Denver Digital Photo Club is metro Denver Colorado's all digital photography club. Since January 2003, we specialize in digital photography education covering the entire workflow: image capture techniques from a digital perspective, corrective and creative editing (Photoshop, Painter, etc.), various output methods (printmaking, projection, photo websites, etc.) and workflow management (color management, image management, archiving, etc.).
Club Mission: To be a leading resource and inspiration to our photographic community venturing into 21st century photography. A non profit social organization for education and promotion of all aspects of digital photography.
The club welcomes all those interested in learning and practicing the art and technology of digital workflow. This includes digital capture techniques, corrective and creative image editing, and various output methods and applications.
The club provides digitally oriented educational services to its members through monthly digital programs, exhibitions, field trips, club library, club website and Yahoo groups, and other activities.
Monthly programs cover a diverse range of subjects within the digital workflow and traditional techniques. Workflow techniques cover everything from input through output, such as digital camera, scanning, printing, digital projection, websites, image management, editing and more.
Monthly club exhibitions are in prints and digital projected images. Entries from members and visitors alike are accepted, no fees. These are moderated and critiqued by image advisers and interactive audience participation.
Membership dues are $25 per year for individual membership and $35 for family membership, payable annually. Dues are due in January for existing members or at the time of joining for new members. Club funds are used for hardware and software purchases, and general operating expenses.
The club normally meets on the fourth (4th) Tuesday of each month, except December, we have our annual potluck. (See 'meetings' tab for specifics and last minute changes.)
Our club is growing and prospective members are always welcome to check us out.
Meetings
When: 4th Tuesday (see list for exceptions) of every month (except December).
Time: 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Place:Lone Tree Civic Center, 8527 Lone Tree Pkwy, Lone Tree, CO 80124, meeting room 'A'. Meeting rooms are on the lower level. There is a parking lot on the lower level and direct entrance to meeting room 'A'. There is also an upper level parking lot and main entrance to the building. Take the stairs or elevator to the lower level meeting rooms.
Directions: The city of Lone Tree (formerly part of Highlands Ranch) is located south of the Denver Tech Center, and south-west of the C-470 and I-25 interchange. For those coming South on I-25, exit either on County Line Rd. or Lincoln Ave. and go West toYosemite St. Turn South on Yosemite from County Line, or North from Lincoln to reach Lone Tree Pkwy. Turn West on Lone Tree Pkwy. at the signal light and go about 0.2 miles to 8527. The building is on the north-east corner of Lone Tree Pkwy and Sweet Water Rd. Lake and golf course on South side of street.
Submittals:Please see "Projection" tab for details on how to submit files for projection.
23 Jun 2009
Exhibition: none
Workflow seems to be the talk of the town in photography circles today. It's
become a hot subject because most of us are now digital, with larger than ever
image bases to have to deal with. Unfortunately, we seem to have less and
less available time to create those compelling images. Most of us are users of,
or are well aware of, the traditional image management and editing tools of
today, particularly of Photoshop, Bridge and Photoshop Elements. The most
recent arrival was Photoshop Lightroom of course, designed specifically for
photographers. This goal helped to eliminate much of the software complications
intended for graphic designers sitting at their computers, who are not out there
doing image capture as well. By now there's a proliferation of books, DVD's,
seminars and workshops on the mechanics of Lightroom. Fortunately, there's one
book that just came out this year with emphasis on HOW TO STREAMLINE YOUR
WORKFLOW WITH LIGHTROOM 2 by Nathaniel Coalson. If you're not yet using
Lightroom you may want to take a good look at it. If you are using it, but
not taking advantage of all it's proficiency capabilities, you need to take a
look at that too. Streamlining your process, or workflow, is key to getting
things done. Believe it or not, you can create more and better images in less
time. You'll have more time available to work on your favorite images, and
have more fun doing it. Fortunately, our speaker this month is Nathaniel
Coalson in person.
Because of the importance and considerable interest in the subject of our
program, we will devote most of our meeting time on this subject. We will not
have an exhibition this month for only the second time since we started.
