Ex member Mike Eddowes was going to instruct us on' out of doors’ portraiture this evening for as long as the light lasted; but the day dawned very wet with not much prospect of improvement.
So the powers that be decided to ask Martin Tomes to introduce us to our new lighting set (INTERFIT EX 150) which was kindly donated to the club by someone who had purchased it but had never used it. It will be available for club members to borrow and use.
Martin unpacked the kit which includes two lights with stands, a soft box, an umbrella, a snoot and coloured gels explaining the use of each piece of the kit and how all the components fixed together to provide different set ups for doing portrait photography. He was ably assisted by our Vice Chairman in waiting Ray Foxlee.
He then got a volunteer, Paul Setford, to be his model, and then he proceeded to show us the different positions for a single light and the effect that had on the finished image. He also showed us what other effects could be obtained using a second light, and the use of reflectors, (both white and gold), and the snoot to get different resulting images.
We then all had a go at using the lights on volunteer models.
After the break, Alex projected the images that we had submitted a year ago for the Best of Year competition and we all had a very amusing time marking them after general discussion. Peter Picthall was unfortunate in having the first image, which the assembled company did not really like very much and to Peter’s dismay gave it a very low mark. Well that set the tone for some very hilarious comments about some pictures, although we nearly all agreed about the best ones.
It was indeed very interesting that we all chose the same winner of the evening as the judge did twelve months ago which was called ‘Summer’ by Alex. Ray also got a 20 with one of his brilliant BW pictures.
We all had a really amusing evening and learnt a few things along the way, particularly, that Peter’s photography has improved a great deal in the last twelve months!
Our thanks to Martin and Alex stepping in at the very last minute.