The Tom & KT Show

[Kathy Leonard]

I wouldn't mind a sows ear right now.. at least it means that I managed to keep the beast still.. lmho.. always assuming it was recognisable as a sows ear of course.. In this case I think even sow's ears are relevant to capabilities.. as with all things. I'm just doing the 'baby steps' thing and trying it one hurdle at a time. Don't want to rush and then end up giving up in total confusion, which wouldn't help at all. Hopefully I won't always feel totally out of my depth...

[John]

Can I remind everyone to please restrict the size of images in the forum to 800 pixels wide. Anything wider distorts the forum and we haven't got the bandwidth to support too many larger images.

I don't want to have to start pruning the images!

Many thanks.

[Peaton]

I think Photoshop is a fantastic piece of software, and I love “playing with Photoshop”, but I found a long time ago that it made me “lazy”, the more I learned the tricks in Photoshop, the less care I took when taking the picture in the first place. I knew, in most cases, I could “fix it” in Photoshop.

For example, How much more ridiculous can you get than attempting a 5 shot HDR image, hand held. Then by using Photoshop or photomatix, “ align layers”, fix it. These pics have stood up to close scrutiny, and done very well for me, but a tripod would have eliminated the need for A fix it I’ve spent thousands of enjoyable hours messing in Photoshop, and will continue to do so, but I also made a promise to myself to get back to, “ get it right in camera” FIRST, then use Photoshop, if needed.

I’ve never been a darkroom person, it’s always been too time consuming and costly, and I have far too many other interests to spare the time or the money, so pre digital I HAD to get it right in camera, If you send rubbish to a lab you can only get rubbish back. BUT (digitally) I FOUND MYSELF TAKING RUBBISH, and sorting it in Photoshop.

As I said earlier, I think Photoshop is fantastic, and from a creative point of view, is almost indispensable, but I’ve learned there’s a lot more satisfaction in getting it right in the first instance.

Peter

[angie.eldon]

I Thought the presentation was very good and the technique with the sky was the best tip I have seen for a long time, however my memory is not what it used to be, so some notes to take away would have been good, maybe you could sell them for a small fee to cover the cost of printing and also to raise some funds for the club, I for one would certainly invest!!!!

[mike-e]

As the Tom and Kt show was billed as a photoshop night I was surprised at Gerry's comments. I remember many many years ago while studying I was taught that both camera skills and processing skills were equally important.We spend hours being taught the theory, and led step by step specific to skills in both camera and darkroom but we were only judged on the final print/transparency, So being competent in both and at an equal pace was the measure of our success.Digital shouldnt be used as any form of excuse .It does let you take shortcuts and arrive at respectable results faster than the old film days The technology is the both the good side and bad side of photography And the results shown prove we dont need to learn one ahead of the otherjust as it was the case when I was taught all those years ago. We just need to encourage both as equal skills.