Rockell & Taylor Double Header

We all want to improve our expertise and proficiency.  So it is always very helpful when our more experienced members share their skills with the rest of us.  These two presentations dealt with two very different aspects of photography and there was much to be learned from them.

First up was Dale with his “Street and Event Photography” masterclass.

Dale set out to inspire and educate us by explaining how he goes about his street and event photography.  As well as general street/candid photography, he shoots all sorts of events in Leighton Buzzard (eg, the Big Lunch, LB Pride, the LB Vintage Vehicles Rally, the LBNGR Steam Gala, and the Remembrance Sunday Parade), in London (eg, Chinese New Year, Day of the Dead), and elsewhere (eg, Harpenden Classic Car Show).  He also arranges and leads some of the club’s “photo days out”.

He reckons his style now is mostly “documentary”.  He sets out to document a whole event.  He is constantly looking out for moments that tell a story – he observes and then reacts.

Dale suggested that anyone new to this sort of photography should start with events, particularly local ones, and tourist attractions.  Then they should practice both their observational and camera skills.  And it was always helpful to do this with, and learn from, others.

He told us what sort of things to look out for.  And he explained the difference between “fishing” (waiting in one spot to capture an expected activity) and “hunting” (walking about looking for interesting activity, etc).  He also gave us many useful practical tips, such as:

• shooting from the hip (literally);
• getting to events early (to shoot the preparations);
• sitting (eg, in a café) watching the world go by and photographing it, and
• looking beyond the event subject (for interesting context, people, reactions, etc).

Finally, Dale encouraged us to practice by joining the club’s “photo days out”.

More of Dale’s work can be found on Instagram and on YouTube @FibroandPhotos.

Then Wendy took over.

Wendy showed us how she is processing some of her South African wildlife photographs into high-key black and white images.  She demonstrated, stage-by-stage, the process she uses in Photoshop to create her lovely “fine art” style pictures.

Several key steps are involved.  Obviously, one of those is a good black and white conversion.  Also, the background needs to be replaced with pure white, except for a small area of whatever the animals are standing on/in to “ground” them.  And some delicate “dodging and burning” helps to make the subject three dimensional.

There are a number of other methods, but Wendy does the dodging and burning with two Curves layers.  One layer is to be used for dodging/lightening and is therefore labelled “White” (and the highlights part of the curve is pushed up).  The other is to be used for burning/darkening and is therefore labelled “Black” (and the lowlights part of the curve is pulled down).

Both layers are given black masks.  And the dodging/burning is then done by selecting each of the masks in turn and using a soft white brush, with a reduced opacity, to paint the mask away from the appropriate parts of the subject.  Further adjustment can also be made by reducing the opacity of adjustment layers themselves.

The “before and after” views showed how this makes the pictures “pop”.

This Rockell & Taylor Double Header gave us two very interesting, informative, and well-illustrated talks.  Our two presenters revealed, through their enthusiasm for their – very different – subjects, their passion for their photography.  This was another most enjoyable and instructive evening.