Tonight’s Education Night will focus on color.  What does it mean to use color effectively?  How does saturation impact the perception of color?  Do we each see color the same way?

In preparation for this meeting, review various photography sites and photographer portfolios, and identify a few photographs that in your opinion:

• Either make effective use of color or ineffective use of color. (great if you can find both!)
• Feature high/normal/low saturation.
• Make use of a limited color palette or a full range of colors.
• Feel free to consider images without regard to whether they are photographs if you wish.

There are two ways you can bring the images to the meeting:

• You can download the photos and bring them on a USB drive, as usual.  Name them so they will appear in the desired order.
• Send me an email with links to the images.

We will discuss the following as we review the images:

• How has color contributed (positive or negative) to your perception of the image?  We’ll try to get as specific as possible.
• Does the color appear to be inherent in the scene that was captured, the result of post-processing, or both?
• Agree or disagree?: “B&W photograhy is best for those images where color has a neutral or negative impact.
• How can we use tonight’s discussion to improve our own work?

Some Web resources you may find interesting:

• http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/understanding-color-in-photography/
• http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-use-colour-effectively-to-enhance-your-digital-photography/
• http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/2815/using-color-in-photography/
• http://www.lightstalking.com/how-to-use-color-in-photographic-composition-with-9-gorgeous-examples/

Tonight’s topic:  Photography Goals

We’ve done this for the past several years, and have had a great discussion!  It is a great way to start the year.  (Credit for the original idea came from the Worcester Photography Meetup group)

The topic for our September Education Night will be a discussion about our individual artistic goals for the coming year  This meeting will start at 7:30 pm and take place at 17 Fox Hill Drive in Natick as usual.

I’m starting with the assumption that we all have our own ideas and our own pace.  We don’t all work the same way, and different approaches help each of us be productive.  That said, it is generally helpful to envision where you’d like to be in a year’s time and to express it in your own words.  This will be an open-ended discussion, including:

• What type of goals do you want to set for yourself?  Will you have succeeded if you produce a certain number of pieces, if you complete a specific project, or if you spend the desired number of hours each week.  How will you decide that your goal has been achieved?

• How much detail to you want and/or need?  Is it enough for you to just state your goal, or would it be helpful for you to identify some interim steps (milestones) in the direction of your goal?

• Would it help you to put your goals down in writing, or are you more comfortable just discussing them?  Would you be comfortable sharing your written goals with the group?  Would this help you?

• What can NELP do to support you and encourage you?  What can you do to support and encourage the rest of us?

• How often would you like to discuss progress towards your goals?  Annually?  Quarterly?  Monthly?

Please give a little thought to the above, and come prepared to discuss your goals (if you have any) for the coming year and how NELP can support you.  Please come even if you’re not sure what you want to set as goals (spectators welcome).  I’d like to have as many different perspectives represented at the meeting as possible.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Tonight’s topic:  Elyssa Conley will present “Creating Abstracts With Photoshop”

Elyssa will demonstrate the Photoshop Twirl technique along with some more advanced variations that can be used to create stunning abstract images from ordinary photographs.  Recent versions of Photoshop include more than two dozen blend modes, which each blend a layer with the ones below it in a different way.  There are also a wide variety of filters used in this technique including: distort, pixelate (Mezzotint) and stylizing the image.  When these effects are combined, the possibilities are endless!

For example …

Please join us on Monday (November 28) at 7:30 pm for the next NELP Education Night.  This month we’re having our annual “Book Night”.  Books offer so much by way of inspiration and technique, and this is an opportunity to learn from each other about book’s we’ve found useful.  Each year, we look at books from a different perspective, similar to the themes for our Image Review nights.

For this year’s Book Night, I’d like to focus the discussion on composition.  If please bring a book that illustrates image composition techniques that you find useful or interesting.

Option: If you don’t have (or can’t find) a book you’d like to share with the group, you can share a Web site or article with us instead.  If you wish to do this, please send me an email with the URL prior to the meeting.

Our annual NELP Holiday Dinner will be Monday, January 2, 2017 at 6:30 pm, at the Lotus Flower restaurant in Framingham (near Walmart).  They have an excellent dinner buffet (~$17), or you can order exactly what you’d like from the menu.   They have a great bar too, with a selection of delicious drinks.

