I’m a busy photography judge, but I’m not sure how that happened. Clubs just keep asking me to judge their competitions. In many respects, judging is a mysterious process. You look at 100 photos and are required to pick the best. How is that possible? By and large, the photos I judge are of high quality, and each photographer has so much invested in their images, I hate to disappoint. But I am required to be sparing in awarding 9s and 10s. I try to be objective by using technical analysis to help decide what’s good or bad, but that’s of little help when so many photos are technically faultless. It comes down to what moves me emotionally. But that’s intensely personal and, at the end of the day, is just my opinion. I love looking at, analysing and talking about photos. I greatly admire the skills of
Read MoreSony A7600 first impressions
Since 2017, the Sony A6500 has been my go-to camera. I have enjoyed using it, but I watched with increasing annoyance as superb new technology was added to the full-frame cameras with no signs of a new model APS-C camera. Sony abandoned the A-Mount they inherited from Minolta, so I wasn’t alone in wondering if their crop sensor camera line would be dropped. Admittedly, the A6600 was released four years ago, and more recently, the ZV series vlogging cameras. Tracking focus was a new feature in the A6600 that attracted many, but with my main interest in architecture and landscape, it wasn’t enough to make me upgrade. We finally have the A6700 with the Exmor backlit illuminated sensor, a Bionz RX processor and a new AI processor dedicated to subject recognition and eye autofocus. It’s visibly more chunky than the A6500, no doubt to accommodate the flippy screen, the larger battery, the additional AI chip, and to assist with heat dissipation.
Read MoreBlack and White photos are for Art
I’m old enough to remember the time when newspapers, magazines and books only had black and white photos. The architectural journals I read while at university were illustrated with beautiful black and white images frequently taken by the famous Australian photographer Max Dupain.
Framed
Historically, photography was black and white except for photos that had been hand coloured. Today colour is the default and many people think of black and white as a filter that an image can be treated with. In fact, a well crafted black white image has a magical quality of abstraction that clarifies and sometimes mystifies. This YouTube video, “9 Quick Tips for Better Black and White Photos”, by Jamie Windsor explains the why and how.
Thoughts on difference
Looking at the photographs of others for inspiration can lead to derivative images, a problem that is difficult to escape and can crush the desire for originality. Originality in any artistic pursuit implies the taking of risks. Risks that move you outside popularly accepted work. This leads to the idea of a kind of trademark “personal style”, that is evident in the work of most accomplished photographers.
Read Morepersonal style in photography
A highly developed personal style will focus on a particular genre. An example is Melbourne street photographer and photojournalist, Jesse Marlow. He said that for years while doing his street photography, he used the same film, the same lens and the same camera with the shutter speed set at 1/500 second. Extreme perhaps, but the best way to develop consistency and polish your craft.
Read MoreGoing full cycle
It's always instructive to look at the best images in a competition for both inspiration and to understand what the current judging fashions are.
The results of the 2018 Focus awards have been published and in looking at the Photographer of the Year section (see link below) it seems to me that many of the images have subtle manipulation which moves them into the fine art genre
Read MoreAPSCON 2018
APSCON is the annual convention of the Australian Photographic Society. Eleven years ago I attended my first APSCON in Albury. As a guileless beginner I was impressed by the quality of the images on display and enraptured by some of the speakers. Not for a moment did I think I would ever be on the stage as a speaker and workshop presenter.
Read MoreJPEG VS RAW
IS THERE STILL A DEBATE ABOUT JPEG VS RAW? For anyone in this group, using the raw setting in your camera should be a no-brainer. Here’s why.
Read MoreWhy I like Adobe CC products
I think we all know that there is a variety of software available for post processing and that within any one program (app) there is always more than one way of achieving a particular result. I am a Lightroom and Photoshop user, I also have Aurora HDR and the NIC Collection neither of which I use on a regular basis. I’d say I’m advanced in Lightroom and beginner/intermediate in Photoshop.
Read MoreRethinking camera equipment
The temptation to aspire to the newest highly rated gear is strong. There are many technical reviews readily available on the 'net. Some are by experts working in well equipped laboratories, others include self-appointed gear heads, pixel peepers and people with ulterior motives. It's easy to get caught up in the numbers …
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