Photographic Alliance of Great Britain Competition.

I attended the PAGB Digital Projected Image National competition at Warwick Arts Centre (a superb facility on the campus of Warwick University) yesterday. It was an all day event involving 37 clubs from around the UK and the showing of over 600 projected images. The standard, as one would expect, was exceptionally high and the range sufficient to appeal to everyone there.

From a personal point of view the opportunity to see so many excellent images was one not to be missed. Inevitably, given where I am at on the Course, I found myself analysing the images for lines and shapes and the use of colour. Having read ahead I also looked at how the photographer had used light. Examples abounded and my newly earned knowledge added to my appreciation of the work before me. For those images that did not readily lend themselves to such analysis it was worthwhile to work out why they were successful.

At another level it was interesting to compare my judgement of what the images were worth in terms of a score to the marks actually awarded. My opinion was affected by the reaction of the audience around me to the image being shown (?a desire to conform with the general view or perhaps the opposite) and very much my own personal tastes. As would be expected a 'theme' of what was likely to score well in the judges eyes evolved fairly quickly in the first round (it was wildlife closely followed by nudity) and equally what was not going to do well. This was confirmed in later rounds.

I have found over the past few years that there are definable trends in what is seen as 'good' and 'not so good' in photography. To take one example landscapes rarely do well in competition or exhibitions at the moment although there is some glimmer of hope that they are making a comeback. 'Record' shots i.e. a photograph of something that is simply there, is too often seen as not being worthy of the skilled photographer even when the image is powerful in it's own right.

Off my soapbox!!  What did I get from the day? The primary lesson was about the use of light within a photograph either to emphasise the subject or to induce a sense of 'mood' in the viewer. From the soft gentle light of an early dawn in Tuscany (the place must be crowded with photographers) to the harsh glare of a stage spotlight nearly all the images displayed an awareness of the use of light to achieve the objective.  As a secondary to this was the awareness that soft light needed pastel colours to be successful whilst harsh or strong light worked well with strong colours.

Composition seemed to be a given and of the hundreds of images seen only a handful seemed to be unsuccessful in this area.

I never fail to come away from such events without an increased awareness of what is achievable and more importantly how it can be achieved.