*|MC:SUBJECT|*

View this email in your browser

The Bully by Jo Cleall
1st Place in Tony Perryman Mono Competition

WELCOME TO THIS WEEK'S H2 NEWSLETTER

Hello,

This week's newsletter is jam-packed with goodies; it's a great read! It has the results of the Tony Perryman Mono Competition, held last Thursday - see below for the full story. We have a couple of interesting articles: Jo (Cleall) shows us the the story behind her winning mono image, and Chris (Shepherd) has given us a veritable workshop into how he created his mono image that gained third place in the competition. And please give us your opinion on our Newsletter - it's a one-click survey that greatly helps us to gauge feedback.

Scroll away; we really hope you enjoy this edition of the H2 Newsletter.

THIS WEEK IS FLASHY

This week we have something special, and a bit different. Photography tutor, Daniel Bridge, will be giving us his presentation "An Introduction to Flash". It promises to have something for beginners and experienced photographers alike. Used correctly, flash can enhance our images by both day and by night. And like everything about our fascinating hobby there are dos and don'ts, tips and hints to learn. See you on Thursday (15th).

The Zoom invitation for all our meetings is below, all are welcome to come along; members & non-members alike.

Zoom Invite

Topic: H2 Club Evening
Time: "Doors" open at 07:30 PM for 7:45 Start
Every week on a Thursday

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82906584413?pwd=dnFuRG9LUzBzU0hlSFZ3NDAzYkluQT09

Meeting ID: 829 0658 4413
Password: 927576

Tony Perryman Monochrome Competition

Last week was our monochrome competition, sponsored by Tony Perryman. This is normally a print competition but in the covid world, it has become a projected image competition.

Two days before the competition the judge we booked had to cancel. Thanks to some frantic work by Andrew (Wallace) contacting judges, we were lucky enough to secure Andy Wilson ARPS to judge the competition for us.

Each of our images was accessed by Andys forensic eye as he detailed what he did & didn't like whilst whittling down 88 images to just a few winners. Finally, the winners were picked and Jo Cleal came away with the much-coveted prize, a sculpture hand-made by Tony Perryman.

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you, H2 members, for such a high-quality (as well as high-quantity) entry.

Results

Image	Author	Place
The Bully	Jo Cleall	1st
Rooftop Dining	Stan Chippett	2nd
Out of the Dark	Chris Shepherd	3rd
Iris	Marie King	Highly Commended
The Station Master	Paul Simpkin	Highly Commended
Crossrail View	Chris Shepherd	Highly Commended
Forest	Warren artin	Commended
The Old Pier Wilunga	Maurice King	Commended
Old Lion	John Thompson	Commended

2nd Place - Rooftop Dining by Stan Chippett

3rd place - Out of the Dark by Chris Shepherd
(See below for how this image was created)

The Bully

These are the photos behind the image of the Bully.

We were on our way home when I took these photos of my granddaughters. There were two ways that we could go which is what the conflict was about, fortunately I had my camera with me!

It all happened very quickly and a few minutes later they were best freinds again.

In the final image I’ve removed the grating, added various textures and used the graphitti brushes on the wall behind them.

Jo

Iris by Marie King - Highly Commended

October Textures' Month - Proving Popular

After the recent excellent workshop by fine-art photographer, Jane Lazenby, we were motivated to run a competition encouraging all members to put on their creative hats, and produce an image (or images) that has textures involved in its production.

Well, members have taken us at our word - what a creative bunch we are. And this is only the first week. Do take a look at our H2 Flickr page and see what members are doing.

And keep the creativity going guys; upload your images to our H2 Flickr page. Also, it would be great if you added a description of how you composed your image, and make sure you have the word 'texture' in the title so we know it is a competition entry. We have until the end of the month.

For those members who need help with layers and masks (whether you are using Photoshop, Elements or Affinity) please email us - in this virtual world it is easy to share screens and give a helping-hand

Texture - Beach Huts
by Maurice King

The Station Master by Paul Simpkin - Highly Commended

Crossrail View by Chris Shepherd - Highly Commended

Pushing the Edit

I think for most photographers we often look at work in competitions or exhibitions and think "why don't mine look like that". Whilst a lot can be achieved during capture with lighting a scene properly or picking the right location and time, that is often just the start of the story. These days post-processing can really make a difference to what your final result is.

For me, I have never been particularly interested in post-processing as I am more interested in getting it right in camera but recently, I have started to take more of an interest. I will always do basic adjustments to my images, but now I am starting to "push the edit" and go further than I normally would.

