November 2011 Club Meeting...

Folks,

Our third club meeting was held yesterday at Rumores bar. A small turnout due to some members being out of the country, but a couple of new members, which is always good.

The main topic of discussion was an introduction to Paint Shop Pro's Straighten, Crop & Clone tools. We spent some time discussing the basic function of these tools, and their importance as the first steps in post processing an image. I've posted a simple tutorial covering the basics of what we discussed in the 'Tips & Techniques' section of the forum. I also thought it would be a good idea to try our hand at some image cloning as a bit of 'homework' to hone our skills, so within that post I've included links to a couple of images to play with.

It was also decided that our next Field Trip would be to Desert Springs golf club. This will be on Tuesday 15th November, meeting either at the main clubhouse at 11am, or 10:45am at the Overa Hotel and then on to Desert Springs. Anyone wishing to share a car, please post availability/request in the Photo Cafe section so that members can arrange pickups.

This month's Photo Assignment will be... Texture. Members are requested to brave the November elements with their cameras and get some interesting shots of anything that falls into this category... from wood, stone & brick to fluffy slippers! Please upload your photos into the Darkroom Gallery section of the forum for display and discussion. Any new members who have not posted images to the forum should first read the 'sticky' on inserting images, and if encounter any problems please post to the Photo Cafe where one of the other members will hopefully talk you through the process, and help you on the way.

We again thank the Computer Club for the use of their projector during our meeting. This is very handy for tutorial discussions, but already we are seeing the limitations of it as far as seeing detail and accurate colour when viewing our photos... quite important for a photo club! So we'll have to investigate possible alternatives (possibly bringing in a large monitor?). Anyway, I hope everyone bears with us as we find our feet and hopefully increase our membership. With a little bit of persistence and effort, I'm sure it will be worthwhile to achieve the goal of a fun and interesting club.

As previously decided, to hold our monthly meetings at Rumores bar on the 1st Friday of each month at 4pm, we agreed the date of our next monthly club meeting would be Friday 2nd December 2011.

Looking forward to our next field trip and monthly assigment pics coming in... see you soon!

Rgds,
Howard

Thanks Howard for a good meeting. Personally, I found it very useful and picked up a few tips on PaintShop Pro. Let's hope I can transfer the learning through to better pictures!

Richard.