Revisiting 'Traces of my Dad' reflecting on the key issues..

Re reading my own reflection of this piece of work together with my tutor's feedback, I can see a number of issues that I want to address over the next few weeks before I prepare  my coursework for assessment:

Punctum v stadium - looking again at the final images

Can a 'constant'look be achieved? 
Can a more  constant look be achieved and would this be more desirable?


Did the Photobook work as a vehicle for the concept underpinning this project?
What worked in terms of design and quality of production - what could be improved? Do I want to have another 'go' at creating a photobook? 

Assignment three : Monochrome piers

Monochrome piers...

For this assignment I decided to take seaside piers as my theme. I thought this might work well given the idea with this assignment is to bring out the monochrome image qualities of form, tonal contrast and texture. 

I always associate piers with  summer childhood trips to the sea  and even now enjoy spending the odd hour wandering around piers.The architecture and presentation of funfair rides and stalls always seem to vie with each other for attention and offer glimpses of a history stretching back to early Victorian times.

I wanted to capture a sense of place straddling the past and the here and now, using images of people using and enjoying the pier and then pier itself. And I always associate piers with  summer childhood trips to the sea  and so wanted to give a sense of the weather and season ..in this case, late summer.

I carried out a few test shots on Worthing pier to check out whether the theme would work
and what areas might be interesting to experiment with. Interestingly, my memories of Worthing pier like many childhood memories fell a little short. It did provide some very useful material ,for example, art deco architecture but lacked the 'old-fashioned ' fairground feel that I also wanted to include. For this I went off to Brighton which has a more traditional pier; one less sedate than its cousin in Worthing.

 
So the final selection of images are drawn from time spent on both Brighton and Worthing piers, taken on  a number of days in varying weather.

Pier people



P589: f2.8 @ 1/1250  ISO 80  4mm  AWB Cropped

Unlike these people, I didn't get a chance that day to enjoy the view and lovely sunshine from a deckchair perspective. I chose this composition to convey the timelessness of seaside piers. The horizon might have changed over the decades but the sight of people comfortable in deckchairs could come form any time over the last century. Shooting in monochrome enhances this timelessness. I adjusted the black and white mix to achieve a slight darkening of the sky to lend more interest in what was very much a uniform blue. I also adjusted the tone curve to bring out the pattern on the decking through increased contrast. 



P590: f10 @ 1/320  ISO 100  18mm  WB Cloudy

While I have never seen anyone catch a fish from Worthing Pier, it does not seem to deter fishermen. I like this image for a number of reasons; the puzzle as to what the fisherman is looking at; the weather coming towards us with the clouds lowering over the distant shoreline .. Here I increased the exposure to lighten the image slightly and then applied the tone curve to darken parts of the sky to bring out more the drama of the sky set against the calmness and flatness of the sea and decking.



P591: f2.8 @ 1/160  ISO 80  4mm  AWB Cropped

The intention here is to present the 'contrast' between the business man talking on his mobile phone and the 'timelessness' of the funfair decorations around him. The scene has a certain geometric feel coming from the angled roof lines and the patterned floor which I felt would come over well in monochrome. The challenge was achieving the right level of contrast. The image benefited from cropping and I decreased the exposure, decreased the shadows and highlights before adjusting the tone curve to achieve the final image above. I think it works well and delivers what I intended.




P592: f8 @ 1/400  ISO 100  55mm  -0.7exp.  WB Daylight. Cropped

I always find it difficult to take photographs of people going about their business ever since I was fiercely challenged in Portsmouth city centre when taking shots of a building (ironically) just as a man walk passed. So, given the number of folk out and about on the pier, I was perhaps rather wary of capturing people in any image, particularly children. OK, yet another 'back view' but following this elderly man down the pier gave me this  lucky shot of Frankenstein lurching towards an unwary passer-by. A contrast of the everyday image of the old man and his shopping basket and the fantasy creature. To improve the detail, I increased the blue and decreased the yellow in the black and white mix as well as adjusting the tone curve and cropped the resulting image. 

Around the funfair ...

I am always attracted by shape, pattern, architectural detail and abstract form. Brighton Pier had much to offer and what I found fascinating was the range of period style and fashion that could be found amongst the various funfair rides and sideshows.



P593: f5.6 @ 1/800  ISO 100  18mm  WB Daylight Cropped

This leaping figure in P593 reminded me of a Disney fairy tale character and was painted accordingly. What attracted me was not the colour of the figure and horse but the volume and line and how this might be enhanced in monochrome.

The figure stood guard at the entrance of a slot machine gallery; a strange juxtaposition of fantasy and fairy tale and gambling machines  - or maybe not, given gambling is often seen as a way of fulfilling dreams.

