The was the second round the PDI Trophy Competition at Farnborough Camera Club in the 2021-22 season and this was an open round with two images.
Now for what’s next
In the workshop we paused to practise outside portraits using Vehbi as a model.
Summary of judge’s comments
… the portrait here, the model is engaging with the photographer
… I think that you have a bit of a problem with the lighting, the background is a bit too bright
… you have to be very careful with hands in a picture, his hand is in front of his face and therefore gets bigger, and the rendition of his fingers is not that good and on the face here as well
… it is all going off a bit, I think we needed to think about the lighting a bit more, it maybe a candid image but we needed to think about the lighting
… and if the model is amenable then move him around and get him into a different place and get the lighting right
Silhouette of a stag
This stag was alone on a small hill and passed by us as he walked towards Pen Ponds.
Summary of judge’s comments
…this is a completely different approach and it is a true silhouette , I really can see no detail in the stag at all and that is absolutely right but we can see the grass at the bottom a little bit
… there is another rule of thumb , if an animal is standing with its legs in grass it is important to have enough room that you can imagine that the whole leg was there
… so it would be quite wrong to crop this, I think you have given us exactly the right amount of space as we can believe that you could see the whole stag
… the sky is very nicely done as well
.. we’ll hang to this one as well
Then about the four held back images
Summary of judge’s comments
… they are all pictures in which the photographer has delivered on their objective
… the stag is a ten too
The scores
There were 38 images in this round in the Advanced Division.
‘Now for what’s next’ scored 7.5 and ‘Silhouette of a stag’ scored 10.
The original images
‘Now for what’s next’:
ISO 400 35 mm f/2.8 and 1/500 sec
‘Silhouette of a stag’:
ISO 100 500 mm f/7.1 and 1/640 sec with -2.7 stops exposure compensation