13th November: “What is Photography in the age of AI?: An exploration” by Mariam Mathew and ‘Photoshop and Generative AI’ by Avril Candler

Very many thanks to Mariam and Avril for a an excellent evening venturing into the world of AI and its application in competitive photography.

Mariam highlighted a number of burgeoning generative AI platforms showing a number of  ‘text to image’ applications including Adobe Firefly.  The latter  is  an integral part of Adobe Photoshop which Avril demonstrated in the second half of the evening.  Mariam showed us how her young students (9-12 years) are developing their text to image skills.    Mariam put us through a quiz  to spot the AI generated images vs the originals.  We weren’t that bad at it either!  Try for yourself – just click the links below.

NBC News Quiz

Google Quiz

Avril’s presentation looked at the ‘legitimate’ use of Generative AI in competitive photography such as ‘Generative Fill’ to remove unwanted artefacts and ‘Generative Expand’ to enhance the composition (we’ve all heard that dreaded phrase ‘x is too tight in the frame’!).  Following those examples she highlighted the unacceptable  AI use (within the competitive photographic world) of  ‘text to image’ – great for illustrative purposes such as birthday/anniversary/Christmas cards………..and even Halloween cards with witches on rooftops…….you had to be there to see it!

The evening was rounded off with a general discussion  and Mark Buckley-Sharp explained the  PAGB stance on the use of AI.

A very topical, fascinating and excellent evening with grateful thanks to Mariam and Avril for their informative, interesting and thoroughly enjoyable presentations.

Next week we are back on Zoom for a talk by Harry Kingman ‘Antarctica’.

 

6th November: Open and Landscape Projected Competitions judged by Erica Oram CPAGB AFIAP BPE3

Last night we were delighted to welcome Erica Oram from Sheffield Photographic Society to judge our competitions.  Erica’s judging was erudite, helpful and informative which made for a very interesting and entertaining evening.

Congratulations to John Draper for his winning image ‘The Resting Place’ in the Open section.  Dave Martin’s ‘Crocus’ was second and Judith Gimber’s ‘Feeding Frenzy’ third.  Highly commended were Judith’s ‘Doorstop Duo’ and John’s ‘Hang on Tight’;  commended were Trevor Alexander’s ‘Merchant Square Paddington’ and Avril Candler’s ‘Safe’.

Open Winner  by John Draper

 

The Landscape section was won by Dave Martin with ‘Bamburgh Castle and Poppies at Sunset’,  Peter Keeble’s ‘Cambodian Desolation’ was second and Avril Candler’s ‘Vesuvius Cloud at Dawn’ third.  Dave’s ‘Baldock Landscape was highly commended and YC Wei’s ‘Morning on the Masai Mara commended.  Congratulations to Dave who had a really good night.

Winning Landscape by Dave Martin

 

Many thanks to everyone who entered and very special thanks to Erica for expert judging.

All the images may be viewed on Facebook.

Next week we are back at Century for a workshop session.   Mariam Mathew will be leading the discussion on  “What is Photography in the age of AI? and Avril Candler will present the practical use of Generative AI in photo editing.  We hope you will come along and join the debate!

30th October: Round 1 Rosebowl Inter-club Projected Competition judged by Alan Taberer

This week we hosted our first round of the Chilterns Association of Camera Clubs’ Rosebowl competition.  The competition comprises fifteen images per club and  we were up against Milton Keynes and St. Albans camera clubs.  All the entries are received before the name of the judge is announced.  Alan Taberer from Imagez Camera Club did the honours scoring within the prescribed marking range of 15 -20 and congratulations go to Milton Keynes for their comprehensive win.  We tied with St. Albans – bridesmaids both!  Two stars are awarded for individual images and those go forward to the Final regardless of whether the club does and Maidenhead and St. Albans got one each.

Thanks to Alan for his judging and to everyone who Zoomed in for the occasion.

Next week we have our Open and Landscape projected competitions on Zoom which will be judged by Erica Oram CPAGB AFIAP BPE3.  Our Landscape definition is ‘images depicting the external environment and including, either singly or in any combination, the elements of land, water and sky. Other elements may be included but must not be the principal subject.’  We look forward to ‘meeting’ Erica and an enjoyable evening.

In the meantime have a good week.