I took shots from different angles around the figure to see what might work best in bright sunlight and how I might use the shadows to best effect. Try as I might it was not possible to get a shot that conveyed this fairy tale /gambling juxtaposition. That said, I like the angle I eventually chose for P593.
Increasing the exposure, contrast and clarity helped to crisp up the detail to the level that I wanted. I darkened the sky slightly using the tone curve.




P594: f8 @ 1/250  ISO 100  33 mm -0.7exp.  WB Daylight  Cropped

I know from previous experience of photographing  carousel horses in colour how hard  it is to capture the traditional, excessive but attractive fairground decoration they carry. I thought it worth a second try in black and white though since I had good examples of volume, texture and geometry in front of me.
 It does work better in monochrome - helped by increasing the contrast significantly.




P595: f5 @ 1/160  ISO 100  38mm WB Daylight

One of the fairground stalls closed and part shuttered gave me a great abstract image with a real retro feel ( P595). I did wonder how the bright red seats would translate into black and white and decided to increase the red within the black and white mix and decrease the yellow to make the yellow stripe on the floor stand out more. I am pleased with the final image.



P596: f8 @ 1/250  ISO 100   21mm  WB Daylight 

  

I like the dramatic impact of this picture. The dramatic feel of the blue and yellow  'Turbo Ride' was heightened by darkening the sky and lightening the cloud within the circle of the ride.



Assignment 2 : Reflection

Going back to the assessment criteria for this course again here are my thoughts having completed Assignment 2 .

Demonstration of Technical and Visual Skills materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills. 

This assignment has led me to really practise the digital techniques needed to get my camera to achieve what I was looking for to meet the very specific requirements of capturing high contrast scenes effectively without resorting to post-processing. It has been a real challenge at times but I feel that I understand the camera better and think a lot more about what I'm seeing in front of me before adjusting the camera settings and taking the shot.
The technical challenge of the street scene was for me very hard and I think I would like to revisit this later on in the course.
Certainly my visual awareness is more heightened and I find myself looking at high contrast images away from the camera in a different light and considering the technical aspects mre than I used to.

Re compositional skills, looking back at some of the images that I've produced, I feel that some lack a creative spark ( e.g. the lighthouse comes to mind here ) and I think I need to spend more time considering what subject material meets both the assignment and my own creative needs before starting on an assignment.


Quality of outcome content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas.

I think that I have presented my work in a coherent manner for this part of the course. I have tried  to communicate my ideas clearly but this is probably better judged by the reader. Certainly I have applied what I have learnt through the course, perhaps more effectively with some images than others.

Demonstration of Creativity imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice.

If I'm honest I feel that my assignment does not demonstrate the level of creativity I would like to see...this maybe that I felt a little constrained and less engaged by some of the locations that I ended up choosing.  I need to spend more time reflecting on what I want to capture in my images and why.


Context reflection, research, critical thinking ( learning log)

My research was primarily focused on the technical side and looking for suitable locations to fulfil the requirements of the end assignment. Two particular exhibitions that I have visited during this part of the course have had an influence in my thinking here. Tacita Deane's 'Disappearance at sea' - the lighthouse light against the sunset came to mind when I was thinking about how to capture an interesting image of the Southsea Lighthouse. And I see the influence of John Riddy's 'Sicilian landscapes' in my London street scene in terms of light and dark ...I have begun to catch up on my reading but need to devote more time to this.

Assignment two : Seeing like your camera

This assignment requires the production of a set of photographs that demonstrate that the student can pre-visualise how their digital camera 'sees' a scene. All the photographs are shot in high quality JPEG with no post-processing. There two parts to this work:  Part one which requires 12 images -  three for each of the models chosen - and Part two where on of the models is re shot to make the scenes low contrast.

Part One

1 Backlit scenes




P530: f4.5 @ 1/1250  ISO 200  -1exp.   35mm AWB

This street caught my eye when walking to my OCA study visit in London. It was a sunny day, the clouds were moving very fast and I had very little time to capture the scene. Nor did I have my Canon 500D with me only my IXUS 210. That said, this was too good a scene to miss. I wanted to bring out the amazing shape of the building on the right hand side and the reflections in the glass opposite. I used evaluative metering as there so many different light sources which came out as f4 @ 1/1000 . I decided to adjust the exposure   since I felt the image would likely come out too bright  and finally settled on f4.5  @ 1/1250  -1exp. What made you choose this exposure?  Was it and educated (or not!) guess or was there a logic to it
I like the result, the small figure in the picture draws the eye in and I can live with the small amount of clipping.






