15th October 24
Mark and Judy‘s presentation took us through the journey from days spent in the dark room developing photographs to present day printing with the use of digital cameras, software, and modern printers.
They began by showing us prints that they had taken and worked on in the in the early years using chemicals to balance colour. There were pictures mounted in colourful frames. The fashion changed and judges began favouring Cream, Black and White mounts and this is still current in photography clubs now. Judy and Mark took turns to talk us through when and why they had taken these images and any problems they incurred and rectified.
After this Mark explained some secrets of early retouching images, including the use of a pen to cover white dots, and tricks to bring the viewers eyes elsewhere to enhance an image. Mark believes that some skills to perfect and balance colour have been lost since the digital age as some photographs seen in competitions are over saturated. They talked through blending images and stretching to enhance a print.
The audience were asked to look at some prints and to discuss the colours. Did we think they were true. He demonstrated how to look at this by using different colour see-through swatches to see if the image was perhaps needed different colour blending.
During the second half we discussed the variety and types of printing papers and how they might complement the image. Mark suggested picking from a selection of matte and lustre papers to try them. We also spent time discussing the difficulties of getting monochrome pictures to correct tones. Judy then showed some more images taken more recently .
This was a brief outline of what was a detailed and informative journey through printing.
We would like to thank Mark and Judy for a delightful evening.
Blog written by Carol Haines
Next week…