KLIK. Season 59, Volume 2. January 2013 OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE MISSISSAUGA CAMERA CLUB. Hummingbird and Canna Lily Steve Balke (see page 5)

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1 Season 59, Volume 2 KLIK January 2013 OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE MISSISSAUGA CAMERA CLUB Hummingbird and Canna Lily Steve Balke (see page 5) IN THIS ISSUE The Best of our Best, Steve Balke 2 Second Competiton Scoreboard 12 Using Layers to combine images in 6 Competiton Leaderboard 13 Adobe Photoshop Elements, Kevin White Second Competition Results 11 Marketplace Sharepoint 14

2 January 2013 KLIK Page 2 The Best of the our Best Each year the Club awards trophies to members who have distinguished themselves by being the best in either their class or in one of the 5 competition categories. In this feature we profile one of the trophy winners in the season. Steve Balke Digital Beginner Trophy: My first camera was a 1956 Brownie Hawkeye. After an initial burst of enthusiasm where I took pictures of all sorts of subjects for a couple of years, my interest waned and, for many years, photography was simply a way of recording family activities. In 1999, as a Professor conducting research at the University of Toronto, I became very interested in on-line characterization of the quality of molten plastic being processed. Digital photography, when combined with some very advanced artificial intelligence software, proved to be a wonderful way of obtaining a large amount of information on contaminant particles in the flowing plastic. A very bright graduate student and I even established a company (Novosight Inc.) for introducing the technology into various industries. The company wasn t successful (too much well funded competition) but we had a great time, learned a lot, and several students obtained their Ph.D.s with the equipment. Upon retirement from the University in 2006 I decided that this was the time to emphasize appreciation of life over accomplishment in life. I determined to spend more time smelling the flowers. Walking, especially in parks, has always been a favorite pastime. I purchased my first digital camera, an Olympus C-730 with a 10X zoom and a big 3.2 MP. I began taking it with me to capture whatever looked interesting. Quite often the subject turned out to be a bird. I needed criticism of my images to improve my photography. After trying several websites I settled on This website provided me with a very intensive and useful learning experience. I joined the MCC in Sept after more than two years on the wait list. While entering bird photos in the digital competition Nature category was initially most appealing to me, the diversity of photographs I saw in the MCC encouraged me to widen my photography interests. In Nov I purchased my own printer (an Epson R2000) and used to enter print competitions. I also started submitting images to the Pictorial category and even one in the Creative category. Both of these categories offer so much more freedom than the Nature category to use post-processing methods. So, while my images still tend to be nature topics, now, by submitting in these categories, I can use all of the tools available in digital photography. Bird images often are bird-on-a-stick composition. To learn more about composition I volunteered to deliver a workshop on cropping and composition. That forced me to read more about the topics, to learn from more experienced club members at the workshop (notably Doug Johnston who kindly provided a guest presentation at my workshop) and to study the previous winning images [I reviewed images and judges comments at the workshop]. I ve joined three of the Special Interest Groups (Macro, Creative and Black & White) again with the idea of expanding my photographic abilities. To learn more about judging, I volunteered to join the Print Competition Committee. Actually seeing how the judges consider each print has been a real education for me. However, I m still amazed at how images that I think are winners prove not to be. Part of the reason is the criteria used for judging images and the category system. [It was fun to engage in a discussion about the pictorial and creative categories published in last month s Klik.] Another part is the wealth of talent in the MCC! Over time I gradually improved my hardware and software along with my photography. Currently I m mainly using a Canon 1D Mark IV, a Canon 7D and most recently, have added a Panasonic FZ 200

