On Wednesday 5th April 2023, Dunchurch Photographic Society held a members evening titled ‘around the table’ where items of photographic interest are showcased by the Society members. These can be camera equipment, editing software, computer related stuff etc. Anything photographic – the beauty of it is, the conversation about photography that this generates. From novice, to more advanced users, evenings like this can be valuable in terms of learning new skills, understanding different subject to try with photography or ways of capturing images and how to process them.
On this occasion, such was the level of input from our members that not only did we not get to see all of the intended content, but the meeting overran in terms of time as well! That’s positive!
During the evening, the Society Chairman, David Bray, showcased some of the recent images that had done well for him in the recent film titles Merit competition. This time, the images had been printed onto aluminium for a robust, and souvenir feel. The key difference was this the prints featured the final edit to recreate the sense of ‘movie poster’ complete with appropriate text and font used.
Elsewhere, Steven Farmer showcased the used of a traditional photographic ‘bellows’ attachment for a camera and lens giving the evening a ‘retro’ feel that was very interesting to see.
One of the highlights of the evening was an introduction to drone photography by Ian Maxwell. On show were two of Ian’s drones and members were given an overview of how to go about drone style photography and benefitting from the overhead views that this can afford the photographer. Included in all of this, Ian gave a detailed description of the basic rules and regulations surrounding drone photography – useful information for anyone looking to enter into this different world of image-capture.
If that wasn’t enough, members were treated to a flying demonstration of one of the drones.
After the tea-break interval, Mark Ellis gave the members a briefing about laptop screen and PC monitor calibration using appropriate equipment and ‘tuning’ software. People may not be aware that images can look very different in terms of colour, tone and contrast on different pieces of display equipment. As such, to help provide a consistent view, calibration of screens and monitors is going to benefit a photographer, especially one who processes their own RAW images in software such as Photoshop.
Mark continued his presentation by working through a couple of images in Lightroom (a processing software accessible from the Adobe Creative Cloud) and showcasing a number of processing techniques and workflow ideas for members to try when working through their own images. The Chairman remarked that as a Lightroom user for 8 years, there was still much to learn from watching Mark’s presentation.
Overall, it was a fascinating evening with members asking plenty of questions and involving themselves in the discussion and conversation about all things photography. And that is part of what being a member of a Photographic Society is about.
Report by David J. Bray AFIAP, CPAGB, A.CPE
Chairman.