In this little article, I would like to talk you through an edit I did, which may inspire you too to "push the edit".

A couple of months I attended a Timeline event using models inside a sewage pumping station at Crossness. A lot of people talk down Timeline events because it is "easy" to end up with shots that look the same as everyone else's.

I think they are great if you are a beginner, you can observe lots of other photographers and learn from them. Especially when you see the results on-line later and start to wonder why other peoples shots are better than what you got! If you are more advanced it can be a great exercise in "going beyond the obvious", once you have the setup shot in the bag you can work with the models, lighting & location to achieve something different.

So, here is the shot I got from the Timeline shoot, straight off the camera.:

Not the worlds greatest shot, but it's shot in natural light with no reflectors, etc. Time to try a square crop and some basic adjustments.

It's looking ok now, so I added a few finishing touches with some clarity and a post-crop vignette.

That's it. Normally this is where I would stop with the edit and leave it. Not a great shot, but a "keeper", I liked her expression & the curl of her hair but this wasn't a shot for competitions or my website.

It was at this point I decided to "push the edit" and try some different approaches.

Lightroom has a series of presets available and I have collected loads more over the years. You will often read advise like "don't waste your time on presets, learn how to use the system without them", which is fair enough. But you can learn a lot from trying other peoples presets and I find them invaluable when I have a picture I like that just doesn't seem to work.

I flicked through a load of different presets but the one that really made me stop in my tracks was "High Contrast Black & White". I really liked the way it worked to emphasise the model's hair, face and hands.

By this point, the door frame behind her is starting to annoy me so I took an adjustment brush, turned the exposure right down and painted most of the background to black:

Setting a lot of the picture to black upsets the balance of the picture somewhat, so I adjusted the highlights and shadows to improve the overall feel of the pic.

Now I have removed the distractions in the background, the arm over the models head looks a bit awkward.
So now I continued the edit in photoshop, painting out the arm with black.

Now her other hand seems to have little to do with her now, so I cropped and painted that out.

I was pretty happy with this shot but it's always good to get another opinion so I posted it up on our Flickr site and on Twitter. The feedback from other photographers was to remove the hints of the models dress that were still showing in the shadows and smooth the skin.

I took their advice, straightened the image and sharpened the eyes and decided it was done:

Now you may or may not like the result, but I am happy with the image - though I am typing this before the mono competition, so the judge will probably hate it!

I hope this has inspired you to push the edit and experiment with going to places you wouldn't normally. If it works then you have achieved an image you liked & if it doesn't then you have learnt what not to do. If you want suggestions for an image you can always upload it to our Flickr site asking for ideas - no one of us is as smart as all of us.

Chris

Your Opinion Matters

Would you like to see more articles like the one above, in the newsletter?

*|SURVEY:Yes|*
*|SURVEY:No|*
*|SURVEY:Not Bothered|*

Forest by Warren Martin - Commended

We are always on the lookout for articles for the newsletter so if you would like to write something or have a suggestion for a subject please let us know.

The Old Port Wilunga by Maurice King - Commended

The Old Lion by John Thompson

The Programme for the Weeks Ahead

Here is our programme for the next few weeks. Your committee is retaining what we can from the old programme and taking advantage of the fact that we are meeting over Zoom to bring in some speakers we would not normally have been able to.
Unfortunately with the recent sharp increase in CV19 cases, our plans for in-person practicals have had to be popped back in the virtual box and will be regularly reviewed

Programme as Google Calendar


15th Oct	An Introduction to Flash
22nd Oct	Practical Evening
25th Oct	Epping Forest meet up
29th Oct	Andy Page
5th Nov	League Comp 2
12th Nov	Dick Circone - "Making it yours"

A BIT TANGLED by Paul Tatman

Social Media - Youtube

Our YouTube site has lots of videos on it, with recordings of all of our visiting speakers. If you missed one of our zoom evenings you can catch up there.

GEOMETRIC by Danielle Hughes

We Would Hate To See You Go But...

Our H2 Flickr page and our H2 WhatsApp group are for members only. Unfortunately, if you are not a paid-up member by Thursday 15 October, we will be removing you from those platforms.

Of course, this Newsletter is open to all - members, non-members, anyone. And all can join in on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Interested in Joining Us?

Our club's mission is to provide photographic guidance, stimulation and opportunity; we'd love you to join us.

Visitors are welcome to join our virtual meetings, just use the zoom links in this newsletter.

To contact H2PS click here