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AV News 214 | November 2018

In This Issue 2

Chairman's Chatter

Howard Bagshaw

Editors Welcome

Alastair Taylor

RPS AV Group AGM Minutes

RPS 23rd International Audio Visual Festival

Judith Kimber

The Magic of AV

Andrew Gagg

Howard Bagshaw

Video Post Processing using “Resolve”

Howard Bagshaw

Secretary

Analysis: the Holy Brook

Alastair Taylor

World War One Centenary We Will Remember Them

Judging Film and AV

The Letters Page

An AV a Day keeps the Parkinson's at bay

Megan A’Herne

Getting to Grips with PTE 9

Tony Collinson

RPS AV Group (Ireland)

Raymond Hughes

Sound for AV

Malcolm Imhoff

Hints and Tips

Malcolm Imhoff

Photoshop: Rescue a Poor Image

Keith Scott

Future Events

AV Group Chairman

Alan Tyrer

Editor AV News Jill Bunting

Alastair Taylor LRPS, CPAGB

magazine @avnews.org.uk

Design Consultant Andrew N Gagg FRPS

Subscriptions are open to all at £22 per year including postage. Please contact: David Neal, AV Group Treasurer 16 Fern Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex. TN38 0UH 01424 712394 david-neal@talktalk.net

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AV News 214 | November 2018

Chairman's Chatter Howard Bagshaw ARPS, MPAGB Our big event of the year, the RPS International AV Festival, has come and gone, and from my perspective, it was a wonderfully successful event, many thanks to Edgar and all his team. Iâ€™m delighted that Richard Brown was the winner this year, he has been entering the Internationals for the past 40 years without winning and now he has made it. And to add icing to the cake, Richard also won the International AV competition in Epinal on the same weekend and, furthermore, received a recognition award from the President of the RPS for his service to the Society. We also recognised the outstanding contribution to our hobby of three dedicated AV workers. Iâ€™m delighted to report that we awarded the DobsonHenry medal to Ian Bateman, Lilian Webb and Lorenzo di Francesco and I was particularly pleased that all three were present at the Internationals to receive their awards. (Image below courtesy Lilian and taken by John Smith). For those who wish to gain credit for their AV work outside the competitions scene, distinctions are awarded by the RPS, the PAGB, FIAP and the IAC. If you have aspirations in this direction, a challenge to motivate yourself, then you might just have time to get in an application for the RPS distinctions which are being held on 28th November. A PAGB awards assessment is also being proposed for May 2019 and you need to ag your interest by January.

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AV News 214 | November 2018 Understandably, we make a lot of fuss about ‘winning’ and getting distinctions and awards, but I do worry at times that we underplay the other aspect of our hobby, the sheer pleasure of making AVs and sharing them with friends and family. AVs don’t have to be complex, ‘meaningful’ or ‘profound’, we can get a lot of pleasure by putting together some pictures from a walk in the countryside, a recent holiday or a family event, together with a favourite piece of music. I sometimes think that speed of production is important, it might take 6 months to produce that ‘magnum opus’, but it’s quite possible (certainly for me) that you get bogged down and the masterpiece never actually sees the light of day. So how about challenging yourself to make an AV in a day, complete, nished…. done and dusted? It will probably be quite short, a bit ‘jaggedly’ round the edges, but you will get the pleasure of making an AV, viewing it, maybe sharing it. And, because it’s not going to dominate your life and thoughts, you could try something different. I have a desire to make an AV with square images, one with gritty monochrome images, something that uses macro images, use bits of my drone footage…. and so on. I’m going to have a go occasionally, I’ll let you know how I get on.

Editor’s Welcome Alastair Taylor LRPS

CPAGB

Welcome AV New 214. As always I am delighted by the variety of articles and images which come my way so a big thank you to all contributors and if I haven't got your article into this edition, I am sorry but be assured it is at the top of the list for the next edition which should be with you in the New Year. Keep it coming folks! Over the past few years there have been a number of powerful AV productions marking the terrors and emotion of the First World War and I wanted to mark the centenary of the Armistice by sharing some images from a few of these. Please turn to the centre pages to see these together with an article by Martin Fry and myself looking at images from The Holy Brook. In a hundred year time, I hope that future generations will looking back and note that the 2018 AV community marked the occasion. We will remember them ... Contact the editor at: magazine@avnews.org.uk Page 3

AV News 214 | November 2018 THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY AUDIO VISUAL GROUP Minutes of the 39 th Annual General Meeting held at Dean Close Preparatory School, Cheltenham. GL51 6QS 22nd September 2018 at 5.45 pm during the RPS International AV Festival

Present: Howard Bagshaw (Chairman), Edgar Gibbs (Vice Chairman), David Neal (Treasurer), Alan Tyrer (Secretary) Andrew Gagg (Committee Member), Martin Fry (Committee Member), Alastair Taylor (AV News Editor). Robert Albright (RPS President), Richard Brown , Malcolm Imhoff, Malcolm Gee, Jenny Gee, Bryan Stubbs, Sheila Haycox, Megan A’Herne, Jeff Morris, Lilian Webb, Peter Warner, William Ruffell, Gerald Ketiyakara, Pauline Martindale, Chris Bate, Carole Lewis. In Attendance: Linda Gibbs, Carole Bagshaw, Bev Tyrer, Christine Gagg, David A’Herne, Gillian Neal, Lorenzo de Francesco. Welcome Howard Bagshaw welcomed all those present to the AGM of the RPS AV Group. 2. Apologies Apologies for absence were received from: Keith Leedham, Eddie Spence &, David Grimwade. 3. Minutes of the Previous Annual General Meeting The minutes of the 38th AGM, as printed in AV News issue 201 November 2017, were received. It was proposed by Alastair Taylor and seconded by Megan A’Herne that these be accepted as a true record. This was agreed unanimously. 4. Matters Arising. There were no matters arising. 5. Of cers Reports 5.1 Chairman's Report Howard Bagshaw presented his report. (A copy of the Chairman’s Report is available in AV News issue 214 November 2018).

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AV News 214 | November 2018 5.2 Treasurer’s Report David Neal presented his report. It had been a satisfactory year and he had no concerns. He provided summary details of the AV Group to date, the National AV Championships 2017 nal position and the International AV Festival 2018, which was ongoing but likely to achieve a small surplus. He was not proposing any increase in subscription. Acceptance of the report was proposed by Edgar Gibbs, seconded by Malcolm Gee and agreed by the meeting. Details of the reports are available to RPS members on request. David was thanked for his work. 5.3 AV News Alastair Taylor said that the magazine had expanded to 52 pages thanks to some fantastic regular contributors. A longer print run of issue 212 had been ordered so that sample copies could be distributed to try to encourage new subscriptions. He was very pleased with the help that he had with proof reading. The magazine was the main contact for many members. 5.4 National AV Championship 2017 Howard Bagshaw said that last year’s event at Leeds Trinity University had been very successful and that he hoped to run an event next year at the same venue in September. 6. Election of Of cers and Committee Members The Chair noted that no nominations had been received by the Secretary. The following current members had indicated that they were prepared to stand again, in the positions indicated. Chairman: Howard Bagshaw. Vice Chairman: Edgar Gibbs. Secretary: Alan Tyrer. Treasurer: David Neal. Other Committee Members: Andrew Gagg & Alastair Taylor. Peter Warner was also nominated. Martin Fry was not standing again and was thanked for his work particularly in organising the distinctions advisory day which had been such a success. It was proposed by Malcolm Gee and seconded by Megan A’Herne that the nominees be elected en bloc. This was agreed unanimously. 7. Proposals. No proposals had been received. 8. Any Other Business t was hoped that a distinctions assessment day would be held in the Autumn. 9. Next Meeting The next AGM will be held at The National AV Championships which, it is hoped, will be held in Leeds in September 2019. The date will be noti ed. 10. Close. The meeting closed at 6.25pm.