The first time was when Ben Willmore, a Photoshop guru and writer, was our
speaker. Nathaniel promised to bring some of his books and make them available
for $25. to our group, normally they sell for $45.
26 May 2009
Exhibition: prints
Great picture-making opportunities abound as we welcome the summer months
ahead. Yes, we'll be spending a lot more time outdoors capturing some great
images, but before you know it we'll also enjoy our air conditioned or
ventilated photo work stations thinking about the various output options for
those new images. Let's see, what can we do with them? We obviously can create
printed output such as traditional prints, or those wonderful photo albums, or
personal greeting cards for all kinds of occasions. We can also create a fun
photo website to share some of our work with others for fun or income, or add
some new images if we already have one. But let's not forget another major
option that we may not have exploited enough, that of showing our work in an
exciting DIGITAL SLIDE SHOW format. It's not video, but it's not just a single
image either. You say you've never done anything like that before? Believe it
or not, this is a pretty broad and versatile imaging tool that could give your
hobby or profession some new life. The traditional phrase "slide show" may
bring back old memories of your parents or friends subjecting you to sit through
several trays of slides of a vacation trip after dinner, but let's go back to
the future, to today's digital age. Now it's your show! Now you have more
ways to communicate with those you want to touch. You can easily use any
number of your images to make a statement or to tell a story to just about
anyone you want, whenever, no matter where they are. They can now see your
work on their iPods, on their laptops, on their desktops, on their large
screen HDTV's, or on a projection screen. And it certainly doesn't have to be
just after dinner. Come see this refreshing program presented by Matt Schaefer
to get you thinking about trying some new things with some new tools.
28 Apr 2008
Exhibition: projection
We have an interesting and useful program this month on SCANNING SLIDES AND
NEGATIVES, and I'll let our speaker Jay Clawson tell you about it in his
own words...
Like most photographers who started working seriously in photography prior to
the digital age, I have a vast collection of 35mm slides and negatives that are
gathering dust in my closet. I set out to explore the question of what was the
most convenient and cost effective way to transfer these analog images for
immediate use in the digital domain. Two objectives came to mind:
What would be the most efficient way to convert old 35mm slide shows into
digital presentations? Since the images are usually flashed on a TV or screen
for a few seconds, ultimate resolution would not necessarily be a prime objective,
but a clean and vibrant image would be necessary.
Working from a high quality 35mm transparency or negative, what readily
available equipment and techniques would deliver a high quality file for
manipulation in Photoshop to make a 16x20 print good enough to sell as fine art.
To answer these questions I experimented with four analog to digital techniques,
using equipment that most of us have readily at hand. I intentionally avoided
expensive equipment (e.g., $1000 plus scanners). I think you will be surprised
at the results.”
24 Mar 2009
Exhibition: prints
This month we have a very unique program on ENHANCING & PROTECTING ink jet
prints that I don't believe has ever been seen at any camera club presentation before.
If you have any archival/color fading concerns, prefer not to use glass over your
photo art prints, like to use specialty papers, or wish papers were more receptive
to ink jet printing, this may be a real eye opener for you. You will see Working
Artists use digital grounds, gels, mediums and varnish materials live at the
presentation. If you would like to bring an image on a CD or thumb drive they'll do
a live demo for you right at the meeting so you can see it first-hand. There will
be some nice literature and product handouts so don't miss it.
24 Feb 2008
Exhibition: projection
There's been some interesting and sometimes energetic debates recently about
photographic fine art in our club. Some say that it's indefinable, others
think art is paintings, some debate between what's pictorial or creative, and
some feel it's marvelous. I'm not one to create controversy of course, but
to help us along with this a bit we will present a program this month called
CREATING THE FINE ART IMAGE by Jeff Johnson, a pro fine art photographer.
