Helderberg Photographic Society

RAW vs JPEG: An End to the War

In every photography conversation that takes place anywhere in the World, the subject will eventually come up. Someone will innocently ask: Do you shoot RAW or JPEG? And a friendly conversation turns into an ugly bloodbath, ending with photographers spinning their cameras over their heads held by the strap, as modern-day photographic flails, mouths frothing, shrieks of hate filling the air as they attack one another in defence of their chosen file format. It’s not coincidence that ‘RAW’ is ‘WAR’ spelled backwards.

It needn’t be this way. I believe photographers of all races, colours, creed and shooting format can coexist and live together, in peace. Seriously, I do.

RAW vs JPEG: An End to the War

OpEd: 10 Oeuvres Aspiring Photographers Should Ignore

The other day while reading the internet I came across “The 10 Most Harmful Novels for Aspiring Writers.” I wondered whether there could be a list for photographers as well. I thought about it and then sent my list to Blake Andrews to see if he wanted to contribute and have some fun with it.

Here are Blake’s five.

OpEd: 10 Oeuvres Aspiring Photographers Should Ignore

The Arts Association Stellenbosch & US Art Gallery

… are exhibiting work by, amongst others, Nicole Palmer and Eric Palmer. Do try and get there! Wednesday 18th May until Saturday 19th June, 2010; Mon – Fri 9-5; Sat – 9-1. US Art Gallery, cnr. Dorp and Bird Streets, Stellenbosch.

Competition Meeting Wed. 12th May

Some 50 members and guests arrived for the Competition Meeting, the set subject being ‘Go Graphic’. There was a good selection of both prints and projected images, in the set subject, as well as in the open one. Lanz von Horsten spoke afterwards on two particular images he was impressed with – a portrait by Marthinus and a landscape by Marietjie. It was very interesting to receive feedback from an experienced photographer such as Lanz. After tea Roger gave a talk on converting your slides to digital images using a slide projector and your camera (instead of scanning slides with a scanner). He has an engaging way of explaining things, and we were highly entertained at the possibility of using ‘his’ method. Thanks Roger! Before we all left for home, Steve showed a few instructional audio-visuals on various aspects of Photoshop … you learn something every time!

2010 May Competition Winners: Projected Images

Here are the projected image winners from the May competition for which the set subject was Go Graphic.

Set Subject

1

Desert Graphic

Paddy Howes

2

New Life

Emma Finnemore

3

Go Graphic

Frank Reuvers

Open

1

Can You Hear?

Marthinus Retief

2

Grass

Neels Beyers

3

Misty Morn

Maritjie Kumst

The full list of projected image scores can be found in this PDF document

2010 April Competition Winners: Projected Images

Here are the projected image winners from the April competition for which the set subject was Carnival.

Set Subject

Tuba Player
Marietjie Kumst
Stage of Light
Marthinus Retief
Fair Ladies
Marthinus Retief

Open

Red & Blue Drops
Marius Swart
My Upside Down Garden
Elsa van Zyl
In the Clouds
Irmel Dunaiski

SoFoBoMo

SoFoBoMo is short for Solo Photo Book Month – a group event where a bunch of photographers all make solo photo books start to finish in 31 days.

SoFoBoMo 2010 runs from June to July.

Visit SoFoBoMo to find out more and pledge your own participation if you’re up to the challenge.

Monitor Calibration – do we really need it?

OutdoorPhoto have an article on monitor calibration on their site. It begins thus,

I have been wanting to tackle this question for some time now and have been pondering the answer and from which angle to handle it.

A recent conversation brought it to a head, though. so here goes:

If: Colour is perceived differently by different people, and
If: Photography for the sake of Art can have some lenience as to colour accuracy,
then: Why do we need to calibrate our monitors?

Well the answer is actually quite simple.

Click here to read the article

Photo masterclasses

BBC Wildlife have made their twelve-part Photo Masterclass tutorial series available for download. They say;

Welcome to the complete collection of our Photo Masterclasses. Just click on the images below to download a PDF of each masterclass and your photography skills will soon improve with our experts’ advice.

Click here to visit their page and start downloading.