David Blecman

Why Mastering Post Processing Is So Important

by David Blecman | Nov 18, 2020 | Post-Processing

Back in the days of negative film and transparencies (slides to some of you), actually shooting the image was just a part of the photographic equation, and typically the quickest part of the equation. I remember how excited we all got when the 35mm cameras started coming out with built-in motorized film advance. Shortly thereafter we could even buy a motorized film drive attachment for our medium format cameras. That would surely save our thumbs from future arthritis (or so we thought).

Aside from commercial work where setting-up was probably the longest part of the process, walking around taking scenic photos, or family photos, or even shooting a wedding, was primarily an exercise in clicking the shutter button, and then doing it again, and again, and again. Most likely in rapid succession.

Next we moved to the development process of the film, which most of you probably never did unless it was for a photography class and you were developing black and white negative film in your windowless basement bathroom, as so many of us had to do. Then again most of you just dropped your exposed canister of film at the drug store or the shopping club or that weird looking yellow and orange hut in the middle of the grocery store parking lot, or, you mailed it away and prayed like hell.

For those of you that did work in a darkroom, and did your own printing of enlargements, you know how much time and effort (and trial and error) went into developing those prints. It was no less than a very time-consuming process, dodging the shadows and burning the highlights and masking this area and exposing more for that area.

Without the development of the prints, there was just the negative, and it’s not like you could walk around bragging to your friends and family about your awesome photography skills by just showing them the negatives.

Fast forward to today; the digital age.

Now, if we so choose, we can just pretty much concentrate on shooting JPG format images and let the camera’s built-in software do the processing of those captures. We can go into our camera’s menu and even select a “shooting style” or “picture style” and have the camera process those JPG images in any number of flavors that suit our needs. Most people don’t even realize that they can do this, so their camera’s shooting style is just firmly planted on “standard” which is typically the camera’s default. What they shoot is what they get and they’re happy campers (how many campers do you know that are actually happy after a cold rainy weekend?) Of course, a JPG file can still be opened and altered in a photo editing software program, but with limitations.

Now for the photographer that wants more, or even full control over their captures, be it a novice, advanced, semi-professional, professional, or “I know it all” photographer, there is the RAW file format, which essentially is a file containing all of the information recorded by your camera’s sensor during exposure, as opposed to that JPEG file that has been compressed and altered by your camera, and does not contain all of the information recorded by your camera’s sensor during exposure because it has been conveniently discarded by your camera.

A RAW file format is a better way to go, but you need to use the right software programs to be able to open, convert, and edit RAW files, otherwise, that RAW data is worthless. Which bring us to why mastering post-processing in the digital age of photography is so important.

That uncompressed RAW information that your camera has captured contains minimally processed image data with lossless quality. It contains the direct image data from the camera sensors with no alterations or loss of quality. This RAW file format is used to store all of the details of the recorded image so that they can be edited with the photographer’s own spin and artistic vision.

In order to be able to correctly and accurately process, edit, and alter the RAW image, and with your vision in mind, you need to master at least some of the image post-processing software available to you as an artist. RAW images files are there waiting for you to, depending on your tastes and vision, add saturation, contrast, texture, clarity, leveling, denoise, sharpening, vibrance, color correction, lens correction, and a host of other image enhancements that help bring your vision into focus (oh what a great pun!).

Mastering post-processing is definitely a progression, and in the end, in my opinion, more important than composing and clicking that shutter button to make that capture.

David Blecman is an internationally recognized professional photographer, instructor, and judge, having photographed and instructed workshops in over a dozen countries to date. His website is www.posneg.com where you can find his portfolios and training videos and events.

Photographing Fall Foliage

by David Blecman | Sep 16, 2020 | Photo Opportunities / Get Togethers

The weather is gradually cooling down this time of year, and depending on where you are located, the summer foliage is starting to transform into the beautiful palette of colors of autumn. Fall foliage is one of my favorite subjects to photograph. Around every turn are exciting colors and patterns. There are colors to the left, colors to the right, beautiful colorful leaves below your feet, and of course, above you.

Fall foliage photography can be extremely rewarding in almost any weather. On a beautifully sun-splashed day the colors are vibrant and electric. On a rainy day the colors are wet and saturated. Each droplet of rain on a leaf acts like a mini magnifying glass, magnifying the color and texture. A dusting of snow helps to highlight the fall colors against the whiteness of the snow. There is rarely a bad time to photography fall foliage.

There are no hard and fast rules as to which cameras and lenses are better than others. Just the mere fact that you are outside with any camera is a great start. Here are some tips that may help you accomplish more pleasing images:

Using a tripod will ensure that you are not moving or shaking the camera. It will make for crisper photos.
If the leaves are blowing in the wind, use a faster shutter speed.
A circular polarizing filter will remove sun and other reflections off of the foliage and the colors will come out deeper and more saturated.
Don’t forget to capture the beautiful hues of green.
Don’t just look straight ahead. Look up, down, and especially…behind you.
Wide angle lenses will capture more of a scene. Telephoto zoom lenses will allow you to create a tighter crop and zoom in tighter. Look for reflections of fall colors as well.
Try to shoot in the RAW file format if you can, and then post process the images in your favorite computer imaging software. Do not over-saturate your colors however.

