Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 5th Dec 2022

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 5th Sept 2022

The link to the Color Wheel tool shown in the video is  https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 1st August 2022

This month's topic was SKIES

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 4th July 2022

Heidi's suggestion this month - show us an image which looked disappointing when you got it off your camera but turned out well after some careful editing. 

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 6th June 2022

This month's meeting included a 3 photo challenge - 3 photos taken from the same spot. You may move up or down, turn around, stand on your head but cannot move from the one spot. We all enjoyed the challenge and felt it was a good exercies to make us look around us a little bit more and capture things we wouldn't normally. Apologies to Jane as the recording was stopped before she shared her contribution to the meeting.

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 2nd May 2022

We had a fascinating discussion this month about different ways to present your images once they are taken and processed. There was such a variety of creative approaches on show that we all felt proud of the talents on display in our group.

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 7th March 2022

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 7th February 2022

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 3rd January 2022

The challenging topic for this meeting, "Photography After Dark" was met by seven of our group. Given the festive season photographs of fairy lights and candles might have been expected, but as you can see from the selection below there were a variety of subjects shown using a number of different techniques.

	Jenny took this picture during the full eclipse of the blood moon in 2015 after setting her alarm for 3am.  Her camera was on a tripod for stability and she took a series of images at different exposures. She found that the image became less sharp the longer the exposure, probably due to the moon's apparent movement. This was taken with a 18-300mm lens at maximum length and ISO in thousands with a 1 sec exposure,
	Rose's image is bonfire night taken on her Canon sx720 hs. She used the focal blur setting and a fast shutter speed to create the star burst effect. ISO 1600, f/5.6, shutter speed 1/8 sec.
	Astrophotography: Lynda, compared two images, one taken by her of the skies in Portugal and the second taken by a fellow photographer at the Cheesewring, Minions. She gave us four tips: Do your homework, find out when and where to see the milky way:- https://stellarium-web.org/  a great web site once you have worked out how to put your location in and can adjust the time/date Set focus to infinity and don’t have anything closer than this. Use your largest aperture f/1.2 is ideal, adjust ISO so that you can get a shutter speed of less than 90 seconds. Don’t delete anything until you have looked at it on screen.
	Peter's image was taken at a "Winter Steam-uo" event at the Bodmin and Wenford Railway, Bodmin General Station. The camera was set to shutter priority 1/20 sec, f/4.2, ISO 6400 and handheld.
	Jane took the images that make-up this montage at the same event in the half light. Again her camera was handheld with an ISO of 6400. She processed the images in black and white to make them more harmonious and give an authentic feel as she felt colour was distracting.
	This image was taken by Steph during the blue hour, before dawn, from the deck of a ferry. Her Nikon Z6 was handheld and set at aperture priority, ISO 1250, 70mm (70-300mm lens), f/5.6, shutter speed 1/80.

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 6th December 2021

At this meeting we shared our experiments after Rose had introduced us to the world of iPad apps at our October meeting.

Here are some examples:

	Jenni, used 3 layers in Photoshop to create this dreamlike landscape: the original image, a white layer and a mask. She then applied brushes to reveal parts of the landscape.
	Rose, created a similar creative effect, with an image of rose hips, using a free iPad app
	Jane, created this stunning composite image in Photoshop using at least 6 different images starting with one of the mast on Caradon Hill.
Sue, started with an image taken on a beach walk and tried many creative effects.	She experimented with Nexmuse before using different tools in Photoshop.
	Steph, used two images taken on her iPhone to blend in the PhotoSplit app.

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 4th October 2021

Here is an article with other ideas for apps in a similar style

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 6th September 2021

This month members chose to try their hand at editing other people's images. The video below shows the variety of approaches used and demonstrates that even though we may have different skill levels or areas of interest we can all learn from each other.

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 2nd August 2021

Continuing our theme of learning and discussing different ways of working, we enjoyed an introduction to Adobe Bridge by Jenni C tonight. This was followed by a wide ranging discussion on storing and managing images as well as digitising old slides and photos.

Jenni has also recommended the following if you wish to know more about Bridge and Camera Raw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y_zIJHLwB8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKHhV390W4A&t=1529s

The final one is longer and VERY detailed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTloT3h3zT8

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 5th July 2021

Many of us have enjoyed some online learning during the last 18 months so it is great when we can share that with each other. This month Jasmina shared what she had learnt about the Slideshow Module in Lightroom.

We also had a wide ranging discussion on using a youtube account to share content with friends and family. There was some discusssion about the need for a googlemail email address to have a youtube account but this is not so. See this link here.

There was also discussion about sources of royalty free music for slideshows and videos. One such site is https://www.bensound.com/. If you have any others to share let mw kow and I will update this page.

Another topic which was shared was the use of online platforms to watch talks and learn useful techniques etc. Several were mentioned:

Jane and Jenni recommend Camversation  a  good source of live online photography talks, workshops and critique.

Steph and Lindsay have used Photography Experts which hosts a broad and varied range of online talks, presentations, masterclasses and workshops for audiences of all abilities. Their interactive, photography events cover everything from camera setup, image composition and picture critiques, as well as guest talk shows. 

Many members also find the She Clicks community to be a great resource for ideas and inspiration.

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 7th June 2021

This month we explored the idea of a project or creating a panel of work as a way of expanding your photography skills. One of the examples we looked at was Steph's successful submission to the Royal Photographic Society for a Licentiate award.