If you can’t make it at 6:30, it is ok to arrive a bit later.  The buffet is open until 8:30.  If you’d like to join us, please let me know so I can reserve enough seats.  I’ll call in a count on Monday morning, with a few extras for walk-ins.  Friends, spouses, etc. are welcome too.  I’ve initially reserved a table for 12.

See you then!

Tonight’s topic:  Discussion: High-key and low-key images

Tonight’s topic: Movie Night

Please join us for our annual Movie Night—we’ll be streaming a movie via Netflix or Amazon.  You’re welcome to bring some refreshments to share with the group – just let me know what you’re bringing so I don’t duplicate.  I’ll provide cups and paper goods.  You’re also welcome to bring your dinner with you if you wish.

The following movies feature the theme of photography in some way.  I’ve added some new movies that I recently became aware of, and removed ones that are no longer available.  Feel free to bring any other suggestions to the meeting.  We’ll choose one of the available options, based on a consensus of those who are attending.

• Chasing Ice (2012)
• Tales By Light (2016-7, series)
• Abstract (2017, series)
• Everybody Street (2013)
• Finding Vivian Maier (2013)
• What Remains: Life & Work of Sally Mann (2005)
• Fred Lyon: Living Through The Lens (2013)
• Bending The Light (2016)

On previous Movie Nights we’ve watched Monk with a Camera,  Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus and Public Eye.  Please join us for an enjoyable evening.

Tonight’s topic:  Photography Goals

We’ve done this for the past several years, and have had a great discussion!  It is a great way to start the year.  (Credit for the original idea came from the Worcester Photography Meetup group)

The topic for our September Education Night will be a discussion about our individual artistic goals for the coming year  This meeting will start at 7:30 pm and take place at 17 Fox Hill Drive in Natick as usual.

I’m starting with the assumption that we all have our own ideas and our own pace.  We don’t all work the same way, and different approaches help each of us be productive.  That said, it is generally helpful to envision where you’d like to be in a year’s time and to express it in your own words.  This will be an open-ended discussion, including:

• What type of goals do you want to set for yourself?  Will you have succeeded if you produce a certain number of pieces, if you complete a specific project, or if you spend the desired number of hours each week.  How will you decide that your goal has been achieved?

• How much detail to you want and/or need?  Is it enough for you to just state your goal, or would it be helpful for you to identify some interim steps (milestones) in the direction of your goal?

• Would it help you to put your goals down in writing, or are you more comfortable just discussing them?  Would you be comfortable sharing your written goals with the group?  Would this help you?

• What can NELP do to support you and encourage you?  What can you do to support and encourage the rest of us?

• How often would you like to discuss progress towards your goals?  Annually?  Quarterly?  Monthly?

Please give a little thought to the above, and come prepared to discuss your goals (if you have any) for the coming year and how NELP can support you.  Please come even if you’re not sure what you want to set as goals (spectators welcome).  I’d like to have as many different perspectives represented at the meeting as possible.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Our annual NELP Holiday Dinner will be Monday, January 8, 2018 at 6:30 pm, at the Lotus Flower restaurant in Framingham (near Walmart).  They have an excellent dinner buffet (~$17), or you can order exactly what you’d like from the menu.   They have a great bar too, with a selection of delicious drinks.

If you can’t make it at 6:30, it is ok to arrive a bit later.  The buffet is open until 8:30.  If you’d like to join us, please let me know so I can reserve enough seats.  I’ll call in a final count on Monday morning, with a few extras for walk-ins.  Friends, spouses, etc. are welcome too.

See you then!

Tonight’s topic:  Critique the masters

Please bring a few images from a photographer you admire (famous or not famous). We will critique these images the same way as our own work. We might ask:

• What makes the image work?

• Where is it weak?

• Does the cropping work?

• Presented with the same setting what might you do differently?

• If an older image, would it be more or less powerful if created today?

Please bring electronic files of each image (not web links) to keep the same flow of the critique as we normally have. You can get these files by saving the image from a web page*, or using one of the sites listed under the “Resources” link at the top of this page.

– Jere {jere[dot]williams(at]yahoo[dot)com}

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* Before saving from a web page keep clicking on the image until it reaches its maximum size, then “Save image as” (right click mouse on PC, click and hold on Mac). Rename to something sensible, as names of these files tend to be garbage.