Off The Beaten Path

by David Blecman | Sep 3, 2020 | Members Helping Members

I love to travel, be it domestically or internationally. These days, and you can well imagine, most of my traveling is local and within the borders of the United States. Regardless of where I go, I love to travel off of the beaten path so to speak. Day trips, weekend trips, and longer trips affords me the opportunity to explore and to create some great landscapes.

On a recent week-long trip to the Bar Harbor, Maine region, I had several opportunities to travel unfamiliar territory (all of it was unfamiliar to me) and do some exploring. The weather was in the 70’s and the humidity was low as well. Quite a difference from the mid 90’s we have been experiencing in Maryland at the time.

What I will typically do is look at an online map of an area and then I look for water. Where there is water are usually bridges to shoot from or just great reflections of the surroundings.

If there are some great skies during the day, even better. A great sky to a photographer is one with stunning clouds against a great blue backdrop.

When I compose a landscape, I look for layers. Maybe there are some foreground grasses or a nearby tree, and then possibly a stream or lake or a meadow. Then another layer may be mountains or another line of trees, and then lastly a layer of the sky.

If you have not yet joined my free photography educational group, The Annapolis Photography Workshop Group, you may want to consider it. We do a lot of online training so your location will be irrelevant for the most part, but we also do in-person domestic and international workshops. Also don’t forget to visit my main website Positive Negatives , and be sure to check out all of the training videos I have produced and made available, typically for just $8

TCC Photo Competition Rules

June 2019

Digital and print photo competitions may be held at Tidewater Camera Club (TCC) meetings throughout the club calendar year. Digital competitions are held at the business meeting, which takes place on the third Monday of each month. Photo of the Year competitions for print and digital formats are held during May and the winners announced during the annual dinner meeting in June.

A member may display one or more prints at club competition meetings for evaluation, critique and comment on the print quality only. A digital image may be submitted for the competition and also be displayed in print form so as to benefit from the print quality discussion. Prints need not be subject to the theme requirement and are reviewed to provide opportunity for print quality education. In keeping with the goal of evaluating print quality, photo size can be no smaller than 8×10 and the print should be matted, not framed. Members who wish to submit print(s) for discussion are strongly encouraged to contact the Chief Judge in advance of the meeting.

Skill Sections

There are three skill sections in each digital competition: “A”, “B” and “C.” The “C” Section is intended for members who are new to the art and practice of photography, or who have not yet developed their photographic abilities. The “A” Section is intended for members who have attained advanced photographic knowledge and ability. The “B” Section is for intermediate photographers who fall in between and whose skills go beyond basic, entry or rudimentary levels. A Youth Section may be added, if needed, for TCC members under the age of 18.

Each member selects a section when s/he first joins the TCC. Changes from one section to another are made only at the beginning of the year (effective for the September meeting), and members must remain in the selected/assigned section throughout the club year. The Membership Coordinator shall keep a list of members and their respective sections.

After the initial selection, a member will advance to the next section if her/his accumulated score over the club year is in the top 10 percent of the accumulated scores of all the members in her/his current skill section.

Entry Requirements

Digital submissions are sized to a maximum of 1024 pixels on the longer side at 72dpi resolution, and sRGB color space, and saved in the jpeg (.jpg) format. File size should be 1MB or less.

Image files should be named as follows:

Image Title (with each word separated by a underscore) Member ID Number (underscore) Section (dot) jpg

For Example: wye_oak_123_b.jpg

This nomenclature facilitates sorting images by title so that those of one photographer do not appear together during the judging, and is necessary so that the compilers do not have to retype each file name. All entries must have distinct titles. Please avoid using similar titles such as dog 1 and dog 2. The name must consist of only lower case letters, numerals, underscores and the “.jpg” filename extension. The name should not begin with a numeral (0-9). Any other characters (upper case letters, symbols like ?, !, -, &, and so on) can cause serious problems when putting together the slideshow and spreadsheet for the judge.

Digital photos must be submitted by 11:45 PM WEDNESDAY after the Speaker Meeting date. Digital images should be sent to the club using the

link in the TCC newsletter or sent through your email provider to the club via the digitalsubmit@tidewatercameraclub.org

e-mail address. Photos are required to be submitted as attachments to the email. Digital photos not submitted via the TCC e-mail address by the deadline may be disqualified by the Chief Judge. Entries with incomplete or incorrect files names, or those saved in inappropriate sizes, will be forwarded to the member for correction if time permits. Items returned to the TCC with corrected file names must also meet the submission deadline. No changes will be permitted after the competition materials have been provided to the judge for that competition.

Members without Internet access must provide their submissions to an officer by the deadline, who will register the digital image for them, or they may mail the image on a CD or DVD directly to the Compiler. These submissions are also subject to the deadline.

The Compiler/Score Tabulator will send periodic reminders to the membership advising of upcoming competition deadlines.

