1st Place.Time Capture---John Horner
2nd Place.High Level Spectre---Justine Matchett
3rd Place.Two Frosty---John Horner
4th Place.Anya---Stephen Bell
5th Place. Male Banded Demoiselle--- Margaret Etherington
Friday, 15 May 2009
DI Progress Comp.Rnd 2.- -Judged by George Ledger
1st Place.Time Capture---John Horner2nd Place.High Level Spectre---Justine Matchett3rd Place.Two Frosty---John Horner4th Place.Anya---Stephen Bell5th Place. Male Banded Demoiselle--- Margaret Etherington
Saturday, 9 May 2009
Durham Big Ride Exhibition
Society members captured the essence of this great event in 2008 as a documentary project funded by DCC. To help launch the 2009 Durham Big Ride, which will take place on Sunday 6th September, there is an exhibition of members’ photographs in Durham Town Hall entrance, Durham Market Place until the end of May. More news of the exhibition is on:
The Northern Echo
Link to 2008 Pictures
All Pictures John Attle
The Northern Echo
Link to 2008 Pictures
All Pictures John Attle
Sunday, 3 May 2009
Photography Assignment
DPS MEMBERS DESCEND ON BARNARD CASTLE
Members enjoyed a Photography Assignment day out at this popular destination on Saturday 18th April 2009. Set a challenge by DPS General Secretary, Colin Armitstead, to capture images through the eyes and interpretations of individual photographers, we met to show prints and discuss the work and the experience on Wednesday, 30th April. Each member in turn selected their favourite print, talked about the thinking behind it, followed by feedback and questions from the others. All in all, it was a stimulating and enjoyable experience and everyone agreed this was yet another opportunity to progress their photography through membership of the Society.
The next Photography Assignment will be around the Durham Regatta, 13th and 14th June – details to follow. It will be open to all members who are willing to produce at least three prints for the feedback day.
Angy Ellis
Barry Armitage
Dennis Hardingham
John Gordon
Tony Griffiths
Members enjoyed a Photography Assignment day out at this popular destination on Saturday 18th April 2009. Set a challenge by DPS General Secretary, Colin Armitstead, to capture images through the eyes and interpretations of individual photographers, we met to show prints and discuss the work and the experience on Wednesday, 30th April. Each member in turn selected their favourite print, talked about the thinking behind it, followed by feedback and questions from the others. All in all, it was a stimulating and enjoyable experience and everyone agreed this was yet another opportunity to progress their photography through membership of the Society.
The next Photography Assignment will be around the Durham Regatta, 13th and 14th June – details to follow. It will be open to all members who are willing to produce at least three prints for the feedback day.
Angy Ellis
Barry Armitage
Dennis Hardingham
John Gordon
Tony Griffiths
Saturday, 2 May 2009
Trio Print Comp. Judged by Alan Porrett ARPS,AFIAP,DPAGB,APAGB
DES KELLY TROPHY
1st Place.Sitting Room Crook Hall---Alan Stott
2nd Place.Silver Link---Don Bennett
3rd Place.Bede's Tomb---John GordonLAMBERT HEDLEY TROPHY
1st Place.Joan---Gyles Glover
2nd Place.Love Struck---Christine Oliphant
3rd. Place.Triple Trouble---Dennis HardinghamSTERLING AWARD
1st Place. Lost Soul---John Brown
2nd Place. High Level Bridge---Justine Matchett
3rd Place.Stairway to Heaven---Brian Race Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Simon Allen's Colour to Mono & IR Conversions
Here is Simon Allen's Colour to Mono & IR Conversion techniques he demonstrated on Thursday.
CONVERSION OF COLOUR IMAGE TO MONOCHROME INFRA RED IMAGE IN PHOTOSHOP
1. Open colour image of your choice in Photoshop.
2. Convert to monochrome using Chanel Mixer. Tick the monochrome box and adjust the three colour channels to obtain the best conversion.
