Wednesday 30 March 2011

Nikon Owner South Coast: A brief introduction to High Dynamic Range photography


Presents

H D R

(or how I stopped worrying and learned to love bracketing)

A brief introduction to High Dynamic Range photography

by Andrew Hewson

Saturday 16th April, 2011 from 18:00 at The Duke of Wellington, Southampton

As one of the organisers of the NOSCG meetings, Andy Hewson volunteered to present about HDR: not because he feels he's an expert on it, but because he has had some success using it, can explain what it's about from a beginner's perspective, and hopefully give a few pointers for anyone interested in trying it out.

So, if you want to see how the picture below came about, have questions about HDR or have your own HDR photos to show or experiences to share, come along on the 16th April!


The HDR presentation is not planned to take up the whole evening, so everyone is encouraged to bring along their own photos (HDR or not!) to show to the group. As we'll have the projector and screen available feel free to bring along digital pics on a USB memory stick and we can project them.
Venue
The Duke of Wellington, Southampton

The Duke of Wellington
36 Bugle Street
Southampton
Hampshire
SO14 2AH

Telephone no. +44 (0)23 80339222

The Duke of Wellington is situated in the centre of Southampton, about a 20-minute walk from the railway station and located close to ample parking available at the nearby shopping centre. Visit their web site for more details.

Click here for map

PLEASE NOTE:

There is a £2 cover charge per person attending to cover the cost of the hire of the room.

If you are planning on attending please post a message replying to the thread about the meeting on the Nikon Owner Message Board to let us know and indicate if you are planning on eating at the pub on the night: Nikon Owner South Coast Group: April Meeting: HDR

Anyone who is going to order food, please arrive by 18:00 so that all orders and dining can be completed before the start of the presentation.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

The Definitive Simon Stafford General Photographic Techniques Seminar

Saturday, 26th March - 2.00 p.m. - 5.30 p.m.

Simon Stafford's General Photographic Techniques Seminar will be held in central London, at Fitzroy House, 37 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 6DX on Saturday, 26th March between 2.00 p.m. and 5.30 p.m.. The price of the seminar is £155 with the lower price of £95 for Nikon Owner subscribers and includes mid-afternoon tea and coffee.


The seminar will be presented by one of the world's foremost Nikon experts, Simon Stafford, the technical editor of Nikon Owner magazine and best-selling author of numerous Magic Lantern Guides to the Nikon camera system.

Agenda for the session

Part one: Camera skills
  • Understanding f/numbers & shutter speeds
  • Learn how to optimise white balance and ISO
  • Mastering camera menu settings
  • JPEG versus RAW: the pros and cons of both
  • How to achieve accurate exposures
  • Understand how your camera’s metering system works
  • Learn the benefits of digital histograms
  • Improve your focus techniques with AF and manual focus
Part two: Shooting skills
  • Learn good camera handling
  • Camera support systems, tripods, monopods and alternatives
  • Understanding and using depth-of-field
  • Choosing and using filters
  • Imaginative use of shutter speed
  • Creative use of white balance
Part three: Beyond the camera
  • Planning and visualising the picture
  • Techniques of composition
  • Transporting photographic equipment
  • Tips for location shooting
Questions and Answers:
Please note that there will be ample opportunity to ask questions throughout the seminar.

Nikon Owner Subscription

If you are not already a subscriber to Nikon Owner, and would like to enrol on this course at the special price, you can apply for the standard, silver, or gold subscription to Nikon Owner below, by sending me, Gillian Greenwood (gillian.greenwood@graysofwestminster.com), an email with your full name, daytime mobile and landline. Alternatively, please call between 2.00 p.m. and 5.30 p.m. Monday to Friday on 020 7828 8971 (or 020 7828 4925 if that line is busy) to speak to me or any of my colleagues.