3 January 2013 KLIK Page 3 capable of an incredible 25 to 1200 mm at f/2.8. The original idea was to use the FZ200 as a easy-tocarry always-with-me camera. However, now I sometimes find myself carrying all three! [I love the software aspects of photography as much as the hardware aspects. I currently use Lighroom 4.2, CS6 and plug-ins from Nik, AlienSkin, Topaz, and On One. As you will see in the examples, even with so much choice, I do find myself using the same specific plug-ins repeatedly. Here are four examples of images that have won awards. Brown Booby on Nest (21 points, First, Beginner, Digital Nature, Jan. 2012) I like the title Old Blue Eyes but the Nature Category rules did not permit it. This is a male Brown Booby on his nest at Cayman Brac, a small sister island of Grand Cayman in the Caribbean. The nest was perched on the lip of a cliff several hundred feet above the sea. It was pointed out to me by my two guides in a very delightful [and free!] personal tour provided by the Cayman Brac government. I hand held my 1D Mark IV equipped with a 400 mm f/5.6 and 1.4x extender with iso at 400, bias at - 1/3 EV and shutter speed at 1/800 s. The main issue was that it was quite a harsh bright sun. Using an aperture setting of f/20 accommodated the light and provided enough depth of field to have the entire face of the bird in focus, including the protruding beak. Minimal post processing was required: the mildest possible noise reduction using Topaz Denoise 5, some exposure adjustment using Nik ColorEfex 4 and slight sharpening using Nik Sharpener Pro 3.0.

4 January 2013 KLIK Page 4 Cardinal Beauty (25 points, First, Beginner, Digital Pictorial, March 2012) This female Northern Cardinal posed for me during a walk in Erindale Park, Mississauga. It looked like she was thinking about whether or not to interrupt her meal and vacate the premises. I used the same camera and lens system as for the Brown Booby image. The long 400 mm prime lens with the light beige L series color must appear somewhat threatening. The original image is shown above the processed (iso 400, 1/640 s, f/10, -1/3EV) version. In addition to applying the same post processing as described above I also used the Photoshop clone tool with the help of a Wacom tablet to remove some of the branches that were distractions.

5 January 2013 KLIK Page 5 Hummingbird and Canna Lily (27 points, Beginner, Digital Theme (Things That Go Together, March 2012) This Ruby Throated Hummingbird was very attracted by Canna Lilies at the Riverwood Conservancy, Mississauga. In this case I handheld a Canon 7D with a 400 mm f/5.6 lens and a 580 EXII flash. In addition to my usual post-processing as described above, I also decreased saturation on the flowers (they were very, very red!) and cloned out an extra catch light supplied by the flash. In addition to an iso of 400 and aperture at f/5.6, I used a shutter speed of 1/1250 s. Assertive Hibiscus (24 points, Jim Cranston Award, May 2012) This hibiscus was growing not far from a beach in Holguin, Cuba. Again I hand held my 1D Mark IV with the same lens system as for the Brown Booby and Northern Cardinal shots. I was really looking for birds when I captured this image too. The camera settings reflect that: 1/1000 s, f/13, iso There was nothing special about postprocessing. It was about the same as the other shots mentioned above. However, I decided to submit this one in the Jim Cranston flower print competition. I was very concerned because the petals of the flower were too close to the edge of the image. Also, I knew it would need to somehow stand out from really strong competition. I had been experimenting with printing mats using some commercial software (QuickMats 4) and as I framed this flower image in my computer, I used Photoshop layers and masking to make the petal look like it extended over the edge of the mat. I combined that look with a suitable title ( Assertive Hibiscus ), and submitted it. It was quite an experience to watch the judging and the surprised reaction of the judges. Luck certainly played a role as usual: I tried the same mat idea with a bird image in the latest print competition and the judges seemed turned off by it. I ll no doubt keep experimenting. Being able to add post processing to the mat as well as the subject really adds yet another dimension to my photography. There seems to be no end to the breadth and depth of this wonderful art.

6 January 2013 KLIK Page 6 Using Layers to combine three images using Adobe Photoshop Elements Kevin White 1. Open all three images so that they are displayed in the Project Bin. 2. Click on the Clock picture 3. Double-click on the locked Clock layer entitled Background 4. Rename it something other than Background ( Clock BG ) the padlock icon disappears. 5. Click Arrange button at top of screen beside the Help menu a. Select 3 Up 6. Drag picture of lady over top of Clock picture. 7. Click Arrange button at top near Help a. Go back to 1 up Arrange. 8. In Layers drag the Lady layer below the Clock layer 9. Create mask in the Clock by clicking on the Clock BG layer and then clicking on the Add Layer Mask button at the bottom of the Layers section.

