2010 Themes

General Guidelines

Photographs of People, Places and Nature must depict subjects with good fidelity to reality. Post-camera changes may subtly enhance a photograph optimizing fidelity but not add to it. Cropping, removal of minor unwanted elements, removal of color cast, highlight and contrast control and subtle use of digital effects (like sharpening, gradients, contrast masks, black & white filtering, etc.) are acceptable enhancements. Photography is an art form reflecting your creative interpretation of a selected subject. Reproductions of paintings, other's artwork or photographs and mere record photos (snapshots!) of monuments, sculptures, and buildings are discouraged for presentation at the Gainesville Photography Club. Keep them for your personal files and show us your very best.

GPC themes for 2010

Themes that carry forward year-to-year

People: Photographs that do more than simply record what a person looks like. They should reveal what is special about a person, or perhaps provide clues to what they are feeling. They should convey information about their character or the essence of their personality. They could be anything from intimate facial close-ups to full length images of from one to several people interacting. Environmental portraits are made in or near the subject's neighborhood -- their home, workplace, on the street, or where they play. Placing relevant objects from the environment in the composition relates information about the subject to the viewer. The photographer may be inconspicuous when taking these pictures to avoid outside influence. Whether formal or informal, the best People photographs tell a story and have an emotional impact on the viewer – no snapshots of old Aunt Myrtle sitting by the pool please. This definition applies equally to children and adults

Places: The best photographs of places strongly convey the character of a place; its particular location and culture giving the viewer a sense of place. This is not simply a matter of including some recognizable feature. The photographer should be aware of experiencing unusual lighting, and unfamiliar sights, smells and sounds. Photographs should try to capture this heightened awareness. Be receptive to the mood of a place and your own feelings about it. Look for a telling image or an evocative effect of light that expresses how you feel.

Nature: A depiction drawn from any branch of natural history, these photographs should tell a nature story. As such, this theme includes landscapes, plants, and animals. Photographs should depict subjects with high fidelity to reality and near to total absence of human influence (including fences, power lines, roads, signs, footprints, trash, etc.). However, it is acceptable to "house clean" the subject area. While animal portraits can be very interesting, the best animal pictures show typical behaviors and interactions. The best plant photos result from using equipment creatively and are often taken from unexpected viewpoints. Lighting is most important to capturing the colors and textures of outstanding landscapes. Garden or zoo photographs are acceptable if the plants or animals would normally be found in the wild. Images of cultivated plants, domestic animals, still life, or stuffed or mounted specimens are inappropriate. NOTE: Due to popularity of this theme with photographers, this theme will be offered twice a year.

Contemporary: These photographs might be called abstract art. They represent a deliberate alteration of reality; it does not mean subjects of our era. They may be achieved using one or more camera attachments such as special filters, fisheye lenses, creative use of flash or zoom lenses, black light, distorted reflections, and long exposures. They are often derived from original images using one or more processes such as bas relief, posterization, solarization, or other forms of darkroom or digital manipulation. Some original photographs such as abstracts, infrared, and multiple-exposures (not panoramas) may also qualify. Almost anything qualifies if it artistically distorts reality but is not an error in technique.

End-of-Year Slideshow: Select your best pictures of 2009 or create a theme-based slideshow. If necessary, add others to your best of 2009 photos. Include music background in your slideshow, music and narration, or just narration. You need not buy special software. Windows has Movie Maker 2 built in or download a free copy of Microsoft's Photo Story 3. Photo Story is easier to use but Movie Maker has 2 audio tracks and flexible timeline. Please respect others by limiting your slideshow to about 6 minutes or less. If you include music in your show, plan on 6 seconds per photo or no more than 60 photos. If you include narration in your show, plan on 12 seconds per photo or no more than 30 photos. Then, we can finish all slideshows in about a 90 minute time frame.