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AV News 214 | November 2018

RPS 23 rd International Audio Visual Festival Judith Kimber MPAGB I’ve noticed that it’s common for reviews of AV festivals to open with a description of the weather, and I’m starting to understand why. You make your way to the venue through glorious sunshine or gloomy skies, perhaps battling with roadworks or ight delays or all sorts of everyday concerns – and then you’re plunged into a completely different universe for the duration of the event. What’s outside is forgotten, and you become immersed in a series of personal worlds, experiencing the joys, tragedies, curiosities, wonders and comic moments of a series of artists. You focus on sound, image and story, your heartstrings are tugged, you laugh, you share in pain, you visit new places and you’re drawn into fantastical creations. And then you leave the auditorium for a cup of tea and realise with a jolt that it’s still sunny outside and you really must remember to make that dental appointment. The Royal Photographic Society’s 23rd International Audio Visual Festival in Cheltenham was the rst big international or even national festival I’ve attended, and more than anything else I was struck by the power of the work shown to absorb and compel my attention. Sometimes it was emotionally draining (and quips abounded about the possibility of providing counselling services for attendees). Some nice programming, however, ensured that the most tragic pieces were often followed by lighter ones, and many of the sessions ended with especially uplifting or comic pieces. Another rst for me was the chance to see work created by people from all over the world. The different styles in evidence were fascinating. To name just one country, I found the work from Italy very inspiring, with bold, sometimes abstract or gritty concepts and fabulous photography, often in mono. Other countries represented in addition to those of the UK were Australia, Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and South Africa, all with their own interesting styles, differing of course from artist to artist, but often showing recognisable trends. The standard of the 90 pieces selected for showing must have made the task of the jury, Ravi Deepres, Willem van den Berg and chair Ian Bateman, very dif cult. Their eventual selections were representative of the broad range of styles and themes included, with awards for some very powerful and beautiful work. Page 6

AV News 214 | November 2018 Top awards went to Richard Brown’s clever and touching In Search of Christina (I will never tire of watching Richard’s painstakingly positioned beach images merge into Mervyn O’Gorman’s) and Graham Sergeant’s moving, understated The Dance Goes On, a portrait of dancer and artist Elizabeth Twistington Higgins. Recognition awards were given to the astonishingly lovely photography of William Bruce’s Water Colours, Jean Paul Petit’s compelling, thought-provoking production in The Wall (the long pan down the length of the wall is what I’ll remember most) and the sound in my own Matthew Loney’s Miracle.

RPS Grand Prix Trophy, RPS Gold Medal, Silver Salver and WnSoft PTE Deluxe Licence Key In Search of Christina Richard Brown

FIAP Gold Medal plus WnSoft PTE Deluxe 9 Licence Key The Dance Goes on Graham Sergeant

RPS Silver Medal for ‘Photography’ Water Colours William Bruce

FIAP Silver Medal for ‘Production’ The Wall Jean Paul Petit Page 7

AV News 214 | November 2018 RPS 23rd International Audio Visual Festival continued ... Bronze medals went to Charles Hulse’s documentary, The Innocents, a sensitive treatment of a devastating historical incident, the creative imagery of Diana Belsagrio’s Re eXtion on Myself, which juxtaposed X-rays and photographic self-portraits to telling effect, Ivan Stewart’s innovative Chez Laz, in which small-scale artists’ models in a home-made set retold the story of Lazarus, with emotions conveyed eloquently by every tilt of their posable plastic limbs, and the natural history of Domenico Drago’s I Am Not A Poet, full of sublime underwater photography, one of my own favourites.

RPS Bronze Medal – ‘Documentary’ FIAP Bronze Medal – ‘Creative The Innocents Imagery’ Charles Hulse Re exion on myself Diana Belsagrio

FICS Medal for Sound Matthew Loney’s Miracle Judith Kimber

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RPS Special Interest Group Bronze Medal – ‘Innovation’ Ches Laz Ivan Stewart

AV News 214 | November 2018 The George and Doreen Pollock Medal was won by Brian Rogers for his fabulous black and white year in the life of A Northumberland Farm. The Martin Fry Medal for the best interpretation of a song went to Brian Harvey’s The Raven, a piece I watched in astonishment at its creativity and inventive approach to the Edgar Allan Poe poem. Further prizes, ribbons for highly commended and commended entries, went to superb work by Mark Allen, Howard Bagshaw, Len Cousins, Andrea Foligni, Sheila Haycox, Johan Werbrouck, Marcel Batist, Malcolm Imhoff, Franz Jesche and Anne d’Oliveira, and Keith Leedham.

RPS Special Interest Group Bronze The Pollock Medal for the Best First Medal – ‘Natural History’ Time Entrant and WnSoft PTE I am not a Poet Deluxe 9 Licence Key Domenico Drago A Northumberland Farm Brian Rogers

The Martin Fry Medal for the Best Interpretation of a Song The Raven Brian Harvey

Highly Commended - RPS Ribbon Recognition Sheila Haycox

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AV News 214 | November 2018 RPS 23rd International Audio Visual Festival continued ... A very enjoyable part of the weekend was, of course, the chance to meet and get to know so many interesting people, many of them the authors of very distinguished bodies of audio-visual work. And, as at the previous smaller events Iâ€™ve attended, I was struck by the friendliness and generosity of everyone involved. Conversations over sandwich lunches and the excellent Saturday evening meal ranged far and wide, with all sorts of shared interests becoming apparent as well as the obvious one. I was delighted to make new friends and get to know others better. AV artists as a group seem to be the most kind and welcoming type of people.

Highly Commended - RPS Ribbon The End Of All Our Exploring Mark Allen

Highly Commended - RPS Ribbon Fakescapes Andrea Foligni

Highly Commended - FIAP Ribbon A life saved by Len Cousins

Highly Commended - FIAP Ribbon A Strange Place â€Ś A Secret Ritual Johan Werbrouck

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AV News 214 | November 2018 I had to rush away at the end of the festival to catch my ight home and return to work. I was pleased to emerge into lovely sunshine after a weekend in a darkened theatre, but as I drove towards Bristol Airport I found that my thoughts kept returning to various pieces of work I’d seen over the last two days – the ones that told compelling stories, the ones with amazing images and the ones that made me wish that I had thought of that. I found myself remembering RPS President Robert Albright’s closing speech, and his comment that AV is the most perfect expression of the human condition, in all its pathos, joys and tragedies. And I thought – what better way to spend a weekend than experiencing that human condition alongside those 90 or so participating authors and artists. It was a privilege to be part of it all.

Highly Commended - FIAP Ribbon Kelpies Howard Bagshaw

Commended - RPS Ribbon To The Editor Keith Leedham

Commended - RPS Ribbon B.P. Howard Bagshaw

Commended - RPS Ribbon No-go area Marcel Batist

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AV News 214 | November 2018 RPS 23rd International Audio Visual Festival continued ...