Standard Annual Subscription - special price: £59
  • 1-year Subscription to Nikon Owner
  • 3-year warranty on all new Nikon products from Grays of Westminster
  • Nikon Owner magazine, a superb, glossy full-colour 60-page quarterly magazine that is 100% Nikon. Each issue delivers benchmark technical reviews of the very latest Nikon equipment, thought-provoking interviews and articles with world-class images
  • Private user-name and password to subscribers-only website
  • Simon Stafford’s Technical Helpline
  • 18-month warranty on second-hand Nikon from Grays of Westminster
  • 10% off Think Tank bags purchased at Grays of Westminster
  • Special trips and events
  • Discounts on events and training sessions
  • 10% off any training courses run by Nikon UK
Silver Subscription - launch price: £129 (normal price: £179)
  • 2-year Subscription to Nikon Owner
  • 3-year warranty on all new Nikon products from Grays of Westminster
  • A half-hour tutorial on the phone or face to face, by appointment
  • Nikon Owner quarterly magazine as above
  • Private user-name and password to subscribers-only website
  • Simon Stafford’s Technical Helpline
  • 18-month warranty on second-hand Nikon from Grays of Westminster
  • 10% off Think Tank bags purchased at Grays of Westminster
  • Special trips and events
  • Discounts on events and training sessions
  • 10% off any training courses run by Nikon UK
Gold subscription - launch price £349 (normal price £450)
  • 5-year subscription to Nikon Owner
  • 5-year warranty on all new Nikon products from Grays of Westminster
  • 2-year warranty on second-hand Nikon from Grays of Westminster
  • Gold Priority waiting list for all new Nikon releases (top of the waiting list)
  • A half-hour tutorial on the phone or face to face, by appointment
  • Special offers to Gold subscribers throughout the period of subscription
  • A signed copy of Grays of Westminster - In the Company of Legends, or if you have one already, a Nikon Magic Lantern Guide of your choice
  • A Grays of Westminster umbrella (in store only)
  • Nikon Owner quarterly magazine as above
  • Private user-name and password to subscribers-only website which includes forum, message board, technical equipment reviews, events’ page and use of a photo gallery
  • Gold subscription card
  • Simon Stafford’s Technical Helpline
  • 10% off Think Tank bags purchased at Grays of Westminster
  • Special trips and events
  • Substantial discounts on training sessions organised by Grays of Westminster, including Mike Maloney’s Workshops , Heather Angel’s Wildlife & Natural History Workshops, Simon Stafford’s Definitive Flash, Portraiture and Macro Training Sessions, Michael Eleftheriades’ panoramic and colour-calibration seminars and Chris Weston’s Photographic Courses.
  • 10% off any training courses run by Nikon UK

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Nikon Workshop: Nikon Capture NX2 - getting to the heart of NEF pix

A workshop by SCG regular Robert Crowther, exploring his experiences
of our much loved picture editing suite

Saturday, 19 March at 18:00 - Duke of Wellington, 36 Bugle Street, Southampton SO14 2AH

Andy Hewson and Adrian Cochrane of the Nikon Owner South Coast Group have arranged a special new workshop. From the early stages of becoming a Nikon owner and his switch to more serious DSLR photography, Bob Crowther inevitably gravitated into using the Capture program fairly extensively. This workshop aims to share some of that digital processing experience with the group … though he emphasises this is just as a typical user and not as some kind of aspiring wannabe expert!

To fully appreciate quite why Capture NX2 offers so much to the Nikon owner, it's necessary to retrace some fundamental DSLR principles and their relevance in our drive towards creating better pictures. The workshop will start with an overview comparing relative merits of JPEG and RAW (NEF) file formats and their relevance to in-camera processing, as well as to subsequent edits in the digital darkroom to adjust colour, tone, luminosity and resolution.

The relationship between Capture NX2 and Adobe's Photoshop (or equivalents such as Elements or PaintShop Pro) will also be compared, particularly where the technologies of these programs overlap and where they don't. While there are inevitable overlaps, Bob uses Capture NX2 mainly to adjust image quality and Photoshop for more serious subsequent graphic adjustments.

Exploring these factors will clarify why the unique, non-destructive nature inherent in Capture's process is such a massive advantage for the Nikon photographer wanting to get the best from his image.

To hope to fit all of this into a couple of hours is just a bit on the ambitious side! Depending on how everything progresses, we've also planned to return to the subject at a future NOSCG meeting to complete anything unfinished. This will allow a further opportunity to deal with any complex Q&As that weren't answered first time around and especially for members to present their own favourite Capture tweaks to the group. More about that later.

