Questions on Notice (February 24th, 2022)

On Thursday February 24th a panel consisting of James Allan, Judy Sara and Helen Whitford, with supplementary comments from Steve Wallace and MC, Mark Pedlar, answered a range of questions relating to photography which had been posed by club members.

The following questions were posed to the panel.

Do I really need a tripod/ monopod if my camera has good image stabilisation. Please comment for A) Landscape and B) Birds.
I would like to be able to view my photographs and get rid of the bad ones before I load them into Lightroom. Is there a way to do this and is it the best thing to do?
What are the best settings for star photography?
What are the advantages (and disadvantages??) of mirrorless cameras compared with DSLRs and which would you recommend?
How should I prevent and/or correct colour cast in my photos?
How does multi-point focus work – how does it decide which focus points to work on. Is single point focus better – is multi-point just a lazy way of doing things?
How do I improve the quality of my competition entries? Please comment on such things as bright/over exposed spots; over-sharpening; distracting elements; principles of effective composition.
Panoramas – what are the best settings? What are the key issues in producing good panos?
How do you use off-camera flash??
A club member has had his photos downloaded by an acquaintance who has claimed them as his own. What redress is there? What would you do? And how can he stop it happening again?
What’s one thing you always take on a shoot?
Of the photo gear you have bought, what wouldn’t you buy again?
Is it possible to use flash units from the pre-digital era with digital cameras without frying the electronics?
What’s the difference between “grain” in film and “noise” in digital?
How is an “unsharp mask” used in digital and what is its purpose?
Can anyone recommend a SLR film camera repair person/business. I have an old Pentax that may need attention.

Answers and other related documents are available as pdf’s; located in the Reading and Reference section of the Website (See tab at top of the Home page.)

Thanks to Paul Hughes who collated the questions and to Mark Pedlar for acting as MC.

Thank you to those who asked and answered questions!