P531: f8 @ 1/125  ISO 1600 28mm AWB


I used spot metering for this image and focused on the lighter early morning sky. The reading came out as 1/125  @ F8 and I took the image at this setting.

Is there any other way you could have metered the light to get a guaranteed silhouette of the statue?

I chose to have the row of military flags leading up to the statute of the Marine offset by the everyday street lights lit to the right i.e. the calling offset by the reason for it...The final image came out darker than I saw it which was what I was expecting given the angle of light ( low and off to the right ) but lighter than I reckoned the camera would actually reproduce it. I did not expect to be able to see the colours of the flag.

Why do you think this might be?




P532: f14 @ 1/100 ISO 400  -0.7exp.  38mm Daylight WB

This image of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton (P532) was taken in the middle of the day in very strong sunlight.I wanted to taken an image that accentuated the interesting architecture and noticed the sunlight glinting off some of the domes which became a starting point for me. What I wanted to achieve was a capture of this sunlight combined with an almost silhouette effect to highlight the shapes. I was not sure how to meter the scene so tried partial metering
 focusing on the off white stone work and sky with the light coming in from the right. It metered at 1/400 @ F11 which I altered to f14 to achieve a little more detail and then reduced the exposure by -0.7 to darken the stonework. The image has not been processed other than being cropped to improve the composition. Again I was expecting the camera to see the image darker than it actually did as you can see some detail below the dome which I did not expect to be visible to the extent it is.

Why do you think the camera produces a lighter image than you were expecting?

That said, I think the light and dark shadow contrast on the dome does enhance the detail of the dome which was what I was looking for.


2 Early morning




P 535: f7.1 @ 1/400  ISO 100 -1exp. 27mm Daylight WB

The Millennium Tower in Portsmouth is very much an iconic landmark at Gunwharf Quays. It towers above the quayside, a dazzling white image against the sky. Here I wanted to catch the effect of the sun rising here i.e. any change in colour and gradually the colour of the tower changed from a grey white to a very faint pink to this golden white colour. Again I used spot metering focused on the highlight area of the tower as a starting point. Seeing this to be 1/400 @ f5, I decided to shoot the picture one stop underexposed. To heighten the dramatic nature of the building, I chose to shoot the tower from below looking up and diagonally across the frame - a diagonal emphasised by the shadow of a flag at the bottom right. I hoped that the camera would reproduce a dramatic contrast of colour and in fact, the sensor renders it darker than I was expecting but for all that I feel pleased with the end result. The shadows emphasise the architectural design and line well.





P536: f22 @ 1/5  ISO 100 -1exp.  49mm Daylight WB



For this image I used the spot meter focused on the sky with the sun rising behind and to the side of the lighthouse. The reading came out at 1/40 @ f5.6 with some clipping. I wanted to have the lighthouse stand out as almost a silhouette to emphasise the colour of the sunrise so I reduced the exposure by one stop to darken the image. The final image produced by the camera had a darker blue for the sky than I saw when looking  at the scene with the naked eye though this did enhance the sunrise oranges. Image was cropped.




P537: f9 @ 1/400  ISO 100  18mm  AWB Cropped

This image was taken just after 7am. Spot metering was used focusing on the white hut and came up with a reading of 1/250 @ f9. I took an image at this setting but given the high levels of contrast I was seeing I was not surprised to see some clipping. By increasing the shutter to 1/400 I managed to reduce the clipping with the resulting image above. I deliberately composed the picture to frame the apartments over the water within the silhouetted jetty. With hindsight I think a smaller aperture than f9 would have been better giving more depth of field and allowing some of the detail of the apartments to be seen.



3 Dappled scenes





P533: f6.3 @ 1/80  ISO 100  55mm  Daylight WB Cropped

Spot metering was used for this image using the light playing on the plums as the metering point. This came out as f6.3 @ 1/80 which I then used for the image. I cropped the photo a little from the top to improve the composition allowing the eye to travel down the main stem to the weighty ripening fruit without too much distraction.




 

P542 : f4 @ 1/125  ISO 100  -1 exp. 5mm WB Daylight 

My eye was drawn to sunlight playing on this brushwood / log hide. There was a wide range of constantly changing light sources given it was a cloudy/ bright breezy day so I felt I was more likely to get a sensible reading using a pattern exposure reading. I took a picture using the reading indicated ( i.e. 1/40 @ f4 ) and then changed the setting to get nearer to what I was  actually seeing with the naked eye but to reduce the clipping that was apparent in the first image. P542 is the result. I chose this angle of shot to have the tree shadow on the ground lead up to the sunlight spot on the hide and then draw the eye beyond to the sunlight path through the woods. I also like the light catching the tree trunks  in the background. This shot was taken with a Canon Powershot SX40 HS.