This program will show you how you can learn to see the fine art image in the
everyday environment. It will explore the creative possibilities after
capture using Photoshop, NIK Color Effects Pro 3 and various other Photoshop
plug-ins. Before we discard an image as a potential winner, we'll look for
"the image within" an image. You'll actually see some award winning
before-and-after images to help you create your own "photographic fine art"
masterpieces.
27 Jan 2009
Exhibition: prints
Dues are due ($25-individual, $35-family).
This month's program will cover a couple very important subjects in the input
segment of the digital workflow that affect everyone's picture taking. For
those of you with digital SLR cameras, dust is the enemy. You won't need to
put up with all those spotty images after this program. You'll learn about
the proper techniques and materials to CLEAN UP YOUR CAMERA.
Our other segment will be on how to get in CONTROL OF YOUR EXPOSURES, the
digital way. All this practical information will definitely pay off in
improved image quality for you.
Dec 2008
Annual pot-luck and planning meeting, members (and spouses) only.
25 Nov 2008
Exhibition: prints - gallery style
This month's program will be on a topic that affects all photographers; how to
record a scene as our eyes see it, not how the camera wants to see it. Camera
limitations are well known to most photographers. Many images continue to be
disappointing even with all the high tech camera features of today. We get
landscapes with murky shadows, and washed out skies that lack the vivid blue
and dramatic clouds we remembered. Flower shots come out with hot spots and
dead black areas, yet they were not what we saw when we took the picture.
Luckily, there is now a fairly simple technique available to help us called
HDR, or HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE digital photography. You'll learn how to take
wonderful color and detail in the shadow areas, and beautiful well exposed
highlights. It will be worth your while.
28 Oct 2008
Exhibition: projection
For those that are solidly grounded in the documentary style of photography and
don't think that they're interested in NATURE ART, it will be a pleasant
surprise at the very least. This month's program will offer a glimpse into the
artistic side of nature, and the extension of the photographic workflow from
image capture to image creation. There will be not just one, but a team of
speakers in this fast moving program presenting their interpretations of nature,
and techniques for creating their final images at their desktops or laptops,
after they've done their captures outdoors. They have not stopped with just the
image capture and considered the image to be completed. Those virtual images
were just the raw materials for what they were to become. This is what you
will see unfold. This is a must program to attend even if you have only an
ounce of creativity in you, it may turn into a pound.
23 Sep 2008
Exhibition: prints
Now that you have made that great photograph, how about presenting it for everyone to appreciate your talent and hard work. Doing the printing and preparing our images for presentation on our own or others' walls are the final steps of our workflow. You are accustomed to viewing your images on your own monitor screen, but do your family and friends have the opportunity and joy of seeing some of your best work on your walls or theirs? Perhaps not enough, or not at all. Imagine your images tastefully mounted and framed all around yours or your loved ones homes, places of work, and some of your other favorite places. This can open up a whole new interest for you. This month's program by Match Grun on PRINT FINISHING will introduce you to some easy and economical do-it-yourself ways of mounting, matting and framing your work. You'll be glad you attended.
26 Aug 2008
Exhibition: projection
It's August and we have a great program for you on LAYERS, MASKING, NEW TECHNIQUES. There will be a lot of new
information, including the use of self-blends, sharpening with high pass filter on copy of original,
cloning-burning-dodging on separate layers, etc. Our speaker will be Craig Lewis, our Denver Photoshop evangelist.
It will be good, don't miss it.
22 Jul 2008
Exhibition: prints
Here's a simple rundown on this month's program on CAMERA RAW:
Why you should be using Camera RAW.
What is RAW?
What is jpeg?
How to improve white balance.
How to improve your images.
This presentation covers the pros and cons of RAW files.
You will see how easy it is to work with RAW.
You'll learn how to work with Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Bridge, Adobe Camera
RAW for all your raw files.
Even how to simplify Photoshop workflow with RAW.
Enough said, there will be a lot of RAW presented. Everyone will walk away with something
they didn't know before to improve their photography.
Projection
Projected Image Sizing
Denver Digital Photo Club requires participants to e-mail their exhibition entries to the club Projectionist one week prior to the exhibition date. Digitized images can originate with film or print scans, or from digital cameras.