Commended - FIAP Ribbon Silent Cries Franz Jesche and Anne Dâ€™Oliveira

Commended - FIAP Ribbon Walking with Grief Malcolm Imhoff

The FIAP Best Author Award Kelpies and B.P. Howard Bagshaw Commended - FIAP Ribbon The Inn on the Pass Keith Leedham

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FIAP Blue Badge - for the author who had the highest number of total awards/acceptances

AV News 214 | November 2018

The Magic of AV Andrew N Gagg FRPS I have always admired the skill, patience and creativity of the AV sequencemakers who used quarter-inch tape and 35mm slides to such good effect. I desperately wanted to try out this wonderfully magical medium, but never had the resources – the time, the patience or the nance to undertake it. I had to be content to watch respectfully from the side-lines. Of course, the idea goes back much further even than this, to the days of that mahogany-and-brass monster, the real Magic Lantern, when the hand-tinted, sometimes hand-drawn glass slides, were accompanied by a narrative written by the makers of the sets of slides, or probably livelier and more impromptu, by the showman himself – for the professional lantern men were showmen indeed. Many of the slides and indeed the projectors were mechanically very complex, allowing all sorts of magical-seeming animation effects to be shown.

Left: Magic Lantern. Photograph courtesy Edgar Gibbs FRPS.

Right: Royale system. Photograph courtesy Colin Balls FRPS (Colin noted “This is the Royale System SU1, which was our standard model. This version illustrated was produced in the 1980s but the model was continuously developed through to 2000 when the digital Royale took over.) Page 13

AV News 214 | November 2018 The Magic of AV continued … With the coming of the digital age, software was created (take a bow Igor!) which would enable even dummies like me to master the possibility of arranging pictures in some kind of meaningful order, timing them and tting music, sound effects and narration to them. The pile of complicated and often temperamental equipment was swept aside, replaced by a computer which did all the dif cult stuff at the click (or several) of a mouse. Magic indeed in its technology, though to exploit it creatively was still as much of a challenge as ever. Now, I am not especially a contender for the use of video in Audio Visual sequences. Nor do I carry a bright torch for photo harmony as such. In some people’s view these may represent the two ‘extremes’ of Audio Visual creativity. But in truth the medium is, and must ever remain, whatever the maker wishes it to be. Purists might want to insist on the total absence of moving images, with an emphasis on high-quality still photographs as rst priority. Other may decide to use the medium as a showcase for their beautiful but only loosely-connected pictures, held together by appropriate music. A third group will be happy to put all kinds of ingredients into the magic brew, blending stills, video, graphics, drawings and all kinds of sounds to further their narrative aim. For myself, coming from a different direction from most AV makers – i.e. a twenty-odd year background in television – I don’t have any particular axe to grind about the raw material that goes into making an Audio-Visual sequence, or indeed how it should be put together. Nowadays we are bidden to call them ‘programmes’, and I think this a very appropriate term for this particular art at its present stage of development. A TV News programme will utilise whatever material it can obtain to tell a particular story – nowadays this is likely to include professionally shot video, amateur video (increasingly), archival footage and stills, drawings, animated graphic charts, maps and diagrams. Sound too will come from a whole variety of sources. Personally, I choose to regard an Audio Visual programme as not in any way different from this. It matters not to me where the images and sounds come from. If it is a documentary piece of course I want the material to be authentic – I don’t subscribe to untruths in this particular context! But for a piece with a ctional storyline, the world’s my oyster! Respecting only the copyright of others, I will draw on whatever’s needed to best tell my tale, and tell it in whatever style seems to suit it.

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AV News 214 | November 2018

Where has our magical medium got to then? How has it changed since the days of rosewood and brass, with smelly acetylene light sources? Not a lot in terms of what we attempt to do – tell an original and compelling story, or perhaps expand the horizons of an audience with new knowledge. But In terms of resources, it’s so much easier. How many of us would have the skill and patience to draw and hand-colour a large glass slide – how many of us are prepared to ddle with an array of 35mm projectors and edit miles of quarter-inch tape with a razorblade and some sticky tape? So, as I do, count yourselves lucky that the technology is so much more convenient and exploit it to the max… Purists, keep making your beautiful photo harmonies by all means, but just don’t in ict the discipline on others with broader views. Innovators, innovate! You have more scope than ever before to do original and compelling work. However you approach AV, make it your own – there’s little or nothing it won’t do nowadays, and if you nish up with some kind of a hybrid between a movie and a string of stills, so be it. Who cares what it’s called – it’s still Magic!

Tape-Slide setup. Credit: The late Mike Hardwick, Courtesy of Lavinia Hardwick.

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AV News 214 | November 2018

Video post-processing in ‘Resolve’ Howard Bagshaw ARPS, MPAGB I guess that most of you post-process your images in one way or another (often in Photoshop) before adding them into an AV. But what of the video that we sometimes add to an AV? PTE can convert it to the optimum format and you can trim the front and back, but little else. I need more, I want to be able to do the things that I can do in Photoshop.

There are many video processing/editing software options and I’ve tried a few but have settled on Black Magic’s DaVinci ‘Resolve’. I’ve gone for it for several reasons; like Photoshop it’s an industry standard program; it has the capability to do far more than I want currently, but it won’t limit me in the future and; there is a highly speci ed free version. Download at: www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/products/davinciresolve/

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AV News 214 | November 2018 So, what can it do? For a very complex program, it’s well laid out, along the bottom of the screen are a number of tabs which take you to the main features you will need. ‘Media’ allows you to drag the bits of video from anywhere on your computer into a bin for you to work on. The ‘Edit’ tab brings up a familiar timeline view, very similar to PTE, allowing you to create your multi-clip video, but something I don’t really use as I tend to edit in PTE. If you do use it however, there are almost unlimited video and audio tracks and all the transition effects that you would ever need. This program is genuinely used in Hollywood productions. The next tab, ‘Color’, is where I can do all the things to a video clip that I can do to a still in Photoshop…. and more. A quick list of some of the things that I use include; adjusting the brightness, contrast, colour, saturation, etc, and; cropping and straightening the frame. I shoot mainly in Ultra HD video (3840 x 2160), so I have plenty of spare pixels to crop to my nal size of 1920 x 1080 pixels. I can also make adjustments to parts of an image using various ‘windows’ into the image. Ah, you say, but this is video and what if the object I’m adjusting moves? No problem, the software can track the window to select a particular feature. So, you want to lighten a face? Track the face and any adjustment will automatically follow the face round the screen.

The ability for the program to track an image means that it can also take your slightly wobbly video and stabilise it, anything from smoothing out that slightly jerky pan, to making an image rock steady. The stabilisation graph above is from the canal boats clip in ‘Kelpies’ which I shot hand held. Did I mention that this is a FREE program?

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AV News 214 | November 2018 Video post-processing in ‘Resolve’ continued ... The next two tabs, ‘Fairlight’ which is the audio editor and ‘Fusion’, which is the compositing feature are less likely to be used by AV workers. Compositing, by the way, is newly added into the latest version of Resolve, and it allows the creation of video imagery, just think Starwars or Avatar. The nal tab, ‘Deliver’, takes your video and outputs it in whatever format you chose, a bit like the ‘Publish Show’ tab in PTE, but with a lot more options. And that, in a way, is the problem with video editing, there are so many more options than there are with still images.

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AV News 214 | November 2018

However, I’m settling down to a work ow which seems to work for me. Fortunately, there are very many YouTube tutorials and if you’re really stuck then you can always go to the manual, all 1329 pages of it! My work ow? At the moment this is what I’m doing: 

My Resolve project is set to 29.97fps which is what PTE seems to like, the timeline sorts out any frame rate differences with my camera input.



I work on only one video clip at a time.



Having brought it into Resolve I edit the clip, choosing the section of it I want, plus a couple of extra seconds at each end, in case I need to fudge something in PTE at a later stage in production.