Judging

The TCC adopts the “Judging Guidelines for Members” as a guide for the evaluation of photographs entered in its competitions.

In order to judge each competition, the Competition Team will recruit a non-club photographer or artist, a graduate of the Maryland Photography Alliance’s Judge Certification Program, a professional photographer, or a panel of TCC members with appropriate experience.

Images are rated on a 15 point scale by the judge, with a maximum of 5 in each of the three main factors: Composition; Technical Merit; Impact of the photo. Scoring guidance for the composition and technical merit categories is:

1. Suffers, in your opinion, from serious flaws that severely damage its overall appeal
2. Has moderate flaws that reduce its potential appeal, to you, average
3. Good: only minor flaws that if eliminated, would improve the image’s overall impact
4. Fine: very minor flaws that minimally affect the impact of the image
5. Excellent: no flaws that detract from the image at all.

We have not provided any guidance for the “Impact” category since that is a more personal and subjective area.

Images are reviewed in one group and then ranked within their section. The ratings and comments of the judge will be shared with the membership.

Digital images are displayed on a projection screen or computer monitor in an order determined by the Compiler, and will be judged prior to the competition meeting to allow more time for discussion. A tabulation sheet is prepared corresponding to the order of the images and used to document the scores. No identifying data is displayed during the competition.

The Score Tabulators shall carefully check the sum of the judge’s scores. They will use a computer based system to tabulate the scores and announce the winners and their scores at the end of each competition. Places of 1st, 2nd and 3rd are awarded, and ties are permitted. Winners will be announced by name. The Judge may be asked to select the top 3 images from those entered, and those images will be announced to the members.

The club places high value on education. Images will be discussed after each competition. The discussion will include time for the photographer to comment on his/her own image(s).

Digital Photo of the Year

Each club year, two photos are selected as Photos of the Year (POTY), one from the digital group and one print.

Members may submit their choice of any 2 images previously entered into monthly competitions that club year. The deadline for these entries will be announced to the membership after the April competition. Digital entries are submitted in accordance with the “Entry Requirements Section” above, except that the images, which are already on file with the compiler, need not be attached.

Print of the Year

Each club year, two photos are selected as Photos of the Year (POTY), one from the digital group and one print.

A Print of the Year will be selected from member prints displayed at TCC exhibits. Each displaying member may select up to two (2) qualifying prints for Print of the Year consideration. Eligible prints must have been on display in any club sponsored exhibit during the current club year and not previously submitted for the print or digital POTY. Prints entered must be the same size as displayed at the TCC exhibit and must be framed and wired for hanging. If a print sells during an exhibit, an identical copy may be entered in the print POTY.

POTY print submissions must be registered by 11:45 PM on a date determined by the Competition Team. Prints should be registered by submitting the print titles to the club via the e-mail address.

For each entry, members will provide their name, Member ID number, image title and section (“A”, “B”, or “C”) in the body of the e-mail. All entries must have distinct titles. Titles must also be identical to those used to register for an exhibit, since qualifying images must be listed in the exhibit database. The Compiler/Score Tabulator will disqualify prints not properly or incorrectly registered by the deadline.

Attach a “Print Registration” label to the back of your print(s). Any label can be used but must include member name, ID number, section and image title. A label template will be available for download on the TCC website in the “members only” section. Remember to include all of the required information on the label. Names that appear on the print or mat will be temporarily covered during the judging process.

The Competition Team shall arrange for one to three judges for these annual competitions. Every effort shall be made to obtain the services of qualified outside judges, including artists or professional photographers of merit. Prints and digital entries shall be judged separately. First, second and third place winners, and an appropriate number of honorable mentions, shall be selected for each competition.

Awards

Gift certificates, checks, or photography-related items may be used as awards for the Photo of the Year competitions. First place, second place, third place, honorable mention, People’s Choice, and high point ribbons may also be given. Other types of awards may be given at the discretion of the Advisory Committee. These awards are usually presented at the annual dinner meeting in June. In memory of Frederick A. Curtis, the club may also give an award to a 1st year member who has shown the most progress in photography or has made significant service contributions to the club. A President’s Award to a member for distinguished service during the year may also be given. Nominations for this award will come from the membership, but the President will select the winner.

At the discretion of the Advisory Committee, other competitions may be conducted and awards given for photographic excellence.

Revising the Rules

These rules will become effective on the day they are approved by the membership and may be revised in accordance with the “Bylaws.”

Prepared 21 December 2007

Approved by the Advisory Committee and the membership on 7 January 2008

Revised and approved by the Advisory Committee on 22 August 2008

Revised and approved by the Advisory Committee – June 2009

Revised and approved by the Advisory Committee – July 2009

Revised and approved by the Advisory Committee – July 2010

Revised and approved by the Advisory Committee – July 5, 2011

Revised and approved by the Advisory Committee – January 18, 2016

Revised and approved by the Advisory Committee – May 1, 2019

David Blecman is an internationally recognized professional photographer, instructor, and judge, having photographed and instructed workshops in over a dozen countries to date. His website is www.posneg.com where you can find his portfolios and training videos and events.

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