3. If the image looks a little flat, increase contrast using a Curves Adjustment Layer. Moving the top point of the curve a little to the right and the base point a little to the left will have the effect of brightening highlights and darkening shadow areas. A reasonably contrasty image is desirable for creating the infra red effect.
4. To reproduce the characteristic graininess of an infra red image, create a new adjustment layer and fill it with 50% gray by going to Edit→Fill→50% gray (chosen from the use box). Then add noise Filter→Noise→Add Noise (ensuring that the Monochrome and Gaussian Blur boxes are ticked. I would initially suggest a setting of between 40% and 60%. Finally, change the blending mode on the layers palette to Soft Light and adjust the opacity of the layer to achieve the desired effect.
5. To re-create the glow around highlights that infra red images tend to exhibit go back to the background layer and create a duplicate of it. Apply Gaussian Blur Filter→Blur→Gaussian Blur with a suggested setting of around 30 pixels. Adjust the opacity of this layer until the image adopts the appearance of an infra red print.
6. Final adjustments to contrast can be achieved by the use of a Curves or Levels layer. The dodge tool set on ‘highlights’ may also be used to improve the glow in highlight details, such as foliage and other greenery, as often seen in infra red images.
CONVERSION OF COLOUR IMAGE TO TONED MONOCHROME IMAGE
IN PHOTOSHOP
1. Open colour image of your choice in Photoshop.
2. Select Image → Mode → Lab Color.
3. Open Channels palette: Window → Channels.
4. Click on lightness channel. The lab, a and b channels will be switched off.
5. Select Image → Mode → Grayscale. This will leave only a gray channel in the open palette.
6. Holding down Ctrl and Alt, click on the thumbnail image in the channels palette. This will select all pixels between white and mid gray. If you have a version of Photoshop with a Histogram palette, this will be clearly shown.
7. However, we wish to select those pixels representing black to mid gray. Therefore go to Select → Inverse.
8. Open the layers palette: Window → Layers.
9. Change image back to colour file: Image → Mode → RGB Color.
10. Select Layer → New Fill Layer → Solid Color. A New Layer box will open, click OK. This will open the Color Picker. Click on a colour of your choice. The exact colour is unimportant at this stage but, if you desire a warm tone, click on a red part of the spectrum or, if you prefer a cool tone, select a blue part of the spectrum. Once a colour is selected click OK. Your image will probably look rather washed out at this stage – don’t worry.
11. On the Layers palette, click on the little downward facing arrow in the blending mode window. This is the box at the top left of the palette which will presently be at ‘normal’. Click on Multiply from the drop down menu.
12. You now have a toned monochrome image.
13. If you are unhappy with the colour, contrast or tonal quality of the image (or simply wish to experiment), these can easily be altered.
14. Double click on the coloured thumbnail shown in the uppermost of the two layers in the Layers palette. This will re-open the Colour Picker. Simply click anywhere on either the large graded colour box or on the vertical strip spectrum until you achieve the desired result. Click OK.
15. Voila!
Many thanks to Simon for allowing us to post these.
CONVERSION OF COLOUR IMAGE TO MONOCHROME INFRA RED IMAGE IN PHOTOSHOP
1. Open colour image of your choice in Photoshop.
2. Convert to monochrome using Chanel Mixer. Tick the monochrome box and adjust the three colour channels to obtain the best conversion.
3. If the image looks a little flat, increase contrast using a Curves Adjustment Layer. Moving the top point of the curve a little to the right and the base point a little to the left will have the effect of brightening highlights and darkening shadow areas. A reasonably contrasty image is desirable for creating the infra red effect.
4. To reproduce the characteristic graininess of an infra red image, create a new adjustment layer and fill it with 50% gray by going to Edit→Fill→50% gray (chosen from the use box). Then add noise Filter→Noise→Add Noise (ensuring that the Monochrome and Gaussian Blur boxes are ticked. I would initially suggest a setting of between 40% and 60%. Finally, change the blending mode on the layers palette to Soft Light and adjust the opacity of the layer to achieve the desired effect.
