PHOTOGRAPHY EXPOSED

PHOTOGRAPHY EXPOSED

by John Peters A.R.P.S.

A.R.P.S.

Don't worry about awards, they don't always gaurantee a level of competence or professionalism. There are so many awards available and some are worth having, some not. Some of us are just casual photographers and are not really interested in awards, that's perfectly ok too. I think as technology has developed, the standards of all distinctions is a wee bit higher now but remember, before digital, more effort was required for the basic process and you certainly needed a lot more knowledge of film, papers and the basic procedures.

What do the letters A.R.P.S. after your name mean? In simple terms, you are implying you are accredited with the A.R.P.S. or Associateship award from the Royal Photographic Society, one of the few awards that are recognised worldwide. It only really holds in photography although you can use it all the time. Holding this award means you have pretty much reached a fairly high standard of photography, so says the R.P.S. As of 2019, there are about 280 with the A.R.P.S distinction in the world, and you can pretty much take it that an A.R.P.S. has a high degree of competence and a good understanding of photography.

You can read up on all the various awards from the R.P.S, and the different criteria for each award, but basically we have had to sit a form of test and our submission is assessed by a panel of suitably qualified people, capable of making judgement. It's important to note that the criteria for an associatship has changed over the years and that having received my award in 1986, my associateship panel of 16" x 12" b/w prints were all origionally photographed on film, not digital which I moved to later. Most of the main techniques remain similar for film and digital.

TOP TIP No matter what type of photography you specalise or favour, IMO, 'Composition is King'. Study most of the 'top' photographs over the years and COMPOSITION will feature pretty highly in most of them. So learn 4 or 5 of the main components of composition as a starter, adopting these 'rules' into your photographs and you won't go too far wrong.

By the way, most of the blurb on my associateship panel was already prepared for club type talks, I simply replicated most of the blurb. I have taken better photographs since passing my associateship, I hope you'll agree. I personally feel the standard for some R.P.S. awards has become a little higher, with so many 'would be' photographers on the go, trying to promote themselves.

A pleasing photograph taken with a tripod and cable release using my EXTREME BRACKETING method. The 'extreme' sections (mainly the sky in this case) are then blended in to the main photograph to produce an overall extended range of tones or exposures. I don't expect beginners to perform this sort of editing, but it's something to aim for, further down the line.

My Associateship Panel (Please note the links don't work on my A.R.P.S. Panel) The print quality is also pretty poor in what is an oversized screenshot with the original prints stored safely and still looking good from 1986 when I was awarded my associateship.

A.R.P.S. Panel info1

For those that are interested, Digital photography is a lot more flexible than film photography. The process is so much easier, it's a dry process, there's less equipment and in digital I can simply ramp up the ISO for one shot if necessary. Compare that with film negative and having to muck about wih separate cameras, multiple camera backs, or bulk film loaders and cassettes, just to take a photo at a different ISO rating, no fun. Technology has advanced so much too, with SMARTPHONES not to be sniffed at.