Members may find the resources below of interest in addition to the information and resources elsewhere on our website.
Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Practical Camera Club (of Southampton), its Committee, its members or its Webmaster, and featuring a website, product or supplier is not an endorsement or recommendation.
Lens Ball Photography
Lens Ball Photography is quite popular. It has a limited range of possibilities but can be fun to try out. If you have one (or several even!) some interesting images can be captured, and these tips may help you do that.
Lens Calibration
This video explains calibration of a lens-camera combination i.e. what is the problem, how does it arise, what is the solution, and does any of it matter?
Colour perception test
Colour management is all very well but different people perceive colours differently. The following link provides some information about this plus a test you can do to see the extent to which you can discriminate similar hues.
https://www.xrite.com/hue-test
Charlie Waite – Landscape photography
Charlie was the opening speaker at the 2018 Meeting of Minds conference in Penrith.
His talk was an engaging investigation into what the landscape photographer needs to attempt to invest into the photograph to draw a favourable and positive response from its audience. He celebrates beauty in the landscape and invites us to attend to every detail in the design of our images so that each element is intentionally included or omitted. The presentation lasts about an hour. (The interview session afterwards is less worthwhile!)
Printer evaluation – test image and method
A standard test image can be used to visually evaluate the output from your screen or printer. You can download a test image: here; and a detailed explanation of what to look out for in the test image is to be found: here.
Auto mode on your camera has its uses but generally you will be able to acheive better photographs by “Getting Off Auto”. First you will need to understand the Exposure Triangle: Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO. Notes from this presentation from a club in New South Wales provide a good introduction for beginners.
Professionally printed images
Members can have prints made for them by a local business at very low prices as they can benefit from bulk prices on non-bulk quantities. Please note this offer is for paid up members only. Full details can be obtained at club meetings.
Some members use DS Colour Labs www.dscolourlabs.co.uk and find their service competitive in terms of price and quality. They do charge postage & packing, but saving up several images to print at a time can reduce the impact of this. One member has found that it is best to lightly over-expose and over-brighten the images before sending them off in order to get a printed result with proper vibrancy and punch.
There are of course many other businesses that will also print your images.
DSLR simulator
Canonplay has a free facilty to simulate the effect on an image of changes in variables such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO and camera modes. Unfortubately it does not cover focal length, distance, lighting etc.
Image size, resolution, printing and screens
What is a pixel? What is a 20 Megapixel camera? If my image contains 2 Megapixels will an A4 size print look okay? What is meant if my screen resolution is 1920 x 1080.
Read this resource and it may help you answer this type of question.
Lights, reflectors, backgrounds, posing props, etc
There are various videos, short tips, product overviews etc provided by Lastolite’s website.
Naturally they are promoting their own product ranges but much of the information is transferable.
Capturing droplets, breaking objects, passing animals, etc
TriggerSmart offers a way of remotely capturing digital still and motion images. The camera is activated by the use of sensors that trigger the camera on the detection of sound, light or on the interruption of an infrared beam. See http://www.sabreswitch.co.uk>
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