PRINT COMPETITION

Tuesday October 24th, 2000

Message From the President

David Lobban

The Future. ARE YOU READY?

Do you have your own website yet? Are you using the Internet to your best advantage? Do you or are you thinking about digital photography?

These following are things that you should either be doing, or have been talking about doing with some sort of timetable in mind.

Your website
The easiest of the three is having your own website.  This is probably the least expensive way to let your clients know exactly what you do.  You can put your web address on your business card, on any ads that you might have running, on promotional items like pens, letting all your customers and future customers know where to go and see your work at any time of the day or night.  What is also great is that if you put something on your website and you decide to change it later, you can do it.  Where if you have had a thousand brochures made up with your prices on it and you change your mind now you have to throw them all away and print up new ones.  HOW MUCH DOES THAT COST?

There are so many programs out there that help you design a website, that if you have a fair amount of computer knowledge you can do it.

The Internet is it just there to browse through or hold your website? You photograph an event it might be a wedding, a family reunion or a convention that came into town.  How are you going to let everyone see your images and have a chance to buy photographs?  Do you give someone the proofs and hope that they send them around to everyone to look at and order? Why not use the internet you can post your images on the internet and let everyone know how they can see them by handing out cards at the event telling them exactly where those images can be seen.  You can have it set up so they can order online, or call in their orders to you.
IT DOES WORK.

Digital photography.
Have you thought of purchasing a digital camera yet?  If not, you better start thinking about it.  Probably the one excuse is that it is so expensive, well your partly right the cameras are not cheap, but the prices are dropping. Kodak's top of the line camera has come down about $10,000 dollars in just over a year.  Cannon is due out with a camera, which is very affordable this month. Have you figured out how much you spend on film and processing in a year, you won't have to buy any more film.  You keep on erasing the same old flash cards and use them again.  Oh! And what about storing negatives? That's right there all on CDs that cost maybe $2.00 each, which can hold 650megs. 

How do you compete with your fellow photographs, when you tell your client that I can have the photographs back to you in four days and they say I'm sorry but thank you, but this other photographer is going to have them all printed and handed out tonight.

I hope I have given you something to think about, because this is the way things are going and it's not a fad like color photography.

David

Calculating Light

By Brad Bogue

Wasn’t last months round table interesting? We took the sample quiz the PPA offers for those wishing to study to take the Certified Professional Photographer exam. It was like playing photographic trivia. Everyone enjoyed the time and we all learned. We’ll be doing it again using the Portrait sample exam sometime after February. Look for it, then come and have fun. Based upon the exam results, the discussion about some of the answers and the general discussion of participants I have assembled a list of topics for future Roundtable Discussions. Let’s begin with the most applicable topic.

The number one topic on most peoples mind was calculating light. In that topic we included the application of the inverse square law, calculating flash exposure, reading a meter and a general dis- cussion on how to calculate exposure in a variety of lighting conditions.

We based our discussion on questions such as: Light B is 20 feet from the subject. Move it so it is 10 feet away. Such a move calls for: a) decreasing the exposure by two full f-stops b) decreasing the exposure by one full f-stop, c) decreasing the exposure by 2/3 of an f-stop, d) decreasing the exposure by three full f-stops. There was enough questions and uncertainty to springboard us into a great discussion about f-stops, measuring light, the inverse square law and calculating light.

That’s the gist of what Roundtable will be about this month. A lighting primer that will leave us all a bit sharper. This will be an interactive Discussion. Bring a flashlight, a tape measure and your light meter. Brinu any images you may have of difficult lighting conditions. By the way the answer is a) decreasing the exposure by two full f-stops.

Board Elections for 2001

All offices for the PCPPA Board of Directors will be up for election in November. Nominations will taken at the October meeting. David Lobban will be retiring. The office of president will be a two year position. Vice President will be a one year, as is Treasurer. There are several member at large positions available.

