This week we had the second of our three print competitions. Stephen Lipton travelled all the way from Greenock to judge our Black and White Print Competition. Stephen said that he always judges prints by looking at them in daylight and recommended that we do the same. The appearance of a print depends not only on the quality of the original image, but on the quality paper and on the lighting under which it is viewed. Never submit a print before first viewing it in daylight. Stephen also wondered how many of us setup our cameras to capture raw black and white images, rather than taking a colour image and converting it to black and white. This allows you to see what a scene would look like in black and white as soon as you capture it. A good place to see excellent quality black and white images is in the work of American photographer, Ansel Adams. He was a master of black and white photography and invented an exposure technique know as the zone system. You can see some of Ansel Adam’s work in his gallery:

There were 39 prints to judge, entered by 13 members. Stephen displayed each print and invited members to share their opinions. Stephen said that the eye usually takes a journey though a print, starting at the edge, following a succession of points and ending at a focal point. He liked to see some space around a print to help the eye along that journey, and he felt some of the prints submitted were a bit too tightly cropped. He also disliked the overuse of vignettes. Some of the prints submitted lacked contrast, and he referred to Ansel Adams’ zone system. Make sure that each print covers all the zones. Dodging and burning can help bring out details across the full tonal range. Some of the prints lacked detail in the sky, and he suggested darkening the blue areas to enhance the contrast. This lead to a discussion about sky replacement, which Stephen was not in favour of. The top scorers were (in reverse order):

• 4th place (47 points)
  • Gavin Marshall
  • Stephen Williams
  • Elaine Gilroy
  •  
• 3rd place (51 points)
  • Mike Clark
  • Carol Edmund
• 2nd place (54 points)
  • George Todd
• 1st place (56 points)
  • Joe Fowler

The top images were:

• A Cup of Tea (Joe Fowler) – 20 points
• The Forge (Joe Fowler) – 19 points
• With Gritted Teeth (George Todd) – 19 points
• Bath Time Before School (George Todd) – 18 points
• My Beard and I (Carol Edmund) – 18 points

Well done Joe Fowler for a well-deserved win, and to George, Carol and Mike. And thank you to Stephen for judging the competition and telling us his fascinating stories.

Next week it is quiz night, with Stephen Williams as the quizmaster. Bring your thinking caps.