President's Message:

Did you know that the month of May is " National Photo Month"? That means you may have to take your camera, that has been sitting there the last few months, and blow the dust off of it. Maybe take a visit to the zoo or maybe a drive to the mountains, maybe even a trip to Ireland. (Have a good time Brian and Harry.) Whatever you may have planned for the month of May, I hope you take your camera along and may you have great success with your photos.

Scott Winter, President, Calgary Photographic Society

If anyone has any speaker ideas or other concerns please feel free to contact any one of the executives.

The May 07 meeting will be at 7:30pm at the University of Calgary in the Kinesiology building in room #Kn133 It is the theater room at the beginning of the same hall we were in before.

Club memberships are due: Single person $30.00 Family $40.00. Our year runs from Feburary 01 to January 31, please see Jose Guillen for membership.

Past Speakers

We would like to thank the April guest speaker Neil Koven . Job Well Done, Great video presentation. 

May Guest speaker to be confirmed yet, will be from Vistech, speaking on Lomography .

Affectionately called a Lomo, it's a little camera that's causing quite a stir. It has spawned thousands of dynamic images and an international socio-cultural phenomenon involving over half a million people.

Photography Exhibition by Chris Christou and Kamal

A view of the world by a Canadian, a view of Canada by an Iranian.

May 6 to 27, 2003

Opening reception:

May 06, 2003 06:30 at the Alliance Francaise

Memorial park building 2^nd floor

1221 2^nd st. SW.

Calgary Alberta

Gallery hours:

Monday through Friday

09:00 am to 01:00pm and then 02:00pm to 0530 pm

Saturday from 09:30 am to 01:00pm.

Lighting can set the Stage or Contrast attracts.

By Norman Kerr Photo Techniques March / April 2000

Photographers respond enthusiastically to strong lighting effects, but even the most proficient photographer can be disappointed by results—the drama in front of the lens doesn’t always translate to film as expected. There’s no magic solution, of course, but in my experience the biggest source of disappointment usually happens when our eyes are "bigger" than our lens. Lighting contrast can easily exceed film’s straight-forward rendition of its allure. However, bracketing exposures with transparency film or careful manipulation when printing negatives usually achieves acceptable results. Bracketing is not needed with negative films, but the exposure must be sufficient to record details in the deepest significant shadows so they can be retrieved if needed. Thus, either type of film requires planning at "decision time"—that is, when it’s exposed.

A trick I often use for my lighting decisions is analogous to the viewing filter used by cinematographers. The very deep density monocular viewing filter they use forces the eye to see a greatly reduced range of tones, producing an awareness of tonal loss in the shaded areas of a scene. If the cinematographer feels the need, supplementary fill lighting can be added, or the cinematic action blocked out from a different vantage point, whichever best captures the visual message intended by the director. Still photographers can select either option too, if they’re aware of what’s needed. My trick to "filter" the light is to severely squint my eyes. It works almost as well as the viewing filter, which few of us carry in our camera bags.

This article addresses "contrast" in a broad visual sense, not in narrow technical definitions. In my book, Lighting Techniques for Photographers, I note that contrast can be a very ambiguous term, and I address the technical aspects at great length. But contrast is also analogous to visual impact. That appeal can’t be codified. However, we all know what it is when attracted by its presence.

Skilled photographers seek contrast. But good results usually elude the less skilled because they expect to record everything exactly as they see it.

This caught Kodak flatfooted back in the ’60s when they introduced Kodachrome II. The first version had an astonishingly great range of tones. One of my test examples easily captured every nuance of tone in a contrasty, sun-dappled woodland scene. With the old Kodachrome film, proper exposure for sunny areas had rendered even modest shading almost totally black. Kodachrome II was great news for the amateur, but photography’s superstars immediately fired off stinging rejections to the company’s top brass, generally complaining that the film was "much too flat" for making "strong" photographs. Some even threatened lawsuits! The Professional Division had to immediately address these angry attacks. In one case theygave away hundreds of rolls of the old emulsion still in the distribution center, along with repeated assurances that freezer storage would enable top quality results for the next several years until the older process was fully replaced by the new. And, without publicity, the new film’s contrast response gradually was increased so it came closer to the old. All this criticism from the top professionals happened in spite of Kodachrome II’s dramatically better color, sharpness, and fine grain—a standard of image quality in films that was not rivaled for at least 25 more years. Today many feel that Kodachrome in all its speed versions is still the best photojournalistic film.

If you have any web sites that you enjoy and would possibly be of interest to others please contact the news letter editor.

Thanks to Neil Koven, for this months Web Crawl.

1.)For digital darkroom enthusiasts: used Nikon LS-2000 film scanner for sale.
Handles 35mm negatives and transparencies, in strips or slide mounts.

* Resolution of 2700dpi allows enlargements up to 12"x18".
* Dmax 3.6 provides good shadow detail, even from saturated slides.
* Digital ICE supports automatic removal of scratches and other film
surface defects.

Includes SCSI card and cable, and setup in your computer. $900 OBO. Contact
Jack, 237-9182 (evenings).

2.) Fujimoto 35mm B/W condenser enlarger for sale. Negative carrier holds 35mm up to medium format. Comes with LPL 50mm lens and 8 X 10 easel. $175.00 obo.

3.)Seal Hot Press. 18 1/2" X 23" For Sale. 275.00 OBO.

Calgary Photographic Society Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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Updated April 26 , 2003 w.b.

please contact Wayne Baziw at baziw@yahoo.com