2010 Themes that will not carry forward

Negative Space: Rule No.1, fill the frame! Rule No. 2, break rule No.1.  There are times when leaving negative space in the photo frame can make the subject stand out even more. For example, sunrise and sunset are perfect for filling the frame with incredible color. Make photos of the sky with the subject, perhaps a dock or rock, relatively small in the frame. Look for autumn color in reflected in water with a small duck paddling around. Likewise, contrasting colors can work well like a red leaf floating in the pond. Or you could have contrasting textures, like a red leaf on green grass. The leaf is the subject which occupies only a small part of the image. An iconic image can be even more grandiose and timeless when it is very small in the overall image. Consider the Acropolis photographed from a distance with a great sunset sky to set it off. The trick to using negative space effectively is to balance the small subject in the overall image. Give it a try.

Patterns:  Patterns, along with lines, shape, form and tone, are one of the basic building blocks of all photographs. Last year we had Lines as a theme. This year try to find some eye-catching photos of patterns. Basically, patterns depend on the repetition of similar shapes, forms, lines, or colors. Because repetition attracts our instinctive attention, they can be a powerful ingredient in our photography. Identify repeated elements in a scene and then isolate them. Patterns show up in landscapes, cities, and everyday life. So, if you simply carry a camera with you for a while, it should not be a problem to get some great pattern photos almost without looking.

Silhoueletts and Shadows:  When a subject is strongly back lighted, we normally adjust our camera to properly expose the subject and allow the background to become very bright. However, if we create a photo of the back lighted subject where the background is properly exposed the subject looks like a black cutout, a silhouette. The effect is best when a simple, distinctive, recognizable subject stands out against a brightly colored natural background. Usually, the backlighting that produces the silhouette should not come from a direct source. Look for situations where light reflects off the background. Or, break the "rule" and use direct backlighting. It is very important that the silhouette be easily recognized by the viewer or the photo will not "work".

Shadows can add visual interest and drama to photos and they are easily found or made wherever you happen to be.  You can create soft and abstract silhouettes or shadows with frosted glass.  Make the shadow your subject by not including the original object -- the shadow alone defines its presence.  Hunt for patterns by paying attention to the ways in which pinpoint or narrow light sources cast repeating shadows.  Look for light streaming through blinds or other beam-splitting objects.  Cut holes or slits in fabric, paper, or cardboard to shin the light through (From “Made from the Shade -- Three Techniques for Arresting Shadows, Popular photography, November, 2009, page 88.)

Panoramics:  A new image format has become quite popular - the panoramic. It is an elongated photo where the length is 2.5 to 3 times the width. This format produces striking photos, especially of landscapes, architecture, and gardens. Until recently, they only could be made with special cameras or by severely cropping standard image formats. Now, we can make panoramics using a series of images shot with a normal camera and then stitched together using computer software. Making three panoramic images is your assignment. A few helpful hints: (1) your camera should be panned left to right taking a series of overlapping photos of your subject, allowing about 30 percent overlap; (2) keep the camera level when making these photos; (3) select a light balance setting for actual lighting conditions (do not use AWB); (4) determine the best overall combination of aperture and shutter (exposure) settings and use the manual function in your camera to input these settings; (5) do NOT use a polarizing filter; and (6) it is usually best to select a short telephoto lens and turn the camera for vertical overlapping exposures. Hints (3), (4), and (5) are intended to ensure the exact same exposure for every image you take. When you have taken your images, use the panoramic feature in Photoshop Elements to stitch the images together to make your panoramics photos. This is not nearly as complicated as it sounds. Once you have done it you will use it again and again.