I work mainly in ‘Color’ where I adjust its colour/tone/saturation to match images around it. I can, if needed import the previous still image of the AV and match my video clip to that. This is also useful if I want to crop and position the video to blend in with the previous still image (line up the horizons for example).



I make any local adjustments to the image, removing any distracting bright areas, emphasising the key aspect of the image and stabilising it if necessary.



As with PTE, I save the project so that I can go back and make adjustments later if needed..



I ‘Deliver’ my processed clip at HD resolution as an MP4 – H.264 codec at 29.97 fps (I told you that video was a nightmare of ‘standards’!)



In PTE I use the converter, choosing the best quality and then import the converted video into the PTE timeline.

And quite often go back to step 1 and have another go – I’m still learning. This is a complex, but powerful processing option, but so far I would thoroughly recommend it. I know of three AV workers using it (Smithy, Robert and myself) so there should be a bit of growing expertise to help out if you also give it a go.

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AV News 214 | November 2018

Analysis: The Holy Brook Alastair Taylor LRPS

CPAPG/AV

How often do you see an AV and ask yourself “How did they do that?”. One such example is an AV by Martin Fry called The Holy Brook which has a wonderful sequence of images which take the viewer from a woodland track, into First World War trenches and back out to a landscape image. The impression and poignancy it gave is one I will always remember. There is more to this that image manipulation. The real skill is in imagining the sequence of images required and the emotional message they will portray and none of that can be read on a text book. We will all recall those sequences where a powerful message is able to entrance, shock, or engage the audience. Sometimes these happen by accident, but the skilled AV worker will have thought through the message they are seeking to give. I asked Martin about what he was seeking to achieve in the AV and the though processes and technical methods he used. He told me: The Holy Brook starts with a young boy running across the elds chasing butter ies above his home village in the Cotswolds. We then see him as a young soldier preparing to go to the Battle of The Somme. He starts to remember back to his childhood and his valley where the stream ‘The Holy Brook’ runs. At this point the song of the same name begins, with music by my friend, singer songwriter Johnny Coppin and words from the English Poet, Frank Mansell. In the poem, Mansell describes his friend remembering the valley and the brook owing free. After a music interlude Mansell’s words continue. These words overlay the images seen in this article and, last about a one minute. In dim remembered meadows, cool with trees, He felt the brook beneath him, heard it sing, Past unfrequented places and from these Some power upbore him and his life took wing. He died in war and men forget his name, All that he was is vanished into night, The brook still ows, new-born and yet the same, Out of the womb of Cotswold to the light. Throughout the next few pages, I will show the sequence of images with my own comments on the AV image processing and photographic techniques I have observed with a few more words from Martin. Page 20

AV News 214 | November 2018

IMAGE 1: Any one of us would be proud of this image. The lighting is especially strong with the sun shining from the right suggesting this picture was taken in the early morning. The wild garlic and light through the trees is a lovely image which brings home the loveliness of the pre-war woodland. It certainly leaves no sense of the images which are to follow.

IMAGE 2: The two sides of the Trench have been introduced with a similar lighting level and given the shadow of the right-hand side of the trench suggest the picture was taken with the light from the right. The track remains in the foreground with the trees of the rst image in the distance. Page 21

AV News 214 | November 2018

IMAGE 3: In this image, the top middle horizon, green trees in the original have been replaced by the stark and misty woodland perhaps found in First World War France, evoking the thought of a harsh and broken world. The image is now moving towards being all Black and White with just a hint of colour at the bottom where the track runs

IMAGE 4: The picture is now entirely black and white with a misty lower half to the image perhaps depicting the â€œfog of warâ€?. The foot of the trench is now visible showing the horrors of this place. In just three dissolves we have moved from a place of beauty to one of horrors. Page 22

AV News 214 | November 2018

IMAGE 5: This image is fully monochrome and brings soldiers in to the scene showing the mud which they had to walk through. This is a profound image by any measure and truly illustrates the horror of war and the terrible conditions in which the troops lived. The skill here is in ensuring the size of the troops, relative to the trench is correct.

IMAGE 6: Note the â€œFog of Warâ€? at the top. In the bottom of the picture, we can see just running water with a grassy bank to the lower left. This corner of the image will be used to great effect shortly and the lower triangle of this image is from the nal image of the sequence. Page 23

AV News 214 | November 2018

IMAGE 7: The most striking part of this image is the poppies on the bank of the stream. This really does tug at the heart strings and moves our minds on to remembrance and the futility of war. Look carefully and you will see that the trees in the distance have been replaced. Your eyes will tend to be drawn the lower triangle which is in colour.

IMAGE 8: This is the nal image The Holy Brook. We have been seeing the bottom of the image for the last three images of the sequence and in the previous image, the branches of the trees had been introduced into the scene. Page 24

AV News 214 | November 2018 Martin explains his approach So where visually do I start? In any audio-visual I try to build, a few overlapping images near the beginning or end to enhance the storyline and engage further the viewer. Here though, it was in the middle of the AudioVisual and I wanted to take you from the trees to the trenches to the ultimate sacri ce and then out to the light. The visual concept started from visiting Hill 60 near Ypres in Belgium, where you can walk in the old trench line. As the sun beat down that day my feeling was of being trapped in the trench. This I tried to portray as the images ow from the woods to the Hill 60 trench, then to one archive soldier image used and ending with the Holy Brook in the Cotswold valley. All these images were created in Photoshop layers with colour gradually reduced in the middle section. The next stage was building this part of the audio-visual in Pictures to Exe Object Animation. What you don’t see in the stills is the whole section continually zooming inwards along the trench line as though you are walking in the trench. On top of this, as the trench section takes over, a layer of mist and smoke moving across the trench which was added using panning in object animation. This nally dispersing as we reach the poppies and eventually to the brook owing into the light. To have the opportunity to examine the craft involved in producing a series of image like this is a real privilege so thanks to Martin for sharing them. Those of us who have been involved with AV for some time will have come to realise that we often adopt a different approach to our photography, looking for viewpoints and angles which work when viewed as part of an AV. The rst and last images in the sequence might not be successful in a print panel, or at your average photographic club exhibition, but when used in an AV, as part of a story, are stunning. _____________________________________ WE WILL REMEMBER THEM On Friday November 9th, as part of the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, Martin is busy preparing sequences and images to accompany Johnny Coppin’s ‘Severn & Somme’ to be performed in Gloucester Cathedral and includes The Holy Brook. Martin is rightly proud of The Holy Brook and its achievements, namely Winner of Peter Coles International Winner of Adelaide international Best Photography – Epinal Page 25

AV News 214 | November 2018

World War One Centenary We Will Remember Them

Image Above: From Woodbine Willie by Alan Tyrer Image Below: From The Fallen by Ian Bateman

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AV News 214 | November 2018 Over the past few years, there have been many excellent and awarding winning AV productions which commemorate the trauma, emotion and lives lost in the Great War. On this centre page, AV News shares a few images from these as our tribute to those who gave the ultimate sacri ce.