Up to three (3) images may be submitted for exhibition, unless notified otherwise in advance. In addition, before and after pairs of images can be submitted, which count as a single entry. The before image must be from a previous entry. The after image is a new image that shows noticeable improvements that you made when shown side by side on screen. Now select an edited, flattened, image for resizing as shown below.
Image Size Requirements and Setup:
The digital projector used has a 1024 width x 768 height pixel resolution, therefore the mailed images must fit into this size window. They can be smaller, but not larger. Sizing tip: with an open image in Photoshop, click IMAGE>IMAGE SIZE. Check Constrain Proportions and Resample Image. Then set Pixel Dimensions in top part of window to Width=1024 and/or Height =768. Either dimension can be smaller, but not larger. Make sure you don’t mix up the two dimensions. Whether your image is horizontal or vertical, set the width to 1024 pixels or less. Then set the height to 768 pixels or less. Best quality image is obtained when the image exactly matches the projector's native resolution of 1024x768.
RGB Color Space:
If your normal RGB Color Setting (color working space) is other than sRGB, it is suggested that the file intended for image projection be converted to sRGB. This should be done before JPEG compression via Photoshop Image>Mode>Convert to Profile. You probably won’t notice any difference in colors after converting to sRGB, but in case you do, re-edit the image as necessary. Then proceed with JPEG compression.
Copyright and Captions
Use one of your image editing programs (Photoshop, Bridge, Lightroom, etc.) to fill in the Copyright EXIF/IPTC field with your name. Also fill in the Caption field with a short description of the image. After filling in these fields DO NOT use 'Save for Web' in Photoshop to save the image because this will strip off all meta-data, including the copyright and caption.
File Size Requirements and Setup:
Minimum uncompressed file size: 2MB for color (RGB-24 bit), or 650KB for black & white (grayscale-8 bit) in IMAGE SIZE window above.
Maximum compressed file size: 350KB. Click FILE> SAVE AS. Click drop down menu under FORMAT below, select JPEG format. Enter a FILE NAME, preceded with your last name, then image title, e.g. Smith-Red Tulip. Select directory to store your images for mailing in drop down menu above under SAVE IN. Click SAVE (not SAVE FOR WEB). JPEG Options window opens. Look at SIZE below and note the compressed size on the extreme left, e.g. 298.85K / 52.8s. The 298.85K is the compressed size. Look up at IMAGE OPTIONS and adjust the slider back and forth till you get 350K, or as close as possible below it, but not higher. Click OK when you have it. Close the image.
Send Images:
Open your e-mail, address it to the e-mail address that you were instructed to use in the DDPC meeting notice e-mail,
attach your resized images and SEND. If your Internet Service Provider limits you to sending just one image at a time, you’ll need to make separate mailings for each image. State in your first cover letter how many you are sending.
This only seems complicated because of the detailed explanations aimed at people with no previous knowledge in doing this. After you do it a couple times it becomes routine. If you have any questions feel free to contact the club president or projectionist for assistance.
Common Errors
Incorrect Pixel Dimensions on Portrait Oriented Images:
The resized hight should be exactly 768 pixels. The width may vary but for a portrait oriented image the width would always be below 1024.
Images not resized to fit in 1024x768 Pixels:
Too small and the image quality will suffer. Too large and the image will be resampled at projection time which may not yield the ideal image quality. An image that is too large may also cause you to go over the 350K byte limit, or at least, won't use the bytes efficiently.
Incorrect Image File Size in Bytes:
Too few bytes in the image file will result in poor image quality. Too many bytes will abuse the projectionist's bandwidth and may be cause for rejection. Strive to get as close as possible to 350K bytes, but no more.
Tips
Canvas Size:
Once you have the image resized so that the width is less-than-or-equal to 1024 and the height is less-than-or-equal to 768 it will probably be slightly less than 1024x768 in width or height. You can make the image exactly 1024x768 by using the Canvas Size command. Select a desired fill color (I use black).