Soft-focus Effects:   Most photographers seem to have an obsession with sharp images. Digital cameras with high pixel counts have become the norm as have multi-coated super lenses, all to maximize clarity and sharpness. We even have clarity and sharpness adjustments in our image processing software. George Lepp claims 8 megapixels equals the sharpness of Velvia slide film. However, sometimes images are greatly enhanced if that biting sharpness is subdued by the addition of diffusion which gently blends highlights and shadows, masking details imparting pleasing romantic qualities to an image. The easiest way to add soft focus to your photos is with a purpose-made soft focus filters. You can buy one or make your own with a UV filter thinly coated with petroleum jelly. Nylon stocking with a hole cut in it can be stretched over the end of your lens to give a very nice effect. Bridal lace also works well. The hole allows a small portion of the image to be sharp. You might deliberately defocus the image very slightly. These methods work well when taking the photo. Now, many soft-focus effects can be introduced during post processing in Photoshop Elements. One easy method is to open an image, duplicate the background layer, diffuse the background copy with Gaussian blur, change the blend mode of the copy layer to "soft light", and then adjust the Opacity. Very easy, looks great. You can also try using Dreamy Photo from Auto FX Software. It’s a free download for Pc’s or Mac’s that makes it easy to apply all sorts of soft focus or dreamy effects to your images.   

Macro or Near Macro Photography:  Macro photography refers to taking pictures of small things at close range in which the subject has a 1:1 ratio with the photo negative. This means that the image of the subject on the negative is exactly the same size as the real life subject so no magnification is used.  For this theme, we won’t split hairs over whether or not an image meets the definition of macro photography as long as the image is a close-up of a small object that fills the frame and reveals details and textures in the object that can’t be observed with normal photography or by an undiscerning eye. 

Macro photography requires a one of a number of different accessories, including a macro lens, an extension tube placed between camera body and the lens, a reversing ring (an attachment allowing the photographer to attach a lens backwards) or a close-up lens attached to the front of a normal lens. Any small object can be a subject for macro photography. While nature provides the most obvious subjects for macro photography, common items around the house are also possible subjects.

Macro photography requires a very steady camera hand: the slightest camera movement can result in a blurry picture.  To maintain sharpness across the entire image, it is important to keep the back of the camera on the same plane as the subject. A tripod improves macro photography pictures and should be used whenever possible. Wind, even a small breeze, can move a subject enough to cause blur on the picture. To avoid this, try preventing the wind from reaching the subject. When wind is a factor, taking the photo at a very high shutter speed helps catch a clear image but may cause you to use a large aperture opening limiting depth-of-field. 

Lighting can be a problem for macro photography. Although flashes may provide needed light in some cases, they can also provide too much brightness when the subject is close to the camera. To get around this, place external flashes further away from the subject. Another possibility for lighting macro photography is a light reflector. Light reflectors are available in camera stores and come in white and gold finishes, or you can fabricate a reflector from a crinkled sheet of aluminum foil.

Please E-mail your photos

Please, help us by sending in your photos before the meeting. We save precious time and fumbling at meetings when your photo files are sent in advance, say the Friday before the meeting. We assume you can email photo files. If you resized your photos to medium quality JPG's, 1024 pixels X 768 pixels at 72 ppi, the files are quite small. All 8 photos probably will not exceed 1.5 MB. Unless you use a 56KB modem and phone connection, your photo files will be sent faster than you can burn a CD. Send your photo files to GainesvillePhotoClub@Gmail.com. Please enter "(Your Name) Photos for (Month)" in the e-mail Subject line.

Send up to 8 photos a month: up to 3 theme photos (assigned), up to 3 general photos, and up to 2 monochrome photos. If you send less than 3 theme photos, please do not make up the difference by sending 4 general photos. The objective is for you to submit all three.

Please use the following to name your photo files. This naming structure makes it easy to know which photos belong to which club members. For theme (assigned) photos please use:

A1-your name-month&year

A2-your name-month&year

A3-your name-month&year

For example, my first theme photo file would be named A1-Olivier-Oct08. Follow a like naming plan for your general and monchrome photos:

G1-your name-month&year

G2-your name-month&year

G3-your name-month& year

M1-your name-month&year

M2-your name-month&year

NOTE: You can send your photos to our Gmail as individual photo files. However, email programs will not send a folder, they only send files. So, if you place your photo files in a folder, use a free program like "7-Zip" to create a ZIP file. The .zip file you create contains the folder with all your photos, can be emailed since it is a file, and it is compressed so it emails quicker. FastStone Image Viewer also has an easy way to zip and send your photos. Photo files will be deleted after the meeting!