Twenty-five members submitted images for this Round of our annual competition, judged by Peter Prosser APAGB, via Zoom Video Conferencing. There was no set theme.
Peter is a familiar and friendly face, having been a judge for us before, and joining our photographic walk last year around Hackney Wick.
Peter brought a warm and personal dimension to his review of our images, whilst still making pertinent observations about technique, composition, lighting and processing.
Whilst appreciating the way some pictures dealt with the “rules” – pointing out leading lines, thirds, use of depth of field and varying points of view, it was the emotional content of an image that Peter put most store in.
Images were praised that:
- were effective in tying together the fore/middle/background areas to engage the viewer
- used lighting, particularly side-lighting, to add shape and reveal detail, providing more information about the subject
- established a rapport between the different elements in the pictures, for example where street art or sculpture was the subject, including human figures in such a way as to provoke an emotional response in the viewer
He suggested careful attention to Titles to help guide the viewer as to what the “story” of the image was, and complement the information provided by the image itself.
Peter gave us advice on processing, for example suggesting removal or replacement (cloning) of distracting objects, changing colours and brightness levels either to grab the viewer’s attention or alternatively to reduce the impact of distracting elements.
A number of images were “held back” for further review and these achieved the highest marks on a scale up to 20. Of these, maximum scores were recorded by:
- Julia McLean, for “A Windy Day at Camber Sands”
- Colin Page for “Picasso on the Pavement”
- Chris Box, for “No Joy – Lockdown Closedown”
- Nick Bowman, for “Despair”
Their images are included below.
You can see all the entries in the newest Gallery on our website.
We are planning to provide an opportunity for members to share comments on their own and each other’s entries, as we did after Rounds 1 and 2. As soon as we have set up that platform, we’ll let you know.
The fourth and final Round of the season will be held on 2nd March 2021. The theme is “Local Attractions.” We’ll post a guideline for the theme shortly.
Who knows at this stage whether we will be back in our familiar meeting place, in which case we might be able to admire prints again as well as digital images.
Please keep an eye on the website for more information closer to the date.
