Tuesday 14th March 2023
Annual PDI Competition – Judge Sue Sibley ARPS, EFIAP/silver, DPAGB and BPE4
We were very pleased to welcome Sue Sibley to judge our Annual PDI Competition, the last competition this season. Sue has been a member of Southampton Camera Club for 13 years, and is the Chairman of Southampton International Exhibition for over seven years. Sue likes to visit many clubs within the Southern Counties judging prints and PDIs. She also gives talks on her own beautiful work, as well as Photoshop tutorial evenings.
The Annual PDI consists of 5 categories – General, Landscapes, Monochrome, Nature, and Portrait, and all members are judged on an equal basis unlike our Merit competitions, which are judged on beginners, intermediate, and advanced groups. We had 21 members attend the zoom evening, and our members did not disappoint again this year by submitting 40 lovely and inspiring images for Sue’s critique and guidance. Sue gave some good feedback and very useful hints and tips on each image, which members found very informative and useful when continuing on their photographic journey.
The first category viewed was ‘General’ and some of Sue’s critique included focal points and depth of field, correct use of monochrome, brightness and contrast, and sense of scale. She advised about the careful use of water droplets on plant subjects to ensure the detail is not lost, and the use of vignetting to lessen brighter edges and enhance the subject matter. The second category viewed was ‘Landscapes’, and Sue advised about the correct time of day to take photographs, especially on bright sunny days where earlier or later in the day will give softer lighting. The use of a letterbox shape will remove all the negative spaces in an image, and enhance the main subject area. Be aware of a good foreground, which can ‘hold’ a picture, as well as particular viewpoints to enhance a landscape; where possible hone in on reflections to capitalise on an unusual aspect.
The third category viewed was ‘Monochrome’ and Sue felt this was our strongest section of the evening. It is very important to produce an image that stands out with the correct use of cropping, and white balance, and also to push the contrast to limit grey tones throughout the image. It is also very important to concentrate on any patterns that are created, and once again the use of vignetting to soften the edges is important. As we did not have any portrait entries this year, the last category viewed was ‘Nature’. Once again, Sue gave some very good advice and critique on the beautiful images that our members had entered.
Following the judging, Sue selected her favourite from each category as well as the best in competition. The results are:
Best Nature, and Best in Competition – Mike Doyle – ‘Neatly Side Stepped’
Best Landscape, and runner up – Mirza Khurrum Baig – ‘Dog Walker’
Best Monochrome – John Nalaskowski – ‘Shoreham Power Station’
Best General – Jackie Tourle – ‘Iced Cherries’
A full list of entries and scores can be found under the Competition Results 2022-2023 section on the website.
Following the judging, members were able to re-visit some of the images and ask questions of each photographer on techniques used, locality, etc., which everyone enjoyed.
We would like to thank Sue for her excellent judging, critique and advice. Also, grateful thanks to Rob for collating the images and scoring, Howard for acting as second scorer, Kathie for arranging the competition, and all our members for continuing to support our lovely club.
The Committee