People, Portraits and Pachyderms

People, Portraits and Pachyderms is the title of a superb presentation given to Keyworth Camera Club on the evening of August 6th by Adrian Lines MPAGB FBPE EFIAP ARPS via Zoom. This not only attracted members of our own club but a good number of guests from various parts of the country too.

Adrian had split his talk into three sections as per the title. As he spoke about each image, we saw them form before our eyes as seamless transitions showed how the different elements and post-processing techniques were brought together to create stunning, and memorable, final pieces of work. Adrian also explained the background stories, often humorous, about photographing the main elements of each picture.

The talk was rammed full of visual and spoken tips and tricks which included keeping your design simple and think about how the colour palette goes together. Try to create a narrative and/or emotion in your work to help the viewer engage with your photograph. Monochrome can simplify an image whereas colour can often distract. If using people in your pictures the more characterful their face, the better the story can be. Human elements also help viewers to connect to the image. Reading books won’t make you a better photographer, getting out and taking photographs and many hours practicing with Photoshop is the only way you will improve.

Adrian answered all questions fluidly and comprehensively such as when adding shadows darken the feet too. When asked what he used to edit his images people were stunned when he said he doesn’t use a mouse or graphic tablet, just the touch pad on his laptop.  

One comment that had us all laughing was when Adrian explained that talking to someone you’d like to photograph for a while helps them become at ease with you and more open to your posing suggestions. Adrian described how much he enjoyed talking to one person that when he went on his way, he realized he hadn’t actually taken a picture!

We would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Adrian for giving us a very entertaining evening. We are sure his terrific images will have inspired many of our members to give some of his techniques a try in their never-ending quest to improve their photography.