Venue


The Duke of Wellington, Southampton

The Duke of Wellington
36 Bugle Street
Southampton
Hampshire
SO14 2AH

Telephone no. +44 (0)23 80339222

The Duke of Wellington is situated in the centre of Southampton, about a 20-minute walk from the railway station and located close to ample parking available at the nearby shopping centre. Visit their web site for more details.

Click here for map

PLEASE NOTE:

There is a £2 cover charge per person attending to cover the cost of the hire of the room.

If you are planning on attending please post a message replying to the thread about the meeting on the Nikon Owner Message Board to let us know and indicate if you are planning on eating at the pub on the night:

Nikon Owner South Coast Group: March Meeting: Capture NX2

Anyone who is going to order food, please arrive by 18:00 so that all orders and dining can be completed before the start of the workshop.

Kind regards,

Gillian Greenwood
Features Editor and Events & Training Coordinator

Thursday 3 March 2011

Special Offers for Nikon Owner subscribers during March - Limited time period

Take out a subscription to Nikon Owner and find out how you can benefit from a number of special offers during March


Think Tank Camera Bags

We are delighted to be able to offer to our Nikon Owner Gold subscribers* a special 15% discount on any Think Tank product purchased at Grays of Westminster for a limited time period. Think Tank provides camera bag solutions for enthusiasts and professionals alike. Their products are born from the collaborative effort of photographers and product designers and together they have created inventive and effective solutions for all photographic situations, with enormous attention to detail. Our offer, which is available between March 1st and March 14th, allows you to start planning all your photographic trips this year using the best camera bags to suit your specific camera and lens' requirements.


Chris Weston's Mastering DSLR Photography Seminar, Saturday, 5th March, 2011, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Oxford.


As a result of exceptional demand, a small number of additional places have just been made available at Chris Weston’s Mastering Digital SLR Photography seminar on Saturday. If you are a Nikon Owner subscriber you will be able to take advantage of your Nikon Owner subscription and receive a £25 discount on the normal seminar fee (RRP £75.00).

Book now for just £50!

Over the past three years, more than 400 people have attended Chris Weston’s uniquely informative, inspiring and entertaining Mastering Digital SLR Photography seminars, experiencing what has been described as “the best ever one-day session devoted to photography”.

Covering an extensive range of expert skills, advice and technique tips, Chris shares his many years’ experience on how to shoot like a pro, get the most from your DSLR camera, and take photographs you will be proud of time and again.

Catering for all knowledge levels and unsurpassed in its ability to make you a better photographer, this seminar will prove to be, to quote a previous Nikon Owner delegate: “the most beneficial day you’ll spend not taking pictures.”


Highlights

  • Optimise your camera’s menu settings
  • Learn better use of white balance and ISO
  • Exposed: the truth about JPEG vs. RAW
  • Discover the secret to accurate exposures
  • Dispelled: the digital exposure myth
  • Get the most from your camera’s light meter
  • Understand digital histograms
  • Master stops, f/numbers & shutter speeds
  • Improve AF and focus performance
  • Learn best-practice for camera handling
  • The art of omission: the secret to successful composition
  • Revealed: the techniques and settings behind successful photographs

About Chris Weston


Chris Weston is one of the UK’s most knowledgeable digital photographers and a recognised expert tutor, known for his ability to reach all levels of photographer from novice to advanced user. He has been a Nikon user since the age of 10 and is a distinguished contributor to Nikon Owner magazine. He writes regularly for the photographic press, including Practical Photography and Outdoor Photography, and has authored 30 books.



Please note that the last available time to book will be Friday, 4th March, at midday

Alternatively, please call Chris on 01305 831752

(International callers please dial +44 1305 831752).

If you are not already a subscriber to Nikon Owner, and would like to enrol on this course at the special price, you can apply for the standard, silver, or gold subscription to Nikon Owner below, by sending me, Gillian Greenwood, an email with your full name, daytime mobile and landline. Alternatively, please call between 2.00 p.m. and 5.30 p.m. Monday to Friday on 020 7828 8971 (or 020 7828 4925 if that line is busy) to speak to me or any of my colleagues.

