April 26, 2012 Meeting Notes
About 20 people attended the April 26th Landscape SIG.
We took a poll of those members who anticipate
being available for the next regularly scheduled meeting on May 24. A meeting
will be held at which another poll will be taken to decide on a June meeting.
Larry will not be available in August and is not sure about the September and
October dates, primarily due to
commitments for the ACCC and Grand Photos competitions. If someone would
like to host the August 23rd Landscape SIG meeting, please contact Larry.
This year, the ACCC and the Grand Photos turn-in are scheduled for October 9 and
November 13, respectively.
John Macy and Gene
McDermott answered questions regarding how to set up our cameras to use "fill
flash" techniques to reduce the contrast inherent to a wide range of light.
Gary Jann, Sue Penny and Phil Santens provided examples of fill flash images
they exposed for discussion at this meeting. Since the discussion went beyond
4:00 PM with no time left to "practice, review and discuss" what we learned; the
group decided that the homework assignment
for the May meeting is to bring a thumb drive with comparative images the same
outdoor exposed "without fill-flash" and "with fill-flash." The intent is to
practice with our fill-flash technique to improve our images. We learned at
the discussion that, if we have only an on-camera flash, the fill aspect of the
image should be within about 5 feet, whereas if we have a (TTL) flash unit we
can attach to or use off-camera, the shadow we are attempting to lighten can be
up to about 15 feet away.
Sue Penny suggested,
and the group agreed, that we should identify a list of photography assignments
each of us can complete on our own. We will use them as discussion topics at
our fall meetings. To begin a discussion on suitable landscape topics, I
suggest:
- Fill-flash - make sets of two comparative images of the same outdoor view "without fill-flash" and "with fill-flash."
- Moving water - use a range of shutter speeds and f-stops of the same view to create images with different emotional effects.
- Depth of Field - select views in which you expose sets of two images of the same scene - both of which you like - one with a maximum and the other with a minimum depth of field.
- Image elements - complete a collection of images - in which each image emphasizes a different aspect of: form, line, color, texture, axis and convergence.
- Make a collection in which you use a specific aspect of light (directional, color, flat, etc) to accentuate selected landscape features.
- Close-up / Macro exposures
- HDR - Make a comparative set of at least two images using and not using HDR techniques (i.e., either/or in-camera or photoshop/photomatix, etc.)
- At least two panoramas - one horizontal and one vertical.
We can discuss and refine this list at our May meeting,
but feel free to work on any of these or other challenges that appeal to you and
which you would like to share with the group in the fall.
Mel Whaley
provided the following info and links to complete one of our SIG
discussions:
Here are
the links to two Adorama videos on using flash to create contrast when
photographing outdoors, covers some of the same information we were discussing
during the SIG.
Creating Contrast with a Flash -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlLP-4mja0Q&feature=relmfu
Using Flash
for Contrast - http://www.adorama.com/alc/0013537/article/Using-Flash-for-Contrast-AdoramaTV
There is also
a helpful tip using flash when photographing wild flowers on page 168 – 169 in
“Wild in Arizona” book by Paul Gill & Colleen Miniuk-Sperry.
Several people couldn't open the Outdoor
Photography links I sent in emails on 4/24. I just
checked all three this morning and they worked for me - BUT - there is a problem in that some of the strings "wrapped" - the one long string broke into two parts on
two separate lines and lost the blue color and
underline on the last part of the string. When this happens,
"clicking" only activates the part of the
hot link string with blue and underline -
and without capturing the whole
string with the click, it doesn't have all
the data it needs to find the article. I tried to
change the color and underline the link, but it defaulted to the same problem
when I forwarded it to myself (note the black type and lack of underline in the
last two links below).
Please highlight the entire string (i.e., the
< http: ..... landscape.html), right click and copy the higlighted string and
then paste it to the bar at the very top
of your web page (see the blue bar on the top
of the attachment). Then click on the refresh button. If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, please let me know and I'll go over it
at our next meeting.
