Our February club meeting this year was a two part event. We decided to build on the presentation in January by Andy Phillips and have a theme of ‘Still Life’ for our members slideshow.

We had a number of questions from the members about how to set up a small studio at home suitable for still life and macro type photography and in particular, questions about post processing. Whether an image needs any post processing and if so, what is the best software to use was a question of particular interest.

So, we set-up a very Heath-Robinson studio on the floor of the clubhouse using a cushion as a backdrop to take a few images of a rose. All this being projected in real time.

We then had a look at some post processing software and the pro’s and con’s of each type.

The first we looked at was basic and free software. For this we took a look at the Windows Photo app and there is a similar product for Mac. We recognise that there are other good basic, and often free, products available which may suit your needs. If this is the case, use them, don’t go spending money on software with features that you won’t use.

For more complex post processing needs, we took a quick look at Affinity, Photoshop and Lightroom, but again there are a range of other software products around with various capability and costs.

Basic rule is; Don’t buy what you aren’t going to use and if in doubt, ask. Someone at the club will almost certainly have experience of the product you are looking at and will be able to offer guidance.

In the meantime, enjoy some of your excellent images again.