Our Images and Appraisers

[Willie]

Hi All,
 
The results of the first "Open Appraisal" by Dougie Allan, along with the "Yearly Standings to Date" are now posted on the MCCC Website.
See  -  Competitions Results http://www.midcaldercameraclub.org.uk/resultspage.html
 
Congratulations to all those who entered. Again, a great selection of images were presented. The appraiser - Dougie Allan did have a lot to say about the images, I thought it was positive and encouraging.
 
After this session, I would like to say a few points for those who are new to appraisals, to keep in mind for the next one.
 
When giving your image a title, keep it simple and something the appraiser can understand, something that will help the image. Not like my "Busted Chair" which was meant as a joke title. This did not help him understand the subject matter.

Check your images for any elements that can be considered as a distraction away from your main subject. For example; lens flare, overly bright or dark areas in the background, other people in the background that have brightly coloured clothing that are not the main subject of the image. Before taking the shot - be aware of your background, after the shot a little Photoshop can help.

It seems that every appraiser likes catch light in the eyes of every live subject, no matter how dull the lighting conditions were when you took the shot. So if your living subject has weak catch lights in the eyes enhance them, and if they are lacking catch lights - put some in. (Perhaps we can ask George to demonstrate this in Photoshop).

Look for and avoid any areas that are underexposed to black, or over exposed to pure white, both with no detail in the image. Appraisers hate this, and it is one of the first things they look for. And they seem to take great pleasure in finding this, and commenting on it.

Before printing your masterpiece, ask yourself if cropping the image in any way can enhance the shot. A tighter crop to remove any distractions, or for a better balance, or to remove a large area of sky that has nothing in it that doesn't do anything to add to the picture, or to place the subject into one of the intersections of the rule of thirds.
 
Also do not take the appraisers comments personally. The more we see of appraisers the more we realise that they all have their likes and dislikes. There is nothing worse than handing in a work of art with a landscape theme only to discover that the appraiser loathes landscapes. Take one example amongst many - Steve's still life of the flower pots with the black background - "Primary Colours". Dougie Allan does not like any black background, and said so several times. I personally love dark and black backgrounds (apart from the cost of ink that it takes to print them), I feel that they isolate the subject and can give the image added depth. I bought some black velvet cloth and use black card as a backdrop frequently, and love it when I find a natural dark background when doing nature shots. To me Steve's image of his colourful pots and flower jumps right out of the picture when they are against a black background.

So there you go, if you enjoyed taking and printing and looking at your picture - enter it!
And if the Appraiser does not like it - It gives us something to complain about in the pub afterwards - lol

Best - Willie

[Stuart R]

Thanks Willie
Very useful information and equally useful observations. You know what my bugbear is - Depth of Field (DOF). Again some comments which came across from the appraisal last week re this subject. Constantly his mantra was - SHARP - SHARP & YET MORE SHARP. Now it is, as you all know, in the vast majority of images that  we take it is very important to have a sharp picture BUT there are certain circumstances, for instance plant macro or still life photography, where although the main subject or a point on the main subject must be sharp, it is perfectly acceptable to have the background of focus.
If you take a macro shot of a plant at F22, the plant will be sharp - BUT - so will the background!!. And in most instances, you don't want this. You want the subject not to be distracted by the background
Take the same shot with F2.8 and focus on the same area. That spot (the focus spot) will be sharp, but other parts of the main subject and the background WILL NOT BE IN FOCUS. You then get a less distracting background which helps to isolate your subject. This is because at F2.8 the DOF range is very small while at F22 the focus range is at its maximum.
Try taking some shots at different F numbers from F22 to F2.8 on the same focus point (set camera to M for manual and change speed to get good exposure for each change) and see the change in the "in focus" range.
I often take shots of plants with a five F stop  range from 2.8 to 22 just to see what they look like (the plants are not going to run away so you have time to try this).
I like them at F2.8 (as in the tulip at the appraisal) but our friend would appear to have them at F22 and therefore SHARP+SHARP but Hey Ho - don't be afraid to try this out - and watch out for more F2.8 shots of plants from little old moi!!

[Deb]

Yes, you should stay true to your artistic inclinations! I'd be interested to see what a judge would say if they knew for sure that you chose the shallow depth of field on purpose. You could use "f/stop 2.8" (or similar) in the title.

[otooleg]

Hi all. 

I have to agree with Debs if you make it obvious in the title that the shots was taken at F2.8 to ensure narrow Depth of Field - it might just ensure that the judge appreciates that the shot is as the shooter intended!

In fact, personally, I can't see why we don't state the aperture, shutter speed and ISO of our shots anyway - that way we can learn from each other - something I am particularly keen to encourage.

George

[Willie]

I have seen some photo competitions that the only criteria is narrow DOF, next time I see one I will post a link here.

Willie