Hi everyone. So we had our Photographer of the year 2015 competition last Monday and it was choc full of Digital images, Prints and club members. We had almost 400 (398 to be exact) images entered which kept our three judges from Cork Camera Group pretty busy. I’d like to thank our three experienced judges Paul Maher, Ann Francis and Jason Town for coming up to judge our competition for us. It was no easy task and we appreciate it immensely.
Now for the results: Novice category: 3rd was Finbar Murphy, 2nd Tom Healy and Donie Ford took first place. Only 2 points separated 1st 2nd and third there.
Intermediate: 3rd was Geraldine Dennehey, 2nd was Sinead Salter and first place went to Sheila O’Connor. Again the scoring was extremely tight here.
Next was Overall photographer of the year: 3rd was John Flynn, 2nd was Sean Murphy and first place with the highest overall score over 5 images was Rodney O’Callaghan. Rodney retains his title from last year with an impressive score. Only 1 point separated 2nd and third here also.
Rodney also won B&W photographer of the Year with highest score overall score over 3 B&W prints This is Rodney’s second year in a row winning this one too. Rodney also had the highest scoring image on the night with 26 out of a possible 30. He also pick up 2 spot prizes for Judge’s favorite in color and B&W print. Sinead Salter won a spot prize for Judge’s favorite in digital.
So a very big well done to all the night’s winners and to everyone who took part. As we’re on a summer break until September we’ll all have a little more free time, so may I suggest we all now put our efforts into distracting Rodney in any way possible to keep him from capturing winning images !!
It was a very enjoyable night for everyone and all that’s left is to thank Yvonne Esaw & Terry Conroy for organizing the competition, Tim Coughlan for arranging the fabulous prizes, to the club committee and everyone else who helped in any way possible in ensuring the night went smoothly. Finally a special thank you to the Management & Staff of the Arches Bar Mallow for all their help and support throughout the season. Keep checking in as we’ll have more notices to come over the next few days and keep focused (groan) on your photography.

Hi all. We have our Photographer of the Year competition (POTY) this Monday night (25th) May. We’ll then be on our summer break so this will our last meeting until the club resumes in September. We’ll be starting at 8pm tomorrow night as we’ve plenty to get through. Also please return your feedback sheets if you haven’t done so already. Finally – if you want to buy back any of your printed and mounted images from the SACC or IPF panels please bring €10 for each one. See you all there and best of Luck.

On Monday 11th of May we will have a tutorial on Preparing Images For Competition and also conversion from color to black and white. This will be of particular interest to everyone entering the upcoming “Photographer Of The Year” on the 25th May.

A reminder that we’ll be collecting images for photographer of the year competition on Monday 18th may. A Total of 15 images in any format or mixture of formats, Color Print B&W Print or Projected images. Do not use the same image twice even in a different format.If you want to compete in the B&W Photographer of The Year your entry will have to include a minimum of 3 b&w prints. The end of year competition is judged by members of an other club and the winning photographers in the novice, intermediate and advanced section are marked on their best 5 images.In the event of a tie each 6th image is counted to decide the winner. The B&W photographer of the year competition is judged on the best 3 prints and there is just one overall category. There is also a prize for the best image on the night.

A number of members from Blackwater Photographic Society had an evening photo shoot at Platform3 Studio in cork city recently. We had full use of the studio and lighting setup and our model for the evening was Hannah. Dave Edmunds (from Platform3 http://www.platform3photo.com/ ) went through various lighting equipment, Backgrounds, techniques etc and Hannah was excellent, striking various poses and encouraging all the photographers to help us get the most from the evening. Below are some images from various photographers taken on the night.

On next Monday night our usual meeting at the Arches is cancelled and instead club members are going to a model shoot in Cork which is being held at the Platform 3 studio at 19 Academy Street. Members who wish to participate in the first group will meet at the Paul street multistory car park at 06.45.   The second group should arrive at the studio before 8.30. Call Rodney at 086 8487875 or John Flynn at 086 3567653 if you need more information. Only members who have booked can attend as the studio is fully booked. It promises to be a very interesting and entertaining night.

Next Monday niight there will be a display of portfolios from club members  Valerie Walshe , Tom Cashman , Finbarr Murphy ,Paddy McCallaibh , Oliver Deady and Pat Kerrigan . Looking forward to a good night , please come along and support fellow members

Club members are meeting tomorrow morning (Sat) at 11.00 outside Brown Thomas for a street shoot in Cork city. The forecast is good, should be a great day.

Next Monday night some time will be given to explain the process of preparing and presenting an LIPF panel. A sample panel will be displayed and there will be a general discussion on competition type photographs versus “pretty” or “Holiday snaps.

The Licentiateship of the Irish Photographic Federation is the basic level Distinction.
Applicants put forward a panel of ten images, which is assessed by a panel of experienced photographers.  Successful applicants are entitled to use the letters LIPF after their name.  More Info at           http://irishphoto.ie/distinctions/licentiatship/

Some Images from our very successful Macro / Still Life  night.

Some Info On HDR Photography.

HDR Using Layer Masking In Photoshop.
Open Two images in Photoshop
Drag both onto screen
Use the move tool to drag the brightest image onto the darker image. Holding down shift key while dragging will auto align images or you can align them as below.
Select both layers .Go to Edit : Auto align layers.
Check layers for alignment by zooming in to the image and turning layers on and off.
Go to Layer : Layer mask : Reveal All. Click on mask in layers on right of screen.
Select soft brush : Set foreground color to white.
Reveal underlying dark image as required by painting with brush.
Set foreground color to black will allow you to undo what you have done.
The X key toggles the foreground from black to white.
When finished flatten image and save as jpg etc.

Two Utube links on HDR.                                                                                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nirU7Vg9Nk4

Next Monday night Sean Murphy will give a presentation on HDR or high dynamic range photography. This is a very useful method for photographing in bright or harsh light and it is not that difficult.

Ever tried to photograph a high-contrast scene, only to be frustrated when you find that
the pictures you snapped just don’t do it justice? Don’t worry, it’s not just you. Even
with the perfect exposure, there are certain scenes that will always tend to get blown-out
highlights, flat shadows, or both. But despite the fact that it’s nearly impossible to
find a happy medium in these types of situations, there is a solution. This age-old
dilemma can be solved through the magic of High Dynamic Range processing or “HDR”.
This is basically what HDR is: a specific style of photo with an unusually high dynamic
range that couldn’t otherwise be achieved in a single photograph.

You’ve probably seen these types of images scattered across the Web. Depending on how
they’re processed, HDR photos can be anything from stunningly accurate reproductions of
what your eyes see to mind-blowingly surreal works of art that transform reality into a
high-def dreamscape.

This Monday 2nd March we’ll have a macro night in the arches so bring cameras, tripods,flash etc and also any small objects you’d like to photograph. Macro is normally small objects photographed up very very close, so with macro – size matters!!