NEWSLETTER number 12
April 2006 Editor – Rod Wainwright LRPS – 01249 656297: email editor@silver-fox.com
Members March Monochrome Day
Despite the weather – it was a very ‘monochromatic’ day on Sunday 12 th with plenty of early morning snow – the turnout for the WR meeting was good and several members shared a wide variety of subjects in B&W to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience. Some of those images are reproduced in this newsletter but not as many as I would like simply because a high proportion were prints from film with no digital scans available and it’s a pity that we cannot share any of those images with all WR members. The magic of B&W endures and deepens. To many photographers you just can’t beat it.
Digital AV - 10 Years later by Robert Albright FRPS
10 years’ ago I wrote a piece for AV News, the official publication of the RPSAV Group. It was positive about the prospects for the use of digital technology in the production of images and sound recording/mixing.
Has the promise implied in the exciting first flush of digital youth been fulfilled?
In many respects, the answer is Yes. The technical advantages of the digital medium have enabled production of AV sequences to a standard technically unattainable in 1996. Sound recording and mixing is, in general, significantly better than before. At a typical AV event today most sequences have very acceptable and, in many cases, excellent sound tracks. Music and voice editing is much easier with software such as Audacity and Adobe Audition than in the period of audio-cassette tape. Production values have consequently improved, driven by a more even balance between sound and image.
The standard of photography is another matter. The process of selecting and editing images is more flexible than with slides but there are some pitfalls with digital images, especially the twin dangers of burnt-out highlights and the over-sharpening of images.
It is an old joke at our expense of AV workers that we only do AV because our photographs do not stand up to individual scrutiny. Whilst this is not true in many instances, it is quite surprising that commonplace errors that would draw criticism by any primary group of photographers are allowed to appear in some AV sequences. Just as a major mistake on the soundtrack destroys the magic of the sequence, so does a naïve photographic blunder. Although it is extremely difficult to produce good results in our medium, we should not accept poor standards in even one element of the multi-disciplinary mix.
This combination of easier production and the further separation of most photographers from our complex type of AV has provided impetus to a new and (to traditionalists) threatening phenomenon. It is called Photo Harmony. You’ve never heard of it?
Up and down the country, professional and club photographers are putting music tracks behind linked images. Nothing new in AV, you may say. Yet 10 years ago, professional wedding photographers did not use AV as their prime sales aid when presenting work to clients. Even 5 years’ ago it was a rarity. Now it is commonplace. The same applies to club members presenting portfolios of their work.
In Photo Harmony, Photo Essay, Photo Suite (call it what you will), the sound values are often feeble: inappropriate choice of music, no attempt to finish the music to synchronise with the images or to follow the contours of the music and dynamic levels often too loud or too soft at peaks and troughs. Yet there is a huge pent-up demand seeking an outlet and we, in the RPS AV community, have being asked if we can cater for it.
I suggest that Photo Harmony is the biggest challenge AV has faced since digital production became popular. The impact of this challenge will shape AV dramatically in the next decade.
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