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  #11  
Old 26th September 2020, 02:45 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Well, I watched the first episode of MoP and to be frank, I wasn't impressed by either the participants or the judges.

After watching the pictures that the participants were taking and then their final selection, I was totally unimpressed, and none of them stood out above the rest.

The first entrant to be let go didn't show a picture that said 'Rome', the judges agreed, but neither did a number of the others in my eyes. I agreed with the choice of entrant to let go by the judges but it also could have easily been one or more of the others, so low was the quality of images.

What made the entrants portfolio's stand out above the thousands of others in the selection process, and to then be invited to be part of the series, we may never know.

I know we've only seen the first episode, but at the moment, I definitely do not see any potential winner of the title of 'Master of Photography.' Although I wouldn't expect to pick out a winner so early in the competition, I should have, at least, been watching good and eye catching photographs been taken and shown.

Along with the picture takers, the judges were totally unknown to me - has anyone else heard of any of them?

To me, the majority of the judges comments suggested that the entrants would have done better if they'd taken their advise at the editing stage. I agree with impartial and good advice, but I'm not sure the judges gave this, although we have to remember that we are only seeing an edited version of a long process and this type of advice is found easily at many photo club nights.

One comment that made me flinch though, was when one participant said that he'd take loads of exposures and sort them out in the post production stage. No! No! No! I was shouting at the screen. This way of working I have heard many people mention many times at both my photo clubs over the years, but also from other students whilst doing my degree. Digital has made this too easy a way capture pictures and I do wonder how different it would have been if they had been sent out with a film camera with just one or two 36 exposure films?

As for cameras, they had a choice of a wide range of Leica cameras, (yes Mike, Leica do / did make SLR's as well) as I could see the red dot on a lot of them, right from the selection process. There was also a mention in the credits for Leica and one of their cameras are used on the front page of the web-page for the series:

https://www.sky.com/watch/title/seri...of-photography

Personally, I have never used any Leica product and would have been at a disadvantage from the start, and wouldn't have known which camera might be best for me. I think the participants should have been allowed to use their own equipment and combining the film idea above, allowed to use a certain size of memory card only, to restrict any machine gun type of shooting pictures.

As mentioned previously, the use of a HP5 (and NOT even HP5+) contact sheet template was ridiculous. It immediately makes one wonder about all of the people making the programmes, that no body mentioned to the producers how silly an idea of using it was.

The showing of the final selected pictures and then the camera settings also made me wonder how much the entrants actually knew about photography. Now I know a lot of digital cameras have small sensors, which in turn give a larger DOF, but one lady shot a picture of herself in front of fountains, which covered quite a large area and distance. The settings showed that she used f3.5 under sunny conditions. Even with my digital knowledge, no way would I have used such a small f-stop to try and get the required DOF. I am of course saying what I would have done and maybe she was a top expert in these matters, but somehow I don't think so.

Will I watch another episode or more? Knowing the masochist in me, I probably will watch it all right to the end of the series and beyond, for they have so far made and shown up to series 4, episode 6.

Do I expect to actually learn anything from the programmes? Probably not, but watching should keep my heart pumping as I exclaim at the telly, although I hope my blood pressure will stay at reasonable levels, at least until the end of the first series, just so I can see which person wins the title (and the money! Don't forget the money!!).

In fact, after seeing just the first episode, it has made me think about applying for any future series. I can't be any worse than any that I've seen so far.

Oh, and btw, after searching, I found out that BT boxes have a glitch that stops the box recording the new channel automatically at the moment - the BT engineers are looking at it right now, apparently. But you can get around it by watching the programme live and pushing the record button as it starts and when it ends, so enabling you to watch it again at your leisure. I did this and then deleted it straight away, so good was the programme... Someone else also tried recording it automatically on their standard Freeview box and had no problems at all.

Terry S
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  #12  
Old 30th September 2020, 01:35 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Well, my BT box played ball last night and recorded for me both 'Master of photography', along with the programme after it, 'Rankin 2020', which we'll leave for a separate post.

As for MoP, no one contestant has started to stand out yet, in the second episode.

The theme was 'Berlin at night', from which the contestants had to show three pictures, to show a story. A lot of them shown were disjointed and in my eyes, with none of them again really showing anything that said the theme to me, and as it happens, the judges felt the same. There were a few single images that I liked as stand alone images, but that wasn't the task.

Two contestants were voted by the judges, (which this time around had someone that I've heard of, in Bruce Gilden) to be the best of the bunch, but again I didn't pick the same people. The bottom two to be picked was slightly easier, although I think they got their choice wrong when then illuminated one person over the other, with my choice being the one who was in the bottom two, in the last episode as well. I think she will be on thin ice in the next episode.

As before, the judges comments to individuals, especially from Bruce Gilden, were not always appreciated and the general theme from all of them seeming to be that the participants didn't get close enough to their subjects. I still felt that the judges were trying to impart their vision a bit too heavily though.

I must admit, I wasn't so bored with the programme as I was last week, and almost enjoyed it with me only exclaiming at the television a few times this time around. So, I'll be watching the next episode next week.

As for spotting the final 'Master', there is still nothing in it, with no one standing out, so it will be interesting to see if any of them start to offer something worth freeze framing the tv over, in the coming weeks.

Terry S
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  #13  
Old 7th October 2020, 01:48 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Call me a masochist, but I recorded the third episode of Master of Photography, on Sky Arts channel again last night; watching it over breakfast this morning.

The first thing to be dealt with was the use of a secondary memory card, brought along side the one given out by the producers to each person, by one of the contestants. I believe that he only shot one picture on it but the producers decided that this gave him a (very slight imo) advantage over the others, so he was asked to leave the competition.

