Workshop: Introduction to Darkable ================================== What is Darktable? ------------------ Darktable is an open source photography workflow application and raw developer. It is a virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers. It manages your digital negatives in a database, lets you view them through a zoomable lighttable and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them. Although the functionality is similar to Adobe Lightroom, Darktable is not a clone. The latest version of Darktable supports Windows, MacOS, Linux and other Unix systems. To process high resolution photos, a powerful computer is suggested. It should have at least 4 GB of RAM memory. To learn more, visit the web site of the project:    https://www.darktable.org/ Why use Darktable? ------------------ While cost is often suggested as a good reason to use open source software, in this case, it is a poor one. Compared to the cost of camera equipment, the cost of commerical photography software is low. So, for most people, commerical software is a good choice. Commerical software will generally have a more refined user interface and be easier to use. That said, Darktable has some advantages over other software. Because it is open source, you are free to install it on as many systems as you wish. You are free to install it on your friend's computers, for example. Also, you can always download, save and install older versions. That is important if you have a large body of photos stored in the system and prefer to run an older version for some reason. The development team for Darktable is quite small, about 30 people do most of the work. However, the developers are photography enthusiasts (originally Darktable was developed for their own use) and they tend to be researchers in image processing. Behind the scenes, Darktable uses state-of-the-art image processing algorithms and it has some features not found in other software. Some of the f delete

Theme:  Shadows - You cannot have light, without also having darkness or shadows. So an image with no shadows (or deep dark blacks) is flat and lifeless, it feels two dimensional. Use shadows to help create dramatic images.  Coffee at 10 am Bay Center Food Court - Lunch at noon - Swan's Pub, 506 Pandora St Please register to receive follow-up information on any changes and to receive notification if a weather-related cancellation is required. delete

Theme: Details: delete

Photoshoot: Downtown Chemainus, sometimes known as "Mural Town" because of the forty or so murals spread around this quaint Island community.  The murals depict the history of the region and some of the buildings date back to the late 19th/early 20th Century.  VCC Photographer/Artist Cim McDonald, a resident and a restorer of the murals will be joining us.  Craft shops and artist studios abound and walking is easy.  There is a large parking lot on Willow St. and a museum where we will meet at 10 a.m.  Lunch will be at the Willow Street Cafe, 9749 Willow St.  Registration is required for lunch. Chemainus is approximately an hour and twenty minutes from Victoria. delete

Bring your images from the two Gregg Eligh workshops in March - advanced portraits and the figure workshop - to show to the group.. delete

Members' Night Details: You are invited to stake out a 10 minute time slot to present your images or a short learning session. Check out the guidelines at the Documents & Files How-to section of the website and make your submission well in advance. delete

This field trip is a 3 night/4 day stay on Hornby Island and the accommodations are at the Hornby Dive Lodge (http://hornbyislanddiving.com) The cost is $457 per person which includes meals (and they are really good!). Rooms are twin or queen beds, one room is a double and one has a queen + single bed. We currently have a few spaces available. If there is sufficient interest, we may take a boat out to Flora Islet which is a great flower location (extra cost, min 8 max 12 people). This is a “beach landing” and subject to weather conditions. The trip will be organised in a similar way to the Tofino trips. We will provide general guidance on locations etc. Limited guidance on photographic issues will also be available, but this is not a workshop. Car-pooling will be facilitated. Cancellation policy: as this trip will be confirmed within the Dive Lodge’s 60-day cancellation period the cost is NOT refundable, but you can substitute another member. delete

Theme: Crop – Compose an image and capture a series of  4-5 frames, walking closer to your subject thus cropping out part of the background each frame , with the final photo focusing one or part of an item. Come early for coffee, we will start shooting at 10:30 Lunch at 12:00  at Garrick's Head Pub - 1140 Government St/Bastion Sq Please register to receive follow-up information on any changes and to receive notification if a weather-related cancellation is required. delete