Image Above: From Menin Road by Howard Bagshaw Image Below: From For The Sake of Example by Keith Leedham

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AV News 214 | November 2018

Judging Film and AV: What's the Difference? Jill K. Bunting CPAGB As an AV worker I was surprised and honoured to be asked to be a member of the Jury for BIAFF 2018. Having both organised and judged AV competitions at all levels from small club competitions through to International level festivals, I have seen a lot of work over the 30+ years I have been involved in AV. In AV judging in the UK we usually use the A, B, C, system to decide on winners. 'A' means you think it is worthy of a prize. 'C' means you don't feel it is a prize winner and 'B' could go either way. We also use '+' and '-' to further differentiate the scores. The nal decisions are then made after all entries have been seen & discussed by the panel of judges (if there is more than one). Also the A, B, C only refer to the entries in that particular competition. So an entry could score 'A' in one competition but 'C' in another depending on the standard of the other entries. At BIAFF with the large number of entries, well over 200 this year, and the longer running durations, it is impossible for all of the 18 judges to see all the entries. We are split into teams of 3 and move around between teams after each session to enable each judge to work with as many others as possible. After each entry is viewed it is discussed by the panel and ranked with a Grade from 1 to 5 stars. All of the 5 stars are then assessed by another panel who decide on the nal award winners. The star rating is to a standard level and not in uenced by what else is in the competition. So in theory a 4* should always be a 4* no matter what it is up against or who is judging it. Of course judges in both AV and lm will always have personal preferences, in uenced by their own experiences and styles - although this shouldn't bias the overall decision - a good entry should always rise to the top. Apart from the differences of scoring as described above, what are the other differences between lms and AV's. I suppose the obvious one that lms workers may say is that lms 'move' whereas AV's are 'still'. Some may say that lms are more 'real' as they have to play out each scene in real time and the elements in each 'image' move, even if it is just a leaf uttering. This tends to make lms longer than an AV would be on the same subject.

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AV News 214 | November 2018 However using still images, taken in a fraction of a second, allows you to 'freeze the action' and capture things that the human eye would never see. But AV workers are increasingly including video clips and animation into their presentations, so the two are moving closer. Another point often raised by lm makers is why AV workers use dissolves rather than cuts. This comes down to the history of the medium. In the good old days before digital a 'cut' was the only way of joining two pieces of action together, you literally cut and then spliced the lm strips together. Using single frame still 'Slides' you had to use at least two projectors to enable a continuous ow of images on screen. The speed at which the projectors could dim the bulb and change the slides determined how fast a change on screen could be, this was never very fast - so the transitions could never be a quick cut. The AV art form developed by creating pleasing dissolves between images and aiming to create that magical 'third' image, the point at which both images can still be seen and merge to create something that never existed in reality. Timing these dissolves, so that the images ebb and ow with the soundtrack. is a skill that not everyone can achieve, and is something that was initially lost when digital rst came along. Now that both lm and AV workers use the digital medium anything is possible. Films can use slow dissolves and AV's can use fast cuts. But using a slow transition between two moving scenes (be that moving frames in a video or two single images panning or zooming) can be visually distracting and so is very rarely used to good effect. As AV workers are now entering BIAFF and lm workers are entering AV competitions how do you judge them together. The aim of both Films and AV's is to communicate, to tell a story, be that fact or ction, to create a mood and to entertain. It is the overall impact that matters - does it work, are you totally engrossed in what you are watching? If something distracts and you are aware of it even brie y, or ask 'why did the author do that?' then it has failed. The distraction could be anything to do with sounds, images, production or the overall concept or idea. When judging, although you obviously are looking for the positive and strong points, it is the negative and weak points that allow one entry to be placed above or below another. Yes there are differences in the way the medium is used, but as long as it is used appropriately and doesn't distract then it shouldn't affect the judging. If still images are used in something entered into a ' lm' competition, or movement used in an entry into an 'AV' competition, it shouldn't be marked down because of that. The question is 'does it need the movement' and does the movement - or lack of it - enhance or distract? Page 29

AV News 214 | November 2018 Judging Film and AV: What's the Difference? continued ... Good photography (lighting, composition, content) and good sound (suitability, levels, understandable speech) apply equally to both lm and AV. All production techniques should enhance - have effects been used simply because the author found they were available and was 'trying them out' or are they used because they actually add something to the story? Is the concept/idea something new and does it come to a satisfying conclusion. Although occasionally leaving the viewer to ask questions and having to think about what they are watching can sometimes be a good thing, however if it leaves you wondering 'what on earth was that all about?' (even after reading the synopsis) then it obviously hasn't worked. I would say the differences between lm and AV mainly come down to the types of production. To my mind AV's are more about the blending of the images and sound, the two parts must work in harmony with each other to create something more than the sum of the parts. A lot of lms tend to use actors or people visually on screen, something which rarely happens in an AV. Films tend to be made by a Group, with different people taking on different roles, scriptwriter; photographer; sound; editor; production; acting etc., each person with their own skill set. AV's are usually made by a single person, perhaps with an additional person speaking the narration, so a wider range of skills are needed by the author. Not that these points should affect the overall judging - it still comes down to 'does it work?' Have all the individual elements within the production been used to good effect to achieve the aim of the author? So did I enjoy judging BIAFF? Yes, very much so. It was a long, tiring weekend having to keep concentration and be objective, but no more so than any other major competition judging. Then there were another two weeks spent at home writing the hopefully helpful critiques for the authors. I was lucky to be on the panel that saw the winning lm 'MIA' and also quite a few other award winners and 5* lms. I also saw several of the lower ranking lms, so a complete range of quality and subject matter. All of the discussions between the judges were amicable and interesting, we all pick up on different aspects when watching something. Although I didn't always totally agree with the nal ranking, some I thought should be higher, others lower, but when do judges ever entirely agree!! Would I judge again if asked? Most likely, yes.

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AV News 214 | November 2018

Dear Editor Digital Recorders With great interest I read the Masterclass article by Malcolm Imhoff in the August 2018 edition of AV News, referring to the discontinued Sony PCMD50 digital recorder. For many years I’ve also owned this same model which I purchased in Pittsburgh together with it’s appropriate `Dougal’. My records state; the total purchase price in the United States plus the duty paid on my return amounted to 72% of the retail cost of the same article sold in the U.K. Rip off Britain! The PCM-D50 recorder is well engineered, it does produce high quality recordings, however it also has one major drawback. Its external microphone jack is of the consumer 3.5mm variety and cannot supply phantom power, otherwise this is a great piece of kit. Like Malcolm I also own Tascam recorders, in my case DR100-MKII and MKIII, both have the advantage of switchable phantom power with professional quality XLR balanced inputs. This allows a variety of quality external microphones types to be used ranging from dynamic mics not requiring phantom power, back electret with or without phantom power, to large diaphragm studio capacitor mics that require 48v phantom. I wouldn’t dream of endorsing any make or model because the choice available is large with variations of price. However, for anyone considering buying a digital recorder I would suggest that XLR external microphone connections, and phantom power should be a major consideration because of the exibility available. Digital recorder inbuilt microphones are adequate for some purposes especially closeup work indoors, but for versatility more specialised mics are frequently required. Keith Scott

FRPS, DPAGB, AV-AFIAP

Contact the editor at: magazine@avnews.org.uk

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AV News 214 | November 2018

An AV a day keeps Parkinson’s at bay. Megan A’Herne LRPS My rst attempt at audio making coincided with my Parkinson’s diagnosis. That was thirteen years ago and since then AV making has become my main hobby. Over the last few years medical science has sought to nd non drug treatments too help improve the day to day lives of sufferers. It has also been known for some time that music is a great help to work or exercise by for the Parkinson’s patient and a few very good exercise classes have been developed using music to work by. For example Dance for Parkinson’s and PD Warriors both work extremely well in improving muscle strength, balance, coordination and cognitive skills. They are both good, but they are not a hobby where you can meet other like minded people, socialise and gain skills that will help with the plasticity of the brain, stave off the ravages and slow down the progression of Parkinson’s Disease. It has a wide range of symptoms apart from tremor and stiffness. Slowness in thought, rapidly tiring vocal cords causing the voice to get quieter and quieter, anxiety and fear of socializing because of being unable to keep up with the conversation and contribute to it. Added to this is poor concentration and memory loss. Making an AV as we all know, takes a good deal of concentration. Firstly to nd a topic we feel comfortable with. Then to write our script before setting off with our cameras to capture our images. Returning to our computer we sort and crop our raw images. Then write a narrative and record and edit it. All this before we even open up our Audio Visual software. Then comes the start of putting our Audio Visual together. Another slow process making sure everything is exactly where we want it to be. All this is fantastic therapy for ones brain. As frustrating as all these things can be dif cult situations will force new neural pathways to open up.