Last year nominations were not forth coming promptly and several positions were taken on a whim. Luckily several members stepped in to fill the gaps and the organization continued. An association requires a few members to pitch in voluntarily to make things work. The length of terms of service is staggered so that not all positions will become vacant at once and there will be some continuity to the board. 

Webmaster and Newsletter editors are yearly positions with obvious responcibilities. Secretary will be a two year office this term and must take notes of the proceedings of all meetings. Treasurer, a one year term this time must keep track of all funds, dues, receipts, and disperse payments. 

Vice President is supposed to be able to step in for the president of PCPPA if that office is vacant, and traditionally books the speakers for the monthly meetings. It will be a one year office this time. 

The president is responsible to oversee the activities of the organization. It is a two year term this time around

Print Competition

All members are invited to submit up to four prints into competition. Categories are Portrait, Wedding, Commercial and Unclassified. All prints must be mounted (though that can be merely taping to a sheet of cardboard) Matted prints are discouraged (album slip mounts etc) though even work prints are acceptable however such entries will be judged as they are and not what they could be. 16x20 is maximum print size and images may be as small as 8x10. At current writing the judges are believed to be Greg McCanless and Craig Brubaker. Find the latest rules here

What I Meant to Say

For some reason the demonstration for the September meeting wasn’t as communitive as it should have been.

The lighting decisions that are typically made in portrait studios are based on a paradigm of solving problems that don’t exist anymore. Early studios had to deal with very slow films and very hot lights, they needed to concentrate the maximum output and focus it all on the subject. They couldn’t use softboxes in those days as the available fabrics were not exactly fireproof, and the light loss was unacceptable. Consider that not only were 2,000 watt bulbs common, they were placed in silvered metal containers and focused with a fresnel lens to blast every bit of’ light on the subject. This light was very specular, very contrasty and required additional lights to be placed in the shadows in any but the most dramatic set ups.

This fill light is not a natural experience. Any light will place highlights, poorly placed it creates confusiiig and competing secondary highlights and worse, secondary shadows that make ‘dirty’ smile lines and dark sinister eyes. There are very few examples of multiple sources of light in nature. Shooting color seems to exaggerate this problem, a few spectrals in the shadow side seem to make skin seem greasy.

Though these problems are not insurmountable in skilled hands, even a spotlight can be made to give a soft light. But how much of our work is head and shoulders these days. The most profitable portraiture is full length and wide family groups. Here is were the short comings of a point light source become very noticeable.

To exaggerate the situation, lets take a small flash head, and aim it from our usual light direction. The light direction that reaches the face is at a different angle than the light that reaches the feet, or the faces on either side of the subject area. If this light is a typical distance, say six feet, the amount of light reaching the same points can vary a half stop or more. This causes variations in exposure, even if the overall exposure is fill based. This effects the shape and contrast of the spectral highlights. All of this is not exactly natural.

Actually, the very original photographers had it down. Electricity wasn’t invented yet. Painters used northlight windows for it’s soft diffusive and constant light. It let in the maximum amount of light but with a pleasing shape. This light, was well as other lighting situations that are favored for excellent images, twilight, open shade, eaveslight or porch like overhangs all have similar characteristics. The light comes from a large diffusive yet slightly directional, approximately a 90 degree arc of light.

By creating a large light source we can duplicate these most favored lighting situations. With several layers of depth to the light source, shooting through at least two layers with a back wall bounce you can create a significant depth to the light, much like we have a depth to the range of focus on a lens, we can have a greater depth to the effects of our light.

A large light source will spread the spectral highlights out, so they are hot so intense, there is detail available from the spectral through the penumbra and only a little boost with a reflector to aid the shadow side. The light effects will be the same to faces on the left to the right of the subject area, as well as being more equal on the face down to the shoes. This light is elegant and allows you to concentrate on the subject and not on the placement of your equipment.

We all know its the expression that counts whether the image is a snapshot, a fast buck portrait or an elegant canvass mounted wall print.

Discuss this further at egroups.com, either the PCPPA or the z-prophoto mailing list.

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