Two of our members, Florian and Joshua, and perhaps others I’m unaware of are finalists in the Getaway Gallery 2012 competition. As the competition has now reached the voting stage please go and support our members and the other photographers by voting for the images you really like.
4 High Quality Photoshop Alternatives For Editing Your Photos
On Photoshopgirl, Kelly Anne Wills writes,
While this site is heavily focused on Photoshop, there are some alternatives out there to explore if you can’t get your hands on a copy of the world’s top photo editing software, or maybe just want to try something different or less daunting. My friends have asked me several times in the past about what else they could use for common photo editing tasks without plunking down a small fortune for Photoshop, so today I’m going to list some other capable applications that can suit your needs. In addition to the products I have listed below, there are lots of very impressive online photo editors available that have been picking up popularity, so don’t hesitate to give those a try. It’s amazing how fully-featured some of them are!
Photographic Exhibition & Wine Fair
Several of our members are winners in the calendar competition mentioned in an email from Sue van Niekerk, who writes.
We are inviting you to our exhibition on Thursday 27th September 2012 at 18h00. Please see attached invitation. Entry is R30.00 and Calendars will be on sale at R120 per calendar. We look forward to seeing you at our exhibition.
The theme is Typically Stellenbosch. All the entrants of this amateur photographic competition will have works on the exhibition. The winners will be awarded their prizes at the opening of this wine tasting exhibition.
This calendar will make a lovely gift, so please support this great fundraising event. Our schools these days need much additional support!
You are welcome to invite friends and family.
If you would like to attend this event, the details can be found below.
3 Reasons Why You Should Switch To Back Button Focus
James Brandon writes,
Over the past couple of years I’ve become a huge advocate for making the switch to back button focus. It was one of the most revolutionary changes I ever made to how I take pictures. It seems like such a small thing, yet it’s such a huge difference in the way your camera works. I honestly don’t know why this isn’t the standard setting on all cameras because after getting acclimated to this setting, I honestly can’t understand the meaning for or use of the ‘shutter half way down’ method.
1st Issue of GIMP Magazine now Available [Free Download]
Wiki Loves Monuments Photographic Competition
We have been asked to share the following communication with our members.
I would like inform and encourage you and your society to take part in the Wiki Loves Monuments photographic competition being run by Wikipedia with the support of Heritage Western Cape, the South African Resources Agency and Arts South Africa. The competition requires, simply for a photograph of a monument to be taken and uploaded to Wikipedia. This competition is currently under way and will run throughout the month of September, with a special upload marathon taking place on Heritage Day 24 September at all museums.
There are prizes for the best provincial and runner up photograph with the winner vying for the national prize. The overall winner for South Africa will then be considered with the best from the rest of the world for the overall, global Wiki Loves Monuments prize.
Besides the prizes this competition will greatly aid in the documentation and protection of our heritage resources, so, again I urge you and you society to take part.
For more information please follow the link below
http://wikilovesmonuments.co.za/?pk_campaign=CentralnoticeKind regards,
Troy Smuts
Heritage Officer (Archaeology)
Heritage Western Cape
Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport
Congratulations Florian
Congratulations to Florian for becoming the August 2012 winner in the DSLR Training competition. This makes him one of the twelve finalists in line to win the NEW Canon 5D MkIII and EF 24 – 105 f4L IS USM lens kit. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that Florian takes honours and wins this fantastic prize.
GIMP Is Now Available as a Native App for Mac OS X
OS X: GIMP is a fantastic free alternative to Photoshop for all desktop operating systems, but on Mac it was a bit of a pain to set it up, because you needed to install X11. Gimp now, however, comes with a standard DMG installer.
Is Film Truly Superior to Digital?
Rachael Towne writes
Since the dawn of widely available commercial cameras in 1999, long heated discussion has arisen over whether or not digital image quality is equal to what is produced by film. So, is film truly superior to film? The answer is yes… and no.
Image credit: Film by lisbokt, on Flickr
ImageMagick: a simple, scriptable tool to convert, edit and compose Images
There lots of software for customizing image files, but most of them are not simple and user-friendly. So if you’re looking for a simple and free customizing tool for images, check this one out. ImageMagick is a tool that can convert, edit, and even help you create image files, and supports tons of image formats including jpeg, gif, png, tiff, and many more.
I have been using ImageMagick for a number of years for various tasks, both by running the tools directly from the command line, and via scripts that I use to automate image processing tasks. I have been considering writing a script that you can use to automate resizing your images for submission to the club. Please comment and let me know if you would find this useful.
Helderberg Photographic Society 