The subject for printsfor July’s meeting was “Black & White”, and just about everyone used the theme to show black and white prints (as opposed to pictures of black and white objects). There were a few clear favourites, but there were many good prints. Everyone seemed to have thought about what would look good in B&W rather than simply printing a good colour picture in monochrome.
In the skills session we looked at White Balancing. The section on Custom White Balancing went a bit awry, because those people who brought their own cameras all brought the wrong type! So what Bernard had practised and understood on his Canon cameras didn’t work in the same way on the second-rate brands (???) that other people are using. However, hopefully everyone now has a feel for what White Balancing is, how to use at least some of the settings, and how to use and deliberately misuse them.
During the session on White Balancing Bernard introduced a GoD (Gadget of the Day). This was a collapsible white/grey sheet. It is useful if you decide to use Custom White Balancing because it is the ideal subject for the photograph that the Custom White Balancing is to be based on. (It has a couple of other uses, including being a small reflector to lighten up deep shadows.) The grey side is a standard, neutral, 18%-reflecting surface: you can also buy cards of various sizes which provide an 18% grey surface.
There is an articel on White Balancing in the “More on Photography” section.
In the final session some members brought their results from the Benson outing for projection to the group. As their was some time left over, we also showed some general work from members, including some excellent photographs on voles by Chris Roberts. Sue showed a short slide show with music which worked OK (I think Sue used Windows 10 “Photos” software for this). Carole and Irene also had slide shows with music which had been prepared in various versions of Powerpoint: we had some issues with the sound on this, but got it working in the end.