Determined to honour their promise, made at the start of the season, to respond positively to requests from the less experienced members to provide more opportunities to help and support them, the hard-working members of the Committee had arranged another practical evening for our meeting on Wednesday 16th November.
Having been informed at fairly short notice that the original guest speaker was indisposed and unable to give his presentation, as scheduled, they quickly organised four table top set-ups so that members could practice and develop their skills in close-up photography. The challenge set was to photograph table top, still life subjects using only available continuous or constant light sources that could be found in the home, such as desk lamps and torches, without the use of studio flash.
Once again, the Society was indebted to Andrew Barton of Andrew Barton Photography who generously gave of his time to assist those present by kindly offering his expert tuition. He adjusted the positioning of the light sources to create different background effects, for example, from a graduated background to a consistent or solid colour background as would be seen in specialist product photography. He then used two table top set-ups with black and white backgrounds, whilst the Society President set up another still life area with a red background. Andrew also demonstrated the differing effects by varying the depth of field by utilising a wide lens aperture to pick out certain parts of the image in sharp focus while throwing other areas out of focus. (This can be seen particularly well with the chess board and the bottle images). Andrew, as ever, patiently answered all questions from members who were fortunate to benefit from his helpful guidance.
Then, in another part of the room, our ever-faithful Treasurer had set up his light pad for anyone who wanted to photograph slices of fruit or autumn leaves with the light coming from below the subject. This methodology often produces admirable outcomes.
All those who attended were most appreciative of the help given by Andrew and the Committee members who managed, with so little notice, to turn the evening into such a useful and successful gathering.
Guests and potential new members are always most welcome to attend, subject to a small charge to offset our running costs.
By Antony Hamilton
