THE SUPS SUPPORTER
STEVENAGE UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
NOTES OF MEETING HELD ON
TUESDAY 12 AUGUST 2014
INTRODUCTION
The Chairman, Bob Allen, welcomed all to the meeting. Approximately 24 members attended the meeting. Bob made the usual announcements re health and safety and welcomed new members.
After explaining the programme for the evening, he announced the following:
- SSAC are having a bank holiday dive at Arlesey on Monday 25 August from 10.00 am at the gate. There is also a BBQ at a cost of £5 per head payable in advance so if you want to go contact Jade Allen of SSAC or an SSAC member if you do not know how to contact her. All will be very welcome.
- 5 - 8 September 2014 is the Lundy trip.
- Colin Noel has 3 spaces for Plymouth on 19 - 22 September.
- We need to agree when to view the photo-shoot images. Members will be informed when this will happen and when to upload.
- At the September meeting Paul Coley will be talking about winning images with any underwater camera.
- The Annual speaker for November’s meeting is Martin Edge.
- SSAC Annual Dinner and Dance is on 15 November at The Sun Hotel in Hitchin for £30 for a dinner and dance. Contact Denise if you are not a SSAC member and want to go. SSAC members watch out for Jade’s emails.
- Thanks for Neil and Vicki for organising us on the photo-shoot last month.
- Stevenage Museum are hosting an Underwater Wonders Exhibition with photographs from SUPS members. The museum in St George’s Way, Stevenage, SG1 1XX is open from Wednesday to Saturday from 10.00 am until 4.30 pm. Well worth a visit to see part of the Global Walk photos.
The next committee meeting will be on 16 September at either Ken’s or Dave which will be confirmed. All committee members are reminded to have completed the tasks they were individually working on for the meeting.
FOCUS ON - People
ABOVE WATER
There were 18 entries for this category. Thank you and well done to everyone who entered.
1stArtist at work by Dave Collins
2ndApples on a line by Bob Allen
3rdVenus who? By Alison Pettitt
3rdMan (woman) in a paddy field in Bali by Bob Allen
UNDERWATER
There were 23 entries for this category. Thank you and well done to everyone who entered.
1st“SuperBob” by Alison Pettitt
2ndGiannis D by Bob Allen
3rdSilhouette by Dave Collins
4thHole in the wall by Steve Cox
5 IMAGES
These were presented by Ray Allen. He showed 7 photos of diving in Lake Travis in Texas, near the Huntsville prison. He visited the Blue Lagoon, an old lime quarry with no life in it. There were boats and debris but absolutely no life. The only advantage was it was warm at 28 degrees. However, the lime water was rather destructive and ruined some of the kit. Definitely an experience but not to be recommended!
SHOW TALK
“Post Processing” by Dave Collins.
Dave used Ray Allen’s photos from his Canon camera and iPhone. The photos were all jpg format and taken at slow shutter speeds. Dave attempted some processing and showed the results. He uses Photoshop Elements 11. To organise his photos he uses ACDC as Elements is not good for this.
Dave explained why he had chosen a photo taken on the iPhone with an unusual lifeform. Whenever processing, the first thing he always does is duplicate the layer as he knows he will always be able to return to it. He needed to change the colourcast which in essence changed the white balance. He needed to add another layer to allow the change of saturation to enhance the colour and then changed the levels to add more light in the picture. He demonstrated doing this in a number of ways and using a number of features. Using a mask allowed him to only change the selected area – in this case eyes. Using the spot healing tool removed things hedid not want When complete Dave showed the original against his finished version.
He chose another photo to demonstrate different features with sharpening and colour adjusting. The clone stamp tool gives more control in adjustment when taking something out of a photo.
Dave showed some photos he had chosen previously and what he ended up with after adjusting to illustrate what he was trying to achieve.
The full version of Photoshop is better than Elements, but you can only rent at $10 per month. No one was sure what would happen if you were away without internet or Wi-Fi connections.
Elements 13 is due out next month at approximately £90.
To finish Dave confirmed there is nothing better to eat time than playing with photographs.
NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will be on9 September 2013 at The Arts Centre on Roaring Meg, Stevenage, commencing at 8.00 pm and will include:
The photo theme for the Focus On is "The Sun".
5 images will be presented by Colin Noel.
Show Talk will be by Paul Coley, author of “Winning Images with any Underwater Camera”. Books will be available for sale at the event too.
A SUPS SUPPORTER!
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