Stroked Border:
If your image has dark regions near the perimiter the framing of the image may not be distinct when projected. Add a stroked border of a color that is something other than black. Be sure to stroke-inside so that the image dimensions aren't increased beyond 1024x768. Highly saturated colors for the stroke are discouraged as they often distract from the image itself.
Club News
Apr 2009
The Gallery tab on this site has been updated to include photos submitted by some of our members for exhibition at our monthly meetings. This is worth a visit. There are many fine examples of photographic art by some very talented people.
14 Aug 2008
Another club milestone has been reached with the joining of PSA (Photographic Society of America) in August 2008. PSA is a worldwide photo organization for progressive photo clubs and serious photographers. It offers it's members a wide variety of photographic activities, digital competitions, study groups, how-to programs, a quality monthly magazine, an annual conference and many other activities and services. Check out the PSA website and it's Electronic Imaging Division link (See 'links' tab).
15 Jul 2008
Denver Digital Photo Club is undertaking a major expansion of their already extensive DVD digital library. Subjects cover the latest digital workflow methods covering IMAGE CAPTURE, ENHANCING and CREATIVE POST PROCESSING, PRINTING and OTHER OUTPUT. All levels from basics to the most advanced are covered. Presentations are by some of the most outstanding professionals such as Vincent Versace, John Paul Caponigro, Katrin Eismann, Matt Kloskowski, Bert Monroy, Jack Davis, Jeff Hawkins, Ed Pierce, Ben Willmore, Jim Miotke, Scott Kelby and many others. It has been reported that this may be by far the most extensive photo club library of digital photography in the country. It is a free educational service to club members.
3 March 2008
Under the "Projection" tab, two new topics have been added: "Common Errors" and "Tips".
29 December 2007
Meetings will no longer be held at the Daniels Fund building in Cherry Creek. See the 'meetings' tab for updates.
05 August 2007
Several additions have been made to the 'links' tab. Gail and Russ Dohrmann have been added to the 'member sites' topic and a link to an article on 'high dynamic range' imaging has been added.
June 2007
We are expanding our digital media in our club library to provide members with some of the latest and greatest DVD's on Photoshop CS3, Elements 5, Adobe Lightroom, Corel Painter X; plus many others for digital beginner, intermediate, advanced and pro photographers. Denver Digital has the most extensive digital resources for photographers of all levels and interests. Our intention is to remain state of the art. Watch for the updated inventory on our member Yahoo Groups, from which you can reserve material online for pickup at a meeting.
25 Apr 2006
Club member forum officially announced.
01 Mar 2006
New meeting time and location to be announced soon
Contributing photographers include (in alphabetical order):
Bill Brennan,
Carey Brown,
Brian Case,
John Chapter,
John Conrad,
Gail Dohrmann,
Russell Dohrmann,
Dale Duxbury,
Roland Frederickson,
Walter Freedman,
Gary Glascock,
Joni Goodwin,
Fred Luhman,
Matt Schaefer,
Leander Urmy,
Dick York
Thumbnail images below are selected at random from the adjacent gallery. Refreshing the screen using your
browser will cause different thumbnails to be displayed.
You must register in order to use the forum. User names must consist of
your first name, followed by a period, followed by your last name.
Approval usually takes less than 24 hours. If you are not currently a
paid up member of the club your registration will be denied.
You can add a link to your personal web site from your profile page:
Profile > Modify Profile > Forum Profile Information > Website title & Website URL.
You can add a square photo as your avatar from your profile page:
Profile > Modify Profile > Forum Profile Information > Personalized Picture.
You can receive email notifications when a forum board has been updated:
Click on the board you would like to receive notification from; e.g. Home > Club Members Only > General Discussion.
Then click on "NOTIFY".
Locations
Favorite photographic locations within an hours drive or less from
Denver.
Note, if you would like to submit your favorite location the webmaster will need its lattitude and longitude in decimal format. This site can help you look up the lat/long.