This episode was about the 'human nude'.

Well, surprisingly some of the entrants had a bit of a go to produce something different, in what was a very large studio, which had just about every lighting gizmo that one could think of, along with a LOT of props, which only one entrant decided to use in their compositions.

Each of them had the full run of the studio for up to two hours each. Professional assistants were on hand, along with a total of six or was it eight (?) models, of both sexes.

What each of them did whilst waiting for their turn, I did wonder?

Three final pictures, by three people, the judges (all of again I've never heard of) concluded, could have been done by any of the others in the group, as they were so similarly lit and composed - basically a pile of naked bodies against a white background.

Two were picked out as providing a half decent image and got as close to praise from the judges, as they're likely to get in this competition I think.

One was finally chosen to go. Now the image produced by this person wasn't anything special, but it was better than the above three, from whom I would have chosen one - or even all three - to go. For we must remember that this is a competition, with a large prize of 150,000 euros, and even during this third episode, I still think that they can't have picked the best of the bunch from all the entrants, going by the work produced so far.

But did I enjoy watching it? More so than the previous weeks, so maybe I am slowly letting my guard down and am allowing myself to be entertained by a still lack lustre programme or maybe, the programmes are getting very slightly better?

Only time will tell if I, along with some of the participants, make it to the final episode of series one...

Terry S

Last edited by Terry S; 7th October 2020 at 01:52 PM.
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  #14  
Old 7th October 2020, 04:56 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry S View Post
The first thing to be dealt with was the use of a secondary memory card, brought along side the one given out by the producers to each person, by one of the contestants. I believe that he only shot one picture on it but the producers decided that this gave him a (very slight imo) advantage over the others, so he was asked to leave the competition.

Terry S
Out of curiosity Terry, did they why his own card gave him a sight advantage? It sounds as if it wasn't for simply breaking the rules

Thanks

Mike
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  #15  
Old 8th October 2020, 11:26 AM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray View Post
Out of curiosity Terry, did they why his own card gave him a sight advantage? It sounds as if it wasn't for simply breaking the rules

Thanks

Mike
I think it as you say Mike. It was made to sound that the producers took their time over making the decision, to ask one participant to leave.

Each person was given one card and a little clear padlocked perspex container to put their memory card in, once each of them had filled it / finished the task. The person that was asked to leave felt that they hadn't got the shot they wanted until they used the second card.

It may have only been one exposure on a separate memory card, but from what I took from it, the producers were sticking exactly to the rules = one person / one memory card.

If nothing else I'm sure the rest of the participants will now follow rules to the letter.

Terry S
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  #16  
Old 8th October 2020, 04:36 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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OK, Terry, I now see the reason more clearly. The participant had taken one more shot that he had space for in the card given to him so you could argue that the rule makes sense that if the card holds say 10 shots then each candidate has to ensure that he chooses the shots carefully and if he sees a better shot and wants to include it then he has an unfair advantage of the rest.

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Mike
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  #17  
Old 8th October 2020, 05:52 PM
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GoodOldNorm GoodOldNorm is offline
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I watched half the Berlin at night episode, got bored and put the football on halfway through. I don't know of any photographers that go to photograph a city at its best or worst when nothing is happening on a quiet weekday night. Not a lot to work with, some of the photographers staged their photos, dull!
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  #18  
Old 9th October 2020, 12:04 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Mike, I don't know if it is allowed in the rules but...

If I was in the same position as the person asked to leave, and I had run out of space on a memory card and desperately wanted to shoot one or two more images... Well, I think I would have quickly scanned the images on the back of the screen and deleted one or two, giving more space to take one or two more images. For there are always some obvious images that aren't going to be used on every card... aren't there?

Like I said, it maybe or maybe not allowed in the rules?

And I'll stop there before we get into deep and dangerous territory.

Terry S
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  #19  
Old 9th October 2020, 12:10 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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I watched half the Berlin at night episode, got bored and put the football on halfway through. I don't know of any photographers that go to photograph a city at its best or worst when nothing is happening on a quiet weekday night. Not a lot to work with, some of the photographers staged their photos, dull!
Yes, I agree Norm, it is not the most exciting of programmes to watch, but neither is football to me.

And I understand your other points as well, but if they are supposedly the creme de la creme of a large number of photographers that sent in a portfolio, they should have been able to produce at least ONE good image for the final judging part. It's not too much to ask of them, surely?!...

Terry S
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  #20  
Old 14th October 2020, 02:33 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Another episode watched, and I had much the same views as with previous episodes.

In this one, the entrants all had just 20 minutes each to photograph actor, 'Reservoir Dogs' Michael Madsen. Along with the willing actor, there was a free run of a large mansion and it's contests to use as props and backdrop. A large choice of camera equipment was available to pick from.

Along with cameras and lenses, they all seemed to use an (approximately) A5 led light on a stand. Indoor shots and high ISO's helped, but what was one of them thinking when he used it at a huge distance from the actor on a outdoor, brilliant sunny day? No way could it have any effect at all and it was the one moment in this episode that had me shooting at the TV screen.

As expected (by myself), most of the shots taken were very average and as it happens the judges and even the actor had the same views, when it came to looking at the 'contact sheets' and final printed pictures.

One of the top two pictures that were chosen as the best, included one that I had chosen to win that round, so it was good to see we're all on the same page, at least with this episode.

I'm still waiting to get a feeling for any of the entrants as the final winner though. As they whittle them down, I hope the quality of work will improve somewhat and the finalist stands out a bit more than any of them do at the moment.

Terry S
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