Wow, time goes quickly at this time of year, as members are busy shooting assignments, weddings, stock, photojournalism.
We're a broad church and have few rules on posting with off topic discussions across the globe at weekends, so there's always something to discuss.
This week, one member recounted his experience of being hit by the floods that afflicted the UK. Nothing photographic, but his tales of how to get home with water flowing over the bonnet (hood) of his Audi brought wishes of support from across the world.
A long running discussion this week was the subject of how social photographers work with their subjects during a shoot. It was a varied discussion, ranging from shooting a long lens - does it distance you from your subject or is it a good technique to flatter a subjects features and avoid the harsh effects of wide angles? How much direction do subjects need, given that they're virtually always not professional models? Of course, some get to photograph the rich and famous, who are used to being in front of the camera and therefore the amount of direction is vastly different.
For those that don't, shooting tethered into a large monitor is a confidence inspiring technique, it seems, though it pays not to have the screen in view as the shutter fires, or craned necks with be the result!
More technical discussions revolved around the gremlin of the digital workflow - colour space. An in depth discussion about RGB and CMYK and the perils of conversions were discussed by pre-press experts, retouchers and imaging professionals worldwide.
On the subject of colour (color) management, there was a very informative discussion about monitor calibration, the sales pitch from equipement sellers and wether it's best to contract out this expertise to acknowledged experts such as Neil Bartsow.
Other more straight forward discussions ranged from how to print out a directory of the contents of a drive, does Mac's Mail progam have a receive/confirmation function and how does the 'merge to HDR' action work in Photoshop.
The weekend off topic discussions ranged from a request from a France based member to report sightings of his wind-blown chicken shed to a slightly more serious request for help in fighting the proposed onerous Photo Permit requirements being proposed by the New York City Mayor's Office.
It's a small world these days. I just hope that chicken shed doesn't end up in downtown Manhattan - now that's a great photo opp!
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