sprayer”.   The judge for this month’s Website Picture was Charles Kok from Krugersdorp CC.   

All members are invited to enter this monthly competition with any of their favourite images. 

These three winning images are displayed on the front page of the PSSA website for this month. Thank you to our judges.

Attached please find the Score Sheet for the Club Winning Images as well as the International Wildlife Convention Flyer.

Kind regards

Petro Bosman
PSSA Public Relations Officer