Minutes July 9th, 2014

[Gwen McDonald]

SSI Photography Club Minutes

July 9, 2014

 

Announcements:

1. New member: Bob Fenske
2. Lavender festival Sunday, July 13th: Jaqueline Sutton invites all members to attend, with admission fee waived. French theme this year featuring Can-Can dancing, talks by Carolyn Herriott, and lavender based foods. 
3. Bernadette announces the upcoming  Summer Painters Guild Show at Artspring
4. Bob Davidson described his recent highly-positive ER experience, singing the praises of the ER doctors and nurses who responded so professionally to an islander who had experienced a major trauma
5. Current photos show featuring members:

a)      Margaret Benmore: Goddess series, at the Fernwood café

b)      Curt Firestone: Images of Africa, at Country Grocer

 

Eclectic Visions Kudos: A big Thank You to all whose help made this year’s Eclectic Visions the success it was. The quality of the photos increases each year, with this year’s photography being some of the best we’ve ever shown. A special thanks to Avril Kirby for her outstanding leadership and organization of the show. In turn, Avril thanks all those who worked so hard on her committee to make it all happen. 

 

Pierre Mineaux: Presentation on NIK software

            Photo club member Pierre Mineaux described and discussed a new software program he used to achieve the dramatic photograph of Perugia that he showed in Eclectic Visions. Called Silver Efex Pro, it is one of 7 programs in the NIK software collection, and is specifically designed for black and white work. It creates images with great detail and contrast and is especially effective with uneven surfaces such at stonework. 

-          uses the Zone system popularized by Ansel Adams that enhances the contrast within a photograph. Increases the contrast of objects in each area of the photo, as apposed to simply averaging the tones overall.

-          Raw photos saved as TIF files, not as JPEG

-          Also available in the app are filters (eg red filter to turn skies darker, green filter to make leaves lighter than trunks, etc), a selection of film types (eg that make photos appear more or less grainy), color options (eg to change from B/W to sepia), and border options

-          can be used as a plug-in with another photo editing program, or as a “stand-alone” program. If use as a “stand alone” you must first make a copy of  the photo as the original will disappear as soon as any changes in Silver Efex Pro are implemented.

-          Cost for the entire NIK collection (all seven processes) is around $149 but significant discounts can be found if one goes online and references the photographer recommending the app.

 

Next months meeting: 

            Theme is Black and White;

            Speaker is Doug Wahlsten, on preparing photos for printing. 

 

 

Respectfully submitted

Gwen mcDonald

 

           

 

[Avril Kirby]

Respectfully applauded.  Nicely done, Gwen.