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AV News 214 | November 2018 An AV Day Keeps Parkinson's at Bay continued … The human brain is a wonderful thing, that can be taught to make undamaged areas take over from damaged ones. The music tracks we choose make thought and movement easier. Life becomes more enjoyable. Having to pace our speech when recording helps to improve every day speech as long as we remember to use the same method in normal daily conversation. Photography and audio visual making is a fantastic hobby for everyone but especially good for the Parkinson’s sufferer. It enables us to go out in the fresh air and experience the better things in life. Parkinson’s sufferers are drawn to audio visual making as I know from my own camera club. So the next time you listen too a narrative with a less that perfect pitch, please remember that audio might be a means to keep Parkinson’s at bay for that author. Something to applaud them for.

Saturday 10 th November 10am to 4pm WAVES are a group of AV enthusiasts, meeting four times a year in February, May, August and November at St. Thomas Church Hall, York Buildings off Timbrell Street, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, BA14 8PT. At our next meeting on Saturday 10th November (10am to 4pm) Howard Bagshaw will be showing some of his more recent AVs with some background into how they were made. He will also look at some speci c aspects of AV production including sound editing and video production.. A range of his AVs will be shown, and discussion will be welcome. Members will also bring along AV sequences that they are working on for helpful comments and visitors can come along and see what’s involved. WAVES offers members the opportunity to discuss AV ideas and problems in a friendly and knowledgeable environment. Further details of our programme is available on the website at www.wavesav.co.uk Page 34

AV News 214 | November 2018

Getting To Grips With PTE 9 Tony Collinson LRPS DPAGB The Objects and Animations screen is where creativity in our slide shows will be developed, and since the last edition of AV News, I have had a number of requests regarding the use of Masks and Scrolling Text. So here goes…

Fig 1

Figure 1 (above) shows the title of a slide show “Seascapes and Sunsets” in the PTE 9 O&A window for which a slide duration of 15 seconds has been set. In the last edition we looked at how to fade a title gently onto the screen and hold it for a few seconds before gently fading it out. This time we are going to scroll the title up from the bottom of the screen and hold it in position for a few seconds before allowing it to scroll out of the top of the screen. On the top tool bar the image size has been set to 50% (default setting Auto) allowing space around the image to see where the title will start and nish. The title has been roughly positioned by left clicking and dragging it into the approximate required position and the Pan “X” and “Y” set at 110 and 300 respectively to give the nal position. A Key Frame has automatically been introduced at 0.000 seconds. Page 35

AV News 214 | November 2018 Let’s now look at introducing Masks. Using the same image open in O&A, on the top menu bar Left Click on the “M” and from the drop down menu select the rst option “Add Mask Template” and from the resulting screen select “Rectangle” as the Style. There are options to make various adjustments but these can be left at the default settings at this stage. Select OK. Now Left Click on the “Mask(Rectangle)” in the box at the bottom right hand corner of the screen and a Yellow/Green bounding box will appear around the masked area (see Figure 3 below).

Fig 3

Left Clicking into this bounding box will allow it to be dragged into the desired position on the screen. Left Clicking onto any of the “handles” will allow the box to be resized but will maintain the aspect ratio of the box. To resize the width and height separately, simply hold down the Shift Key whilst Left Clicking and dragging the handles. So for our example the “Mask (Rectangle)” has been resized and the width and height adjusted and positioned to the left hand side of the screen. To add the title we now need to Right Click on “Mask Content” and from the menu select “Text or Hyperlink” and type our “Seascapes and Sunsets”. This will partially be obscured by the Mask but can be repositioned by Left Clicking and dragging until it appears in the Mask and then resized by Left Clicking on one of the “Handles” on the text bounding box and dragging down in size until it appears fully in the Mask (see Figure 4 overleaf). This process can be a bit of a juggling exercise to ensure it ts and the title is not partially shaded by the blur of the mask. All that remains now is to set up the Key Frames and title positions. Page 37

AV News 214 | November 2018 Getting To Grips With PTE 9 continued … The rst thing we need to do is set the starting position of the title to just below the bottom of the image. This is done by holding down the Shift Key and Left Clicking into the title and carefully dragging it vertically down into position. Holding the shift key will ensure the text can be dragged into position without any sideways repositioning. The First Key frame can now be dragged into a position at say, 3 seconds on the O&A timeline. The parameters have now been set for the starting time and position for our title. Now right click on this First Key Frame and select Clone Key Frame and drag this Second Key Frame to a position 8 seconds along the timeline and set Pan “X” and “Y” to 110 and 300 respectively. This will place the title to the position we want it to appear on the screen. As the title is now required to stay in that position, let’s say, for 5 seconds, simply Right Click on the Second Key Frame and again select Clone Key Frame to create a Third Key Frame and position this at 12 seconds along the timeline.There is no need to alter the Pan “X” and “Y” parameters as we do not want any movement during the 8 to 12 seconds. Finally, Right Click on the Third Key Frame, Clone and drag this Fourth Key Frame to the end of the timeline and Left Click into the title and holding down the Shift Key drag it carefully vertically upwards to just outside the top of the image. To see the movement created Press the Escape Key to return the Play Head back to the beginning of the Timeline and Press the Play Button.

Fig 2

Figure 2 (above) shows the position of the title with the selected Key Frames and as with all of these examples the timing and positions can be adjusted as required. Page 36

AV News 214 | November 2018 If you wish to move the Mask and Text at the same time, for example to more accurately position them on the screen, then in the box at the bottom right of your screen select the “Text” and then holding down the Control Key select the “Mask (Rectangle)” and you can Left Click and drag them in sync to anywhere on the screen or, if only a small repositioning is required simply press and hold down the Alt Key and reposition using the Arrow Keys.

