Monthly Archives: May 2014

Knight Takes King
Articles of interest, Competition Information

Knight Takes King

In April and May, The Drogheda Photographic society had a series of in house competitions that cover beginner and higher level entries.
The purpose is to help members learn and develop their photography within a group environment.
Last week we had a look at Erichs photograph.

This week we get to have a look at “Knight Takes King” by David Sheilds, who achieved 2nd place in the beginners competition.
David also gave us a quick walk-through on how he set up the image above.

While composing this photograph, I was at all times trying to execute some of the classic rules of photography i.e. rule of thirds & leading lines.
Once I was happy with my composition, I used trial and error by taking a number of shots at different shutter speeds & aperture values until I got the shot that I was happy with.

To prepare the subject, I set up the chess board & composition of the pieces on my kitchen table and using a Nikon D5200 & 60mm Tamron macro lens I focused on the scene until I was
happy with the composition.

After switching to manual focus & using the mode setting I switched the lights out. Then using a technique called light painting, I used a pentorch to light up the subject.
David Sheilds

Davids photograph was taken with the following camera settings:

ISO                                    100
SHUTTER SPEED    30 SECONDS
APERTURE                  f22
SHOT IN                       RAW

 

 

 

 

Drogheda Photographic Society Beginners Competition winner
Articles of interest, Competition Information

Beginners competition 2014 – 1st place winning photograph from Erich

In April and May, The Drogheda Photographic society had a series of in house competitions that cover beginner and higher level entries.
The main purpose is to allow our members the chance to learn and improve along with their peers, and to get a general feel for
what can be accomplished with their camera.

Over the month of May and June, we will be adding some of the images with a small description from a selection of the participants with their permission.
Erich Sumperhofer entered the beginners level competition in April and we asked him to give a little introduction to his winning photograph.

This picture above was taken almost 10 years ago during a sailing trip through the Baltic sea off Northern Germany.
It was taken with a Nikon F60 – film camera using aperture priority mode, unfortunately I cannot provide any exposure information as I do not remember the settings, but it is most likely using an aperture of F16 or smaller to ensure that everything would be in focus.

I did take care that the sun would be hidden behind the sail, to limit the brightness in the picture and to ensure that the details of the ship would be correctly exposed.
I also took a meter reading from the sunlit wooden deck and used what is called the exposure lock function of this camera
(the camera switches to centre weighted metering when the exposure lock function is used).
Once this was done, I focused on the area around the mast of the ship and then took the picture.

When selecting pictures for entry into the competition, I chose this one because I felt that this image portrays the feeling of being confined on a small ship in the vast ocean and sailing into the wide open sea.

Erich Sumperhofer