7 January 2013 KLIK Page Click on clock photo thumbnail on layer to edit the clock. 11. Use magic wand tool to select the area to mask. 12. Click on the light brown clock face to select it and hold down the Shift key and click to make multiple area selections (eg. for circles with the 6, 8 and 9). 13. Click on layer mask for Clock BG thumbnail 14. Fill selection with black by holding down Alt-Backspace

8 January 2013 KLIK Page Clock picture now has a new face. 16. Hold down Ctl-D to deselect the selection. 17. Click on Flower picture file in Project Bin at bottom of screen. 18. Use Magnetic Lasso to select the Flower from the background. Shortcut is L 19. Make a copy via Layer right click in selection for menu and select Layer via Copy. 20. A new Layer appears in the Flower picture Layers section. 21. Click Arrange button at top of screen, select 3 UP and drag the Flower selectionlayer 1 over on top of the Clock picture. 22. A new Layer 2 appears in the Clock Layers section and a large Flower picture appears in the screen over the Clock with the Lady s face.

9 January 2013 KLIK Page Click on the pointer arrow selector. 24. Click on the Flower image and click on the edges to resize to your desired shape. Click on the circle at the bottom to rotate the Flower image. Click on the green arrow at the bottom of the Flower when you are satisfied with the shape.

10 January 2013 KLIK Page Select the Flower and hit Ctl-C and Ctl-V to create a clone copy. 26. Position the Flower pictures over the clock hands. 27. Voila!

11 January 2013 KLIK Page 11 DIGITAL BEGINNER Pictorial 1ST Ballerina Dream Rosa Wang 25 1ST Schwabacher Landing Joe Iocco 25 2ND Grass Larry Jewett 24 2ND Rice Paper Butterfly Uliana Yaworsky 25 3RD Buster The Grouch Trish Aleve 24 3RD Lovre Lift Robert Mongrain 24 HM Boating In The Morning Qing-ping Zheng 24 HM Autumn Storm Leonie Holmes 24 HM Curves Paul Lindo 23 HM Beauty Behind The Zombie Mask Ina Miglin 23 HM Raw Power Rosa Wang 23 HM Fox Glove Stephen Stefanoff 24 HM Red-Bridge Holly Lumley 23 HM In My Garden Al Tilson 23 HM Swim Larry Jewett 23 HM Jaipur Portrait Linda Wiesner 23 Nature 1ST Warbler Feeding On Garden Pest Vincent Filteau 25 HM Old Ripley Feed Store Jim Calvert 23 HM The Pebble Al Tilson 23 2ND Hummingbird Feeding On Monarda Vincent Filteau 24 1ST Cape Buffalo-Hluhluwe South Africa Sandra Hawkins 28 3RD Marbled Orb Weaver Kevin Chan 23 2ND Great Blue Heron Landing Ron Manning 25 HM Coloring The Hills Of Lanark Craig Stirton 22 3RD Pod Of Pelicans Sandra Hawkins 25 HM Tews Falls Bob Kelly 22 HM Arctic Dryas With Insect Sandra Hawkins 25 Creative 1ST Distorting Concentric Circles Craig Stirton 24 HM Dragonfly Tony Paine 25 HM Mallard In Flight Joe Iocco 25 2ND Bloomfield Barn Monish Ghosh 24 1ST Moonlight Flight Hilarie McNeil-Smith 27 3RD Men At Work Annette Seip 23 2ND City Hall Leonie Holmes 24 HM Introspection Craig Stirton 23 3RD Top Hat Marching Band Marty Pinker 24 HM Skyward Bound Bob Kelly 23 HM Surreal Knock Out View Tony Paine 24 DIGITAL INTERMEDIATE Pictorial HM Water Games Warren Davis 23 PRINTS LEVEL ONE Theme 1ST Concerned Cuban Rooster Stephen Balke 24 1ST All Kids Are Ours Ina Miglin 24 2ND Blues Singer Myra Jones 23 2ND Tree Hugger Stephen Balke 24 3RD Tough Question Stephen Balke 23 3RD Delta Shoreline Brian MacKay 23 HM Flower 2 Frank Kuznik 22 3RD Pondering Rosa Wang 23 HM Gaged Juri Vosu 22 Nature 1ST Blue Jay Rob Thorne 23 1ST Green Frog 2 Stephen Hill 24 2ND Curious Doves Stephen Balke 22 2ND Frozen Leaves Paul Ewington 22 3RD Freddy The Frog Chris Allen 22 3RD Northern Cardinal Carrying Snowflake Stephen Balke 22 HM Merlin Efraim Perl 22 HM Spired Iceberg In Gerlache Strait Jennifer Fowler 22 PRINTS LEVEL TWO Theme Creative 1ST Colisseum Marcus Miller 23 2ND A Pretty Ghoul Hilarie McNeil-Smith 23 1ST Heritage Home John Moore 22 3RD Postcard From Rome Marcus Miller 22 2ND Operation Earth Rescue Attack Of The Forks Sorin Alb 22 SECOND COMPETITION RESULTS ~ January 2013 ~ RIBBON WINNERS DIGITAL ADVANCED Pictorial Nature Creative Pictorial Pictorial 3RD Watching Toronto Raising Rainer Rothfuss 21 1ST Going For Gold Sandra Hawkins 23 HM Decaying Music 2 Stephen Hill 21 2ND Watching My Every Move Hilarie McNeil-Smith 21 3RD Osprey With Catch Leonie Holmes 21