RPS AV Group (Ireland)

Raymond Hughes ARPS

A memorable summer had already started to fade in the memory so time for the rst get together of the AV Group. September , the rst day of Autumn seemed appropriate! Send the announcement and sort a programme. How was I to know there was an Air Show with the Red Arrows at Portrush or the IPF had a committee meeting. It is little wonder I don’t bet on horses, who would be a group co-ordinator? However, with the exception of a few with really good excuses we had an almost normal attendance. Such loyalty. First, the summer project! ‘Make a short sequence using a choice from four pieces of music’ picked by Judith Kimber. The efforts ranged from beautiful landscapes, through oral gardens to a real horror show (not the quality of the sequence but the dark gothic content). It was an interesting exercise to see which music inspired different authors and what subjects were chosen. Next up we had a showing of the ten placed sequences from the 321competition organised by Klaus Fritzsche. Here we were treated to ten very disparate sequences and again it is enlightening to see the subjects that authors take on. It was also an opportunity to see and discuss the techniques of authors whose work we are unfamiliar with. For afternoon session we viewed the Award winners from the Bridgend 5 -8 Photo Harmony competition and as always, the merits or not of Photo Harmony were discussed. This was relevant as both the IPF and NIPA festivals this season will have Photo Harmony sections. We were delighted earlier this year for the success of James Hamill and Judith Kimber from the group in gaining their DPAGB-AV awards. James gave us a short report on his experience at the adjudication. Both he and Judith attended on the day. He drew particular attention to the expectation of good photography as a requirement that was expressed. We hope that their achievement will encourage others from our number to work towards distinctions particularly from the RPS. Another successful an enjoyable day, now what horse do I fancy for next time? Page 39

AV News 214 | November 2018 Getting To Grips With PTE 9 continued …

Fig 4

The same procedure is as described above but the start position of the text should now be set just below the “Mask (Rectangle)” and will give the appearance that the text is rising from behind the horizon. After holding position for a few seconds it will then continue up the screen and disappear through a soft edge near the top of the screen. See Figure 5 (below)

Fig 5

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AV News 214 | November 2018 Should you sit or stand? I always Fig 2 stand as I nd this is better for breathing and projection, but if I am recording someone else I always go with what makes them feel more comfortable. Either way, the microphone should be about a hand's span away from the speaker's mouth (Fig 2). Too far away and you risk picking up unwanted sounds, too near and a lot of the lower frequencies will be emphasised and you risk distortion and popping sounds. The most common effects are with those people who have a natural sibilance in their voice and the "sss" gets ampli ed if too near the microphone. Also, the speaker's breath can create a thudding sound like wind noise. These problems can be avoided and I would regard a pop shield (Fig 3) as essential. Recently lent my mic stand and pop shield to Richard Brown but then needed to do some voice recording. Try as I might I could not get rid of the popping Ps. When I got the pop shield back there was no problem. QED.

Fig 3

There's a natural tendency to talk straight into the mic (Fig 4). Don't. Always speak across the mic at an angle with the mic slightly below the mouth (Fig 5) as this will minimise any popping and sibilance.

Fig 4

Fig 5

It's a good idea to give the script to your speaker in advance so they can practise, nd any words or phrases they nd dif cult to say, and maybe suggest alterations to be more like they would naturally speak. For ten years I made the audio visual of the members' slides for the annual exhibition of Aston & Erdington Photographic Society, with Mike Jeffries doing the voice. Did we have fun in the Nature Section with all the Latin names, amanita muscaria, rubus parvi orus, epilobium angustifolium, pulsatilla alpinaâ€Ś Page 41

AV News 214 | November 2018 Sound for AV: Making your own recordings continued ... What you are aiming for is a recording of a person speaking, not a recording of someone reading. This is one of the most common weaknesses in voiceovers so it's much better if your speaker is very familiar with the text and almost knows it off by heart. Then it will come over in a more natural and convincing way. Should you record in mono or stereo? I always record in stereo, even though my microphone will only record on the left track. The reason for this is that if I were to record in mono the recorder will take the input from the microphone (left track) and add to it the sound from the right track (in theory nothing, but in practice a lot of hiss which you can't get rid of). On a mono recording you wouldn't see it but you can see it happening in Fig 6 which is actually a stereo recording where the voice from the microphone is on the left channel but some hiss has appeared on the right channel where it should be completely silent. If we were to use this stereo waveform as it is, or convert it to mono, the unwanted hiss will be added to the voice. By recording in stereo I can select only the left track, the one with the voice, copy and paste it to a new mono waveform, and this is the one I use. (Fig7)

Fig 6

Fig 7

When you are ready to record get your speaker to say a few words so you can check the levels. If they recite some nonsense this will also help them to relax. If the recording level is too high the sound will be distorted. Try and get the level near to the top of the meter without going over and peaking. Any peaking will usually be shown by a red light. Digital sound is very unforgiving of overexposure so keep out of the red. If the recording level is too low you will not be able to hear the sound clearly, especially when it is mixed with music, and you will have lots of background noise and hiss which you may not be aware of if listening on your computer speakers but will certainly be heard when played on decent equipment at an AV event.

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AV News 214 | November 2018 Next you need to monitor what's going into your recorder to make sure there are no unexpected loud passages which take it into the red. You can do this by watching the level meters of course, but I nd it useful to plug in an earpiece or headphones. This will also help you to spot any stumbles, mispronounced words or awkward phrases. I would have a copy of the script and a pencil and make a note of any occurrences like this so you can go back and re-record them. Then there's the question of do you record the script all in one go, or do it a paragraph at a time? Doing it bit by bit makes it easier to spot mistakes, record the relevant piece again, and later on when you come to selecting the best "takes", they are easier to compare. On the other hand you might have a superbly con dent voiceover artist who knows the script, has practised and prefers to go from start to nish. This has the advantage of maintaining the ow and even after you have split up the voice track to mix it it will still sound natural. When Hazel Evans did the voiceover for my "Queen of the Hills" she knew it back to front and was totally immersed in the story, so "Take 1" was what I used with just one or two inserts where Hazel wasn't happy with her pronunciation. I do feel it is important to "direct" your speaker, so you have to take control and tell them in good time what you are looking for in terms of pace, tone of voice, mood, emotion etc. After all it's your script and you will have a good idea in your head of how you want it to sound. This can sometimes be a battle of wills as Richard Brown will testify, but if you suggest gently "Can we try it like this?" and you demonstrate how you think it should be pronounced this is usually acceptable. Whether it is your own voice or that of someone else, the voice needs to be projected. Think of an actor who has to make themselves heard in every part of the theatre. A good tip is to speak to the person at the back of the room (in your imagination of course). What about if you are interviewing someone rather than getting them to work from a script? I suppose you might want a question and answer structure for your AV, but it's more likely you just want the person to talk about whatever it is they are passionate about, their love of motor cars and their garage in Derbyshire for example (it's been done! - by Keith & Kate Brown). The trick here is to plan carefully and ask open ended questions. So not "Do you agree that Britain should leave the European Union?" for which the answer will be "Yes", pause. Instead say something like "Tell me about your views on Brexitâ€Ś" and leave them to sally forth. Try not to interrupt with "mmms" and "yes" or "I agree". These are a nightmare to edit out.

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Fig 6

Fig 7

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AV News 214 | November 2018 If you are a perfectionist you will probably want to resize and/or crop each image individually but if you have a lot of photos and want to automate and speed up the process there are several ways you can do this. You could create an action in Photoshop or use Photoshop's image processor to do it but I nd this extremely ddly and sometimes get odd results such as a difference of 1 pixel from what I have stipulated. There is a very good (and free) utility called Faststone Photo Resizer which will enable you to batch convert large numbers of images, or all the les in a folder, in seconds. This can be found at www.faststone.org/FRResizerDetail.htm 1.

Navigate to the folder with the images you want to process (Fig 1).

Choose the images you want to process and click "Add" or "Add All" (Fig 2 overleaf). Specify the output folder and format, usually a JPEG, set the quality options. Now press “Convert”

If you want to resize go to "Use Advanced Options" and select the desired new width and height (Fig 3 overleaf). Now click “OK”

Having clicked "OK" and "Convert", simply watch as Faststone whizzes through your les in no time (Fig 4 overleaf).

Fig 1

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AV News 214 | November 2018 Hints and Tips continued ...

Fig 2

Fig 3

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AV News 214 | November 2018

Fig 4 Faststone will also let you rename the images, without resizing if you want, save in any one of half a dozen le formats, change the colour depth, add text or a watermark and many other add-ons.

