Photographic Society: July 2019 Report

Click here to see the whole photograph: Cape Cod Light by Neil Grantham

July saw the welcome return of wildlife photographer, Bob Brind-Surch, to our Club Night. This time his presentation topic was ‘My Digital Workflow’, aimed at digital photographers. Bob’s objective was to inform his audience how he goes about this and hoped it would be a good work strategy for those present.

Digital photography encourages more images, and therefore permits and encourages more post-processing, creating hundreds of images which in turn need sorting, cataloguing, post-processing and storing. A good workflow makes it easier to streamline your work, so it does not become a burden and stifle creativity. Bob tends to shoot in RAW, copies his images as soon as possible from the camera card to the computer, and backs them up. He then does a quick first review, removes his ‘failures’ and backs up again. There follows a second sifting to reduce the images further, another back-up and the unwanteds are deleted. The third sifting sees him through a final selection and adjustments are made, after which Bob processes and archives these remaining images. At some point he adds the bulk metadata, and then makes a final back-up. It is key to continually back-up – disasters can and do happen.

Advice was given on equipment: external hard-drives for back-up; good quality memory cards, like Sandisk and Lexar, the larger the size the better; waterproof carrying cases for the cards’ protection; a lightweight laptop or tablet. Bob recommends Adobe Lightroom for sorting, cataloguing and processing RAW files (also Photo Mechanic, Adobe Bridge and RawTherapee). Bob explained that he does not have a problem using jpegs if there is no time to work in RAW. He also takes advantage of the options digital photography provides to improve his final images, such as colour temperature, exposure and sharpness. To follow Bob’s golden rule for an efficient digital workflow, he again recommended the three stages of sift, reduce and back-up. Bob’s presentation is a valuable work tool for anyone wanting to know what to do after they have pressed the shutter, and appreciation was shown by all present.

The July Monthly Photo Topic, ‘Reflections in Water’, followed. As usual, a fine selection was shown accompanied by comments ranging from serious to humorous. The August topic will be ‘Abandoned’.

The August presentation will be given by Viveca Koh FRPS, entitled ‘A Photographer’s Perspective: My Life Through A Lens’ at 7.30pm in the Apricot Room, Cartwright Hotel, Aynho OX17 3BE – everyone is most welcome to attend!

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