12 January 2013 KLIK Page 12 SECOND COMPETITION ~ January 2013 ~ SCOREBOARD Digital Prints Advanced Intermediate Beginner Level One Sandra Hawkins 78 Stephen Balke 69 Rosa Wang 70 Stephen Balke 46 Joe Iocco 74 Stephen Hill 67 Vincent Filteau 70 Rosa Wang 45 Raymond Hsu 71 Juri Vosu 64 Craig Stirton 69 Brian MacKay 43 Tony Paine 71 Paul Ewington 64 Larry Jewett 69 Ina Miglin 43 Hilarie McNeil-Smith 70 Alan Gray 63 Bob Kelly 66 Rob Thorne 43 Leonie Holmes 70 Sorin Alb 63 Annette Seip 65 Efraim Perl 41 Jon Clarke 69 Jennifer Fowler 62 Monish Ghosh 65 Chris Allen 40 Al Tilson 68 Frank Kuznik 61 Qing-ping Zheng 65 Vincent Filteau 39 Marty Pinker 68 John Moore 61 Trish Aleve 65 Marty Pinker 38 Ron Manning 68 Myra Jones 61 Efraim Perl 64 Misbah Ali 37 Ina Miglin 67 Alan Munro 60 Jim Evans 64 Adela Tivadar 36 Bruce Kennedy 66 Bob Bowman 59 Kevin Chan 64 John Moore 36 Stephen Stefanoff 66 Rainer Rothfuss 59 Wojtek Porowski 64 Wojtek Porowski 36 Warren Davis 66 Angela Murphy 58 Brian MacKay 62 Holly Lumley 21 Fred Dixon 65 Rick DaSilva 39 Adela Tivadar 61 Jim Calvert 65 Holly Lumley 61 Karen Simmonds 65 Kathryn Doren 61 Linda Wiesner 65 Janet Dixon 60 Prints Level Two Uliana Yaworsky 65 Linda Hilliard 60 Marcus Miller 45 David Penty 64 Maureen Rodrigues 60 Hilarie McNeil-Smith 44 David Simmonds 64 David Jackman 59 Sandra Hawkins 43 Janet Brazier 64 Dwane Smith 58 Tony Paine 42 Kevin White 64 Bashar Darghawth 57 Al Tilson 41 Robbie Robinson 64 Donna Miller 57 Leonie Holmes 41 Robert Mongrain 64 Karen Torres 57 Robbie Robinson 40 Garry Weiler 63 Paul Lindo 42 Myra Jones 39 Ursula Tweddle 63 Felix Tossan 40 David Simmonds 38 Kay Woollam 60 Dolly Goyette 21 Paul McLeod 38 Robert Bateman 60 Lynda Bungay 21 Alan Gray 35 Audrey Cherevaty 59 Marcus Miller 59 Bruce Peters 58