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 3rd May 2021

A great turnout of 12 members on a wet and windy Bank Holiday Monday! Jenni C and Lindsay demonstrated a couple of the tools within the software suite Nik Collection 3 by DXO. 

The software can be downloaded for a free 30 day trial at https://nikcollection.dxo.com/download/  . The standard price for this software is currently £133, but there are often siginficant discounts available throughout the year so it's well worth watching out for if you are tempted.

For more professional videos on the various modules and how to use them there are loads of webinars available HERE

There is also an older free version of this software known as Nik Collection by DXO 2018 v1.1 available to download. Details about this can be found HERE. Be aware this is no longer supported so no help is available to resolve any issues.

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 5th April 2021

For this month's meeting six volunteers had taken a raw file supplied to them and processed it using their own imagination and preferred software. Fifteen members logged on to see the result of their efforts. Several members said they had made use of the knnowledge they gained during our recent session with Michael Pilkington, and Heidi made use Place Embedded from last month's session with Sue. 

ORIGINAL IMAGE	ORIGINAL IMAGE
Rose (using Snapseed)	Rose (using Snapseed)
Jasmina (using LR)	Jenni C (using PS)
Jasmina (using LR)	Jasmina (using LR)
Sue (using PS)	Sue (using PS)
Steve (using Smart Photo Editor)	Heidi (using PS)
Steve	Heidi (using PS, in particular the Place Embedded tool which Sue showed us recently)
Malcolm took a screensot of the image during the meeting and sent these two versions after the meeting!	Heidi (using PS)
Malcolm

Next month's meeting will include an introduction to some of the Nik software tools by Jenni C and Lindsay

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 1st March 2021

This month we continued the concept of members sharing tips from their favourite software. This month Sue gave a demo of the Place Embedded Tool in Photoshop

After the meeting Jenni C sent the following:

"The question was asked yesterday after Sue's presentation  about the difference  Place embedded as used and Place linked the option below which she clicked on inadvertently ......... I couldn't remember at the time, but knew I'd been told that it was not a good idea to use Place linked as it acted quite differently to Place embedded.

Attached is an explanation which is a rough explanation, but to me definitely confirms that Place linked is not an alternative that one would want to use. I thought I'd send for your information and you can pass on if you think others would be at all interested.

Place embedded - places new chosen image into your document and turns the new into a smart object immediately; this actually inserts this new image into the open document so it becomes part of the document or file.
Place linked - does not turn new layer into a smart object and does not actually put the new layer or image into the document, it links the new layer or image to the document .... this means the file size isn't increased BUT if you send the file that layer will not be part of it."

Next month we agreed to ask 6 volunteers to edit the same images in their own style with their chosen software. Should be interesting!!

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 1st February 2021

Another great turnout for our online Photography Extra meeting this month. 13 members enjoyed presentations by Jenni C and Lynda on various options for selection tools in Adobe Photoshop. We all felt we had learned a lot and, hopefully, are inspired to have go at things we'd often wondered about!

Lynda has kindly written down some instructions which you can use alongside the video. CLICK HERE to read the document.

Next month Sue will share how she makes use of "Place embedded" in Photoshop to create some of her images, and Lynda will show how she uses the Eraser tool in Photoshop.

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 4th January 2021

Eleven enthusiastic photographers took advantage of Zoom to meet and discuss how to improve those images we loved as we clicked the shutter release, but were disappointed when we viewed them at home. The images ranged from ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) to landscapes. This month's clip illustrates the informative and helpful discussion of two landscape images shown by Jasmina and contains many hints and tips that are useful to use on our daily lockdown walks, even using our phones.

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 7th December 2020

A great turnout for our evening meeting this month as ten members met online to see a demonstration of Color Grading in Lghtroom, as well as Perspective Warp in PS and the Transform tool in LR. This month's video clip shows a fine piece of teamwork as Jane explained Perspective Warp and Jenni C added an extra few tips at the end!

It was agreed that we should repeat this type of presentation in the future on other processing tools. For the January meeting those attending are asked to submit a picture they would like help with - teamwork in action!

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 2nd November 2020 

This month members had chosen to continue our review of images on the website galleries. Seven of us enjoyed a wide ranging discussion on differing images without any time restrictions due to our new Zoom licence! Of particular interest was the discussion about using LR and PS to correct converging vertical lines on buildings. This video clip gives a good flavour of the evening's discussion.

Next month Jane and Lindsay will demonstrate the Perspective Warp and Transform tools in Photoshop and Lightroom to correct distortion and Steph will give an overview of the new Color Grading tool in the latest release of Lightroom.

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 5th October 2020

This month's Photo Extra meeting was a great example of the variety of interests in our group and how different genres can be appreciated and can inspire people to look beyond their own interests.

Photography Extra Zoom Meeting - Monday 7th September 2020

Seven members joined this month's meeting to continue the format of last month's meeting - each person chose an image by another member from the online gallery and it was then discussed. Clips of a couple of those discussions are shown on the videos below.

The meeting agreed that the time of 5pm for this meeting would continue for the moment. A discussion was held as to further options for developing our critique of photography. It was agreed that a variety of techniques would be used such as:

- each member intriducing one of their images conforming or not to a particular technique (ie rule of thirds)

-members introducing each other to the work of a photographer they admire

- returning to the format of this meeting described above.

Next month's meeting will be on Monday 5th October at 5pm via Zoom. At that meeting Sue and Jenni C will each spend about 15 minutes introducing us to a photographer they admire.