Member’s Minis 5th January 2017

Andy    January 7, 2017

For our first meeting of 2017 we had a “Member’s Minis” night, where the floor is thrown open for anyone who wants to do a photography inspired presentation.

Introduction to a Light field, or Plenoptic Camera – Andy Hyde
Opening the evening Andy gave a presentation on a fascinating new branch of Photography and showed 2 plenoptic cameras and the images they produce. A conventional camera captures information about the colour and intensity of the light falling on the sensor, however a plenoptic camera captures information about the colour, intensity and direction of the light. By using sophisticated software, this allows the plenoptic, or light field images to be manipulated in 3 different ways;

  • Shoot first, focus later
    Andy showed a number of images where you could adjust the focus AFTER you’d taken the picture, switching focus from items in the foreground all the way to far distance.
  • Change the depth of field after you’ve taken the shot
    Andy showed how you could select multiple planes of focus effectively adjusting the aperture and controlling the depth of field.
  • Adjust the perspective
    Since a Plenoptic camera captures information about the direction of light, you can choose to adjust your point of view, and see the image in 3D or look around objects in the foreground.

If you’d like to see some examples, follow this link to visit Andy own website, where he’s published a number of different shots. See some Lytro ImagesRemember once you’ve followed the link to see the refocusing and other effects you need to;

  • Click on the images to open the thumb nails
  • Click anywhere on the image to focus on that point
  • Click and hold, to see the full depth of field
  • Click and drag, to see the focus shift (try this with the shot of the Lemurs)

Christmas Celebrations at the Baptist Church by Sam Hallas
Sam showed a short AV presentation with images and video from a Christmas celebrations at his local church.

“Why are my prints so dark?” – Tony Maynard-Smith
Tony gave a very interesting Power Point presentation, where he asked the question; why do his images look so much darker as prints than they do when viewed on screen.

During the presentation Tony showed prints from 3 different print companies and compared them against their digital equivalents.

Although Tony is still looking for a solution, the presentation raised some interesting questions which were discussed, with contributions coming from server different club members. Tony observed that;

  • The prints from Simlab came out too dark (and apparently desaturated) compared to his expectations.
  • On the test prints other suppliers did significantly better, using the same JPG file.
  • Monochrome was particularly difficult to get good results with, and there was greater variation between suppliers.
  • A lot of the problem is in different suppliers’ performance, regardless of monitor calibration, lighting, etc.
  • Calibration and colour balancing does make a difference, but as far as Tony was concerned it is a second-order issue.

“My new toy” – Gareth Kitchener
Gareth has been looking for a camera to take out for when he wants to travel light, and doesn’t want to take his DSLR and lenses with him. In Gareth’s presentation he shared his selection process, his short list of cameras to choose between and then which camera he chose and some his first pictures.

Gareth chose the Lumix from Panasonic in the end due to it’s ability to shot in RAW.

A shot from Gareth’s new camera