13 January 2013 KLIK Page 13 SEASON LEADERBOARD DIGITAL PRINTS Beginner Intermediate Advanced Level One Rosa Wang 133 Stephen Balke 129 Joe Iocco 138 Ina Miglin 90 Larry Jewett 127 Sorin Alb 127 Leonie Holmes 137 Rosa Wang 90 Annette Seip 125 Stephen Hill 127 Sandra Hawkins 137 Stephen Balke 88 Brian MacKay 124 Paul Ewington 122 Tony Paine 135 Rob Thorne 87 Kevin Chan 124 Juri Vosu 121 Raymond Hsu 133 Efraim Perl 86 Adela Tivadar 122 Alan Gray 118 Hilarie McNeil-Smith 129 Brian MacKay 83 Efraim Perl 122 Jennifer Fowler 118 Marty Pinker 129 Marty Pinker 80 Holly Lumley 121 John Moore 116 Ron Manning 129 Adela Tivadar 78 Jim Evans 121 Myra Jones 116 Ina Miglin 128 Chris Allen 77 Kathryn Doren 120 Alan Munro 115 Jon Clarke 128 John Moore 76 Trish Aleve 120 Bob Bowman 114 Al Tilson 127 Holly Lumley 66 David Jackman 118 Angela Murphy 112 Karen Simmonds 127 Bob Kelly 43 Dwane Smith 118 Rick DaSilva 95 Robbie Robinson 126 Lucio DaRocha 41 Linda Hilliard 118 Frank Kuznik 61 Robert Mongrain 126 George Webster 39 Monish Ghosh 117 Paul McLeod 59 Warren Davis 126 Larry Jewett 39 Donna Miller 115 Rainer Rothfuss 59 Jim Calvert 125 Vincent Filteau 39 Janet Dixon 115 Doug Johnston 56 Uliana Yaworsky 125 Annette Seip 37 Maureen Rodrigues 113 Stan Kozel 56 Bruce Kennedy 124 Beverley Smith 37 Bashar Darghawth 111 Don Meaker 55 Janet Brazier 124 Misbah Ali 37 Karen Torres 105 Ursula Tweddle 124 Roy Williams 37 Paul Lindo 97 David Penty 123 Wojtek Porowski 36 Qing-ping Zheng 85 Stephen Stefanoff 123 Qing-ping Zheng 19 Vincent Filteau 70 David Simmonds 122 PRINTS Craig Stirton 69 Fred Dixon 122 Level Two Bob Kelly 66 Kevin White 122 Marcus Miller 92 Bob Roman 64 Linda Wiesner 121 Hilarie McNeil-Smith 86 Wojtek Porowski 64 Kay Woollam 119 Tony Paine 86 Garry Revesz 62 Garry Weiler 118 Leonie Holmes 85 Beverley Smith 57 Robert Bateman 118 Sandra Hawkins 85 Dolly Goyette 57 Audrey Cherevaty 117 Al Tilson 82 Linda Lin 57 Marcus Miller 115 David Simmonds 82 Mujtaba Khan 57 Bruce Peters 114 Robbie Robinson 82 Christina Moss 55 Lisa Husar 60 Myra Jones 80 David Shaw 55 Omar Sheikh 58 Paul McLeod 79 Hilary Callin 55 Alan Gray 75 Felix Tossan 40 Jim Calvert 43 Lynda Bungay 21 Rainer Rothfuss 40

14 January 2013 KLIK Page 14 Marketplace For sale -- Spyder 2 monitor calibrator $ Contact: Al Tilson Sharepoint Textures and backgrounds: Blogs and websites: Don Komarechka: HDR and Travel Photography: Street Photography: The mindful eye: Mark S. Johnson Photography: Digital Photography School: KLIK SUBMISSIONS KLIK welcomes feedback, comments and suggestions; articles; tips, tricks and techniques; interesting web sites; images with comments. All submissions are usually published in the first available issue. Please send your submissions to: KLIK@mississaugacameraclub.ca. Please visit our Affiliated organisations for news about events, competitions and special offers. The Photographic Society of America The Canadian Association for Photographic Art THE MISSISSAUGA CAMERA CLUB Meetings: Cawthra Seniors Community Centre, 1389 Cawthra Road, Mississauga info@mississaugacameraclub.ca Web: The Mississauga Camera Club is a member of the Greater Toronto Council of Camera Clubs (GTCCC), Canadian Association of Photographic Art (CAPA), the Photographic Society of America (PSA) and is affiliated with the Mississauga Recreation and Parks Department and the Mississauga Arts Council.