5. To re-create the glow around highlights that infra red images tend to exhibit go back to the background layer and create a duplicate of it. Apply Gaussian Blur Filter→Blur→Gaussian Blur with a suggested setting of around 30 pixels. Adjust the opacity of this layer until the image adopts the appearance of an infra red print.
6. Final adjustments to contrast can be achieved by the use of a Curves or Levels layer. The dodge tool set on ‘highlights’ may also be used to improve the glow in highlight details, such as foliage and other greenery, as often seen in infra red images.
CONVERSION OF COLOUR IMAGE TO TONED MONOCHROME IMAGE
IN PHOTOSHOP
1. Open colour image of your choice in Photoshop.
2. Select Image → Mode → Lab Color.
3. Open Channels palette: Window → Channels.
4. Click on lightness channel. The lab, a and b channels will be switched off.
5. Select Image → Mode → Grayscale. This will leave only a gray channel in the open palette.
6. Holding down Ctrl and Alt, click on the thumbnail image in the channels palette. This will select all pixels between white and mid gray. If you have a version of Photoshop with a Histogram palette, this will be clearly shown.
7. However, we wish to select those pixels representing black to mid gray. Therefore go to Select → Inverse.
8. Open the layers palette: Window → Layers.
9. Change image back to colour file: Image → Mode → RGB Color.
10. Select Layer → New Fill Layer → Solid Color. A New Layer box will open, click OK. This will open the Color Picker. Click on a colour of your choice. The exact colour is unimportant at this stage but, if you desire a warm tone, click on a red part of the spectrum or, if you prefer a cool tone, select a blue part of the spectrum. Once a colour is selected click OK. Your image will probably look rather washed out at this stage – don’t worry.
11. On the Layers palette, click on the little downward facing arrow in the blending mode window. This is the box at the top left of the palette which will presently be at ‘normal’. Click on Multiply from the drop down menu.
12. You now have a toned monochrome image.
13. If you are unhappy with the colour, contrast or tonal quality of the image (or simply wish to experiment), these can easily be altered.
14. Double click on the coloured thumbnail shown in the uppermost of the two layers in the Layers palette. This will re-open the Colour Picker. Simply click anywhere on either the large graded colour box or on the vertical strip spectrum until you achieve the desired result. Click OK.
15. Voila!
Many thanks to Simon for allowing us to post these.
Friday, 24 April 2009
2009 NCPF Annual Competition Results
Link to all of the 2009 NCPF Annual Competition Results.
Congratulations to Neil Maughan for his success in winning the Bryan Gilbert Trophy and the other members who received HC's and portfolio acceptances.
Congratulations to Neil Maughan for his success in winning the Bryan Gilbert Trophy and the other members who received HC's and portfolio acceptances.
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Our President's report to the Committee April 09
Last month got off to a very good start with two talks from very different standpoints. I was impressed with Dave Fletcher’s attitude which was very much in the vein of ‘just get out there and enjoy your camera’ Keith Suddaby looked at our hobby from a much more academic standpoint, quite rightly reminding us of the place of photography in the art world.
Keith Robertson coped very well with the difficult job of judging so many quality images. By the way, apologies for the less than professional presentation (come back Roger all is forgiven), I hope it didn’t spoil the enjoyment of the night too much. Some concerns were voiced about colour saturation and balance. I bring this to the committee’s attention in case this proves to be an ongoing issue. The NCPF Selectors choice collection was interesting, though I don’t understand why the prints were shown as slides copies when digital images were to be shown on the same evening anyway.
Once again the Blog proves its worth by getting competition winners on view very quickly.
Alan Stott
Keith Robertson coped very well with the difficult job of judging so many quality images. By the way, apologies for the less than professional presentation (come back Roger all is forgiven), I hope it didn’t spoil the enjoyment of the night too much. Some concerns were voiced about colour saturation and balance. I bring this to the committee’s attention in case this proves to be an ongoing issue. The NCPF Selectors choice collection was interesting, though I don’t understand why the prints were shown as slides copies when digital images were to be shown on the same evening anyway.
Once again the Blog proves its worth by getting competition winners on view very quickly.
Alan Stott
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