Guest speaker ispicture perfect

Motherwell Photographic Society welcomed Richard O’Brien as their guest speaker at their latest meeting.

And his talk and presentation – ‘Architecture – Exposure to Edit’ – made for an interesting evening.

Richard is an IT instructor and lectures in the use of Photoshop, but his main passion is taking interior and exterior shots of buildings all over the world.

He describes himself as a ‘hobbyist photographer’, but as he demonstrated, he is much more than that, with one of his main claims to fame being that he won a competition to photograph the interior of Harrogate Theatre and his images are now being used on the website and in advertising for the venue.

In an interesting two hours, he took the group through the techniques and equipment he uses to capture his shots, as well as detailing how he processes his photographs.

Richard exclusively shoots in RAW mode and uses Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop for processing all of his images.

One of the tips he gave was to approach a venue in advance and explain that you are an amateur photographer and would like to use a tripod to capture some images of a building interior.

If this is not possible, you could approach the building owners on the day and explain what you are doing and they are usually more than happy to allow you to photograph.

The second half of his talk revolved around demonstrating how he uses Lightroom and Photoshop to edit and enhance his images after they have been taken.

There were a number of interesting techniques and tips provided that are designed to enhance photographers’ workflow, and those members who used Lightroom and Photoshop in their work found them incredibly useful.

Richard’s work can be seen on his website at Richard O’Brien Photography (richobphoto.co.uk)

Motherwell Photographic Society normally meets on a Thursday at 7.30pm in Holytown Community Centre, Stevenston Street, Holytown, ML1 4RG.

As always, anyone with an interest in photography, no matter their level of expertise, is welcome to attend.

For more information visit www.motherwellphoto graphicsociety.co.uk or visit our Facebook page.

The web page also has a member’s gallery where you can view further examples of members’ work.