Gold subscription - launch price £349 (normal price £450)
  • 5-year subscription to Nikon Owner
  • 5-year warranty on all new Nikon products from Grays of Westminster
  • Gold Priority waiting list for all new Nikon releases (top of the waiting list)
  • A half-hour tutorial on the phone or face to face, by appointment
  • Special offers to Gold subscribers throughout the period of subscription
  • A signed copy of Grays of Westminster - In the Company of Legends, or if you have one already, a Nikon Magic Lantern Guide of your choice
  • A Grays of Westminster umbrella
  • Nikon Owner magazine, a superb, glossy full-colour 60-page quarterly magazine that is 100% Nikon. Each issue delivers benchmark technical reviews of the very latest Nikon equipment, thought-provoking interviews and articles with world-class images.
  • Private user-name and password to subscribers-only website which includes forum, message board, technical equipment reviews, events page and use of a photo gallery
  • Gold subscription card
  • Simon Stafford’s Technical Helpline
  • 18-month warranty on second-hand Nikon from Grays of Westminster
  • 10% off Think-Tank bags purchased at Grays of Westminster
  • Special trips and events
  • Substantial discounts on training sessions organised by Grays of Westminster, including Mike Maloney’s House of Lords Photographic Workshop, Heather Angel’s Wildlife & Natural History Workshops, Simon Stafford’s Definitive Flash, Portraiture and Macro Training Sessions, Michael Eleftheriades’ panoramic and colour-calibration seminars and Chris Weston’s Photographic Courses
  • 10% off any training courses run by Nikon UK
Silver Subscription - launch price: £129 (normal price: £179)
  • 2-year Subscription to Nikon Owner
  • 3-year warranty on all new Nikon products from Grays of Westminster
  • A half-hour tutorial on the phone or face to face, by appointment
  • Nikon Owner quarterly magazine, a superb, glossy full-colour 60-page quarterly
  • magazine as above
  • Private user-name and password to subscribers-only website
  • Simon Stafford’s Technical Helpline
  • 18-month warranty on second-hand Nikon from Grays of Westminster
  • 10% off Think-Tank bags purchased at Grays of Westminster
  • Special trips and events
  • Discounts on training sessions
  • 10% off any training courses run by Nikon UK
Standard Annual Subscription - special price: £59
  • 1-year Subscription to the Nikon Owner
  • 3-year warranty on all new Nikon products from Grays of Westminster
  • Nikon Owner quarterly magazine, a superb, glossy full-colour 60-page quarterly
  • magazine as above
  • Private user-name and password to subscribers-only website
  • Simon Stafford’s Technical Helpline
  • 18-month warranty on second-hand Nikon from Grays of Westminster
  • 10% off Think-Tank bags purchased at Grays of Westminster
  • Special trips and events
  • Discounts on events and training sessions
  • 10% off any training courses run by Nikon UK

Tuesday 1 March 2011

Nikon Deals: Capture A New Season With Nikon’s Spring Cashback Offer


1st March 2011: Nikon UK today announces a new spring promotion entitling customers to claim £40/€50 cashback when purchasing the Nikon D3100 digital SLR from 1st March - 4th May 2011 (inclusive).

The promotion is available to customers in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Claims must be received by 5th June 2011. Full terms and conditions and information about how to claim the cashback can be found at www.nikon.co.uk/cashback.

The Nikon D3100 is the most easy-to-use D-SLR to date, offering a range of high performance features that are designed to make taking quality images fun and easy. The camera’s Guide mode offers step-by-step instructions for changing camera settings that helps improve photography skills whilst capturing perfect images.

The D3100 is Nikon’s first DSLR to offer full HD movie mode which can be accessed at the click of a button so users can switch between shooting stills and movie with ease. And, with an HDMI port the D3100 can be connected to the TV to relive special moments with friends and family.

Simon Iddon, Nikon’s enthusiast product manager, comments: “We’re pleased to introduce a new cashback offer on the award winning D3100; with spring around the corner and the upcoming bank holidays, now is the perfect time to invest in a digital SLR that will allow you to capture high quality images you’ll want to treasure.”

Offer subject to availability.