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AV News 214 | November 2018

Photoshop – Rescue a Poor Image Keith Scott FRPS It seems inevitable that whenever a subject is important and there’s just one brief opportunity to capture pictures then weather and lighting conditions will be against us! In the hope that we may be able to do something to improve them we take the photographs nonetheless because of the unique circumstances. This was precisely the situation when I photographed our last cold war Vulcan Bomber XH558 designated ‘The Pride of Great Britain’ just before its very last ight to Doncaster Shef eld airport to be permanently grounded. Although still in operating condition it no longer holds a permit to y due to the withdrawal of support from its three major ‘technical authorities’ because of the very high costs involved. As a young man I remember this same airport when it was RAF Finningley, home to No 101 Squadron and our nuclear deterrent Vulcan bombers until the Squadron relocated in 1961 to RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire. Historically this particular aircraft is important, it was the rst of the upgraded B2 versions to enter service with the RAF. On the day of this ight both weather and lighting conditions were rather poor, very little light with leaden grey skies resulting in dull at unattractive images (as shown in the image below).

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AV News 214 | November 2018 Had they been taken on traditional silver based lm I would have resorted to printing on ‘hard grade’ chlorobromide paper for mono prints, but with colour it would have required a lot of time consuming manipulative darkroom work. Fortunately digital photography and speci cally Photoshop has come to the rescue, it has helped to produce something from nothing. The original dreary image (Fig 1, below left) is a copy from a RAW le without any post processing other than size reduction to t our magazine page. Dull and uninteresting I’m sure you’ll agree. Now compare this with the image (Fig 2 below) which has been rescued with a few simple Photoshop processes, some of which may not be immediately apparent although the new sky is quite obvious. It’s now an acceptable image although not a true depiction of the event The composition is exactly as shot in camera, with XH558 ying into the frame

with suf cient space on the right side, I felt no need to alter this. Although the grey sky is un attering it is the easiest element to change and will be the penultimate edit. My rst operation it to duplicate the original image (Ctrl+J) this allows the original layer to remain unchanged, whilst all editing functions are carried out on the copy layer thereby working non-destructively. On the underside of the aircraft there is an obvious need to recover some of the colour, detail, and contrast from the RAW le. As always with Photoshop there are several ways of achieving similar results, in this instance I chose to use the ‘Dehaze’ function within Camera Raw Filter.

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AV News 214 | November 2018 Photoshop Rescue an Image continued ... Choose the ‘Dehaze’ function with (Shift+Ctrl+A). Other Photoshop users may well have chosen a different method, however it doesn’t matter which method is used, it’s the end result that matters. Moving the ‘Amount slider’ to the right (+53) located under the ‘Effects’ tab retrieved most information, albeit not yet perfect. This also created a tiny amount of blue into the original grey sky, but as this was to be replaced it didn’t actually matter and was ignored. A clipped ‘Levels Adjustment Layer’ was inserted above the ‘Background Copy Layer’. This was adjusted to improve the overall lightness of the underside of the aircraft. Above this a clipped ‘Curves Adjustment Layer’ was inserted, this again was adjusted to improve the tones and contrast by pushing down the curves line at around 25% from the line base, and pushing up around 25% from the top as indicated by the arrows on adjacent image. The aircraft underside now contains acceptable and suf cient levels of colour, detail, and contrast. Next action is to choose a suitable sky, this is where Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC really comes into its own. Apart from being able to catalogue huge amounts of images with all relevant information, including geographical data with locations shown on a map it also has great lightbox facilities. Normally I set the ‘Grid View’ to show 20 images per screen with the next 20 at the press of a ‘Page Up’ or ‘Page Down’ button. This helps to make comparison and selection easy. My sky collection is sub divided into categories of seven sky types therefore I usually know straight away which category to search through. Having chosen a suitable sky this is now ‘Placed Embedded’ as a layer above the previous ‘Curves Layer’. From here a very powerful tool named ‘Blend If’ is to be used to blend the new sky with the aircraft image below. Page 50

AV News 214 | November 2018 Adjustments in the ‘Blend If’ tool allow the aircraft to show through clearly whilst effectively replacing the grey sky, all without needing a selection or making a full mask of the aircraft. The easiest way to access the blend mode control panel is to double click just to the right of the ‘Layer Icon thumbnail’ in this case on the sky layer. With reference to the red arrows on the adjacent image: At the top arrow set the blending mode drop down choice to ‘Normal’ which should be the default setting. At next arrow down set the ‘Blend If’ to Grey, this is because we are blending a grey sky from the underlying layer (Note: this is actually spelt as ‘Gray’ because Photoshop is American). Now refer to the bottom arrow and its adjacent slider entitled ‘Underlying Layer’. Below and at the left end of this slider is a small black triangular control. Press ALT on a PC or Option on a Mac and click on this black triangle whereupon it should split into two parts. Drag the right half towards the right until the sky blends with the underlying layer, now drag the left half until a smoother blend has been obtained. You may need to adjust both several times to achieve the best results. After obtaining the best blend with the bottom slider refer to the slider above entitled ‘This Layer’. Below and at the right end is a small white triangular control, press ALT on a PC or Option on a Mac and click on this white triangle, again this should split into two halves. Click on the left half and slide towards the left until the optimum blend is achieved. You may need to adjust these control points several time to obtain the optimum blend but this becomes second nature with practice and it doesn’t take long. In my case everything blended perfectly except for a small portion around the canopy and wing leading edge. To solve this a mask was created on the new sky layer and painted with black using a brush tool just in those small areas. A clipped ‘Curves Adjustment Layer’ was applied to the sky and used to lighten the sky slightly. Above this is a feathered rough outline selection layer of the aircraft used for ‘High Pass’ sharpening purposes, this technique was described in a previous issue of AV News. That’s it, image rescued. Page 51

AV News 214 | November 2018

FUTURE EVENTS November 2018

December 2018

4 November Worcestershire AV Group AV Day www.worcestershireavgroup.co.uk/

16 December AV Makers South Africa International Themed Competition Emotion Closing Date: 1 November Judges: Ron Davies(UK) Jean Paul Petit(France), Alia Naughton(Australia) Judith Kimber(Northern Ireland) Contact: Jeff Morris jeffwmorris@gmail.com

10 November Waves AV Group Trowbridge, Wiltshire Speaker: Howard Bagshaw www.wavesav.co.uk 19 November RPS Great Yorkshire AV Day Leeds Trinity University Speaker: Ian Bateman www.leedsavgroup.co.uk/index.html

January 2019 and beyond

28 November RPS Distinctions Assessment http://rps.org/distinctions

26 January Midland Counties Photographic Federation Annual AV Competition Burton on Trent http://www.wmid-av.org.uk/midphot

30 November to 2 December Great Northern AV Festival Manchester http://www.av-group.org.uk/ gnfestival/web2/index.html

23 March 2019 The Northern Audio Visual Group at Snods Edge www.thenorthernavgroup.co.uk

The RPS AV Group Committee Chairman

Howard Bagshaw howard.bagshaw@ntlworld.com

01889 881503

Vice Chairman Edgar Gibbs

edgar.gibbs@ntlworld.com

02920 564850

Secretary

Alan Tyrer

abtyrer@gmail.com

01472 504882

Treasurer

David Neal

david-neal@talktalk.net

01424 712394

Martin Fry

frycorner@btinternet.com

01452 857964

Andrew Gagg

gagg@gaggf2s.com

01905 748515

Alastair Taylor

alast.taylor@gmail.com

01952550398

Peter Warner

peter@peterwarner.co.uk

07811 953480

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