One lesson that we thought we needed though, was how to mount our photographs well.  We have planned a visit in February to the Ford Framing factory unit at Market Weighton to see how the professionals do the job.  Meanwhile one or two members have been to Beverley Saturday Market to the Ford Framing stall to buy some ready made picture mounts!

Group members had hoped to take some exciting photographs of pretty Christmas lights during our December meeting but, due to the lack of such displays locally, everyone met at 41 The Orchard Leven (Ann and Arnold’s house) to review some pictures taken, discuss new acquisitions (such as digital Single Lens Reflex cameras - D SLRs) and have a bit of a Christmas celebration.  Everyone found a seat in the conservatory and the evening went well, mainly discussing what our programme could include for the next few meetings.

One important tenet of the group is that we will talk about whatever is the topic of the moment, being lead by the needs of the members.  We are fairly informal and may well change the planned programme if a question produces some interesting discussion and maybe demonstrations using a laptop and the data-projector.   So with the new D SLRs in the group the question was ‘What is this ‘RAW’ thing then – how can it be used?’  Brian Parker had been following a course and had just dealt with RAW so he offered to give a short talk next time we met.

Several people had read our reports in Leven Life and contacted Ann.  Consequently we had some new faces at our 17 January meeting – again enjoying the comfort of the Underwood conservatory.  For the beginners in the room, RAW sounded a bit of a large bite to swallow but Brian carefully explained how the sensor that captures the picture in the camera actually works.  Suddenly the effect of 1, 2, 5 or 10 million pixels seemed to make sense.  How the colours are actually caught by the sensor seemed a bit complicated but, again, the explanation cleared the mist away!

Most of the compact cameras capture the information and squash it into a jpeg file.  Each time the jpeg file is saved on the computer the jpeg information is squashed a bit more.  This means that if you start with a decent picture, each time you look at it and then save it, you are squeezing the information and damaging the picture.  So the advice is once you have downloaded your picture from the camera copy/burn it to a C D and that will preserve the original good copy and you can’t mess it up!  You can use the picture in Photoshop Elements, Photoshop, Corel Paint Shop Pro or any other programme and save your newly change copy without it slowing getting spoilt.

Brian showed us how he has been able to make use of the wealth of information that a RAW file stores and then make the picture even better than the original starter.  He told us about programmes that we can download from the Internet to assist us to get a perfect result.  At the end of his excellent presentation we were a lot wiser.

Following this we looked at some of the newcomer’s printed photographs.  Members usually bring along a C D or memory stick with a few photos that they want to share or ask advice about.  We can project them onto a large screen for everyone to see and then maybe demonstrate how changes can be made using one of the Photo programmes.

Although we meet as a group on a monthly basis some members get together to help each other between meetings.  Sharing a really good scanner, explaining how best to file and store pictures, discussing how a programme works or solving a particular exercise (such as getting rid of an unwanted rubbish bin) are ways in which we have been able to help each other. 

If you have a digital camera and want to make the best of it and the photo-handling programmes then do come along - new recruits are welcome and anyone who wishes to come along should contact Ann on 01964 543883 or 07889 268473 or email ann.underwood@sky-lincs.fsnet.co.uk

Meetings are held on the third Wednesday of the month and members are all on an email list so they get a reminder on the Monday before the meeting.