P541: f 18 @ 1/25  ISO 100  +0.3exp.  46mm  WB Daylight

For P541 I used spot metering focusing on the white beard of this garden gnome. It was a windy day which meant that the dappling was a movable feast. I wanted to capture the detail of the gnome's face and felt the dappled light falling on him did the trick. However, conscious of the likely problems of reflected light coming off his face I altered the camera's setting from the original reading of 1/40 @ f5.6 to 1/25 and over exposed the shot by 0.3.
The result was darker than the scene I saw with the naked eye and a little darker that I thought the camera would produce it following the changed settings.



4  Street scene




P538: f5.6 @ 1/1000  ISO 100 +0.3exp.  30mm AWB Cropped

I homed in on the white wall of the public house here on Spice Island, Portsmouth using spot metering. The reading was f5.6 @ 1/ 640. Since the sunlight was very strong, the shadows dark and wanting to prevent the image coming out darker than I was seeing it, I chose to use bracketing to adjust the exposure. My instinct was that a slight over exposure might work and  in fact this did render an image very close to what I was seeing here.





P540: f13 @ 1/80  ISO 400  -1exp.  21mm WB Daylight

It was quite a challenge to photograph scenes in the area of  The Lanes in Brighton. At midday the narrow passages were a very dark contrast to the bright sky above and the scene constantly changed as people wandered through window shopping. I tried spot metering at first but found it difficult to get a setting that produced the right balance between dark and light with enough detail to make the image interesting. I opted for partial metering in the end given the various areas of differing light . Based on a reading of f9 @ 1/80, I then dropped the exposure by one stop to avoid too bright an image for what I needed here.
The end result is near to what I was seeing but perhaps a shade darker and still had some highlight clipping. I like the figure looking out towards the camera in the pool of sunlight which draws the eye in and the light catching the flint wall but try as I might I could not quite capture the intrigue of the Lanes suggested by the play of light and dark shadows and open patches of sunlight in the passageways.






P539: f10 @ 1/200  ISO400  -0.3exp.  18mm WB Daylight Cropped

In P539, I used pattern metering to provide a reading. This came out as F8 1/200  and I reduced the exposure by -0.3 stop to counteract the bright light flooding down into the passage way as I wanted to reduce the shadow sufficiently to see the activity in front of me. I cropped the image to provide a more intimate composition. I like the compositional contrast between hurrying shoppers and the still couple looking into the interior of the pub obviously sizing it up for lunch... 

Part 2

 

 

For this part of the assignment I chose to return to the early morning images taken along Portsmouth's shoreline. The idea here being to  reduce the contrast or maybe even make hem low contrast scenes. Thinking about the variables  over which I might have some control e.g. the weather, I decided that maybe cloudy or rainy weather could be helpful here since changing the lighting of the composition by moving around the subjects was restricted by their location. I went out on a very wet, gusty morning with the high winds whipping the dark clouds across the sky at a rapid rate. 

 

 

Millennium Tower

 



P543:f10 @ 1/160  ISO 100 28mm AWB



 I was not surprised that this image came out almost devoid of colour as there was actually very little colour in the scene. The sky was almost uniformly a white grey - whiter than the tower. The spot meter reading of the sky came out as 1/160 @f/9. I used bracketing for the first three images and then opened the aperture to f16 ( too dark ) and then reduced to f10. The final result is a flatter more bland image with little crisp shadow definition - less contrast than the image taken in early morning sunshine where the shadow lends to the dramatic thrust of the building.

 

Lighthouse

 

 



P544: f8 @ 1/80 ISO 100 54mm  WB Cloudy

 

 

This image was taken in the pouring rain with a cloudy bright sky. The meter reading came out as 1/60 @ F7.1 but  while this produced less contrast, the picture was dark without the enhancement of a sunrise to provide interest. Changing the setting slightly kept the reduced contrast but added in some detail i.e the various shades of stone and brickwork but to my mind the result is a flat picture. I prefer the previous picture which while backlit by the sunrise ( i.e. no detail of the brickwork ) gives a crisper image.
 

Jetty 

 




P545: f8 @ 1/100  ISO 100 25mm WB Cloudy

 



Still raining here at the jetty with a cloudy sky as a backdrop. The colours are more muted here with more detail being revealed on the jetty with the terracotta pot being visible and the colour of the high rise flats more prominent. I prefer again the image with the crisp shadows and silhouette. 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and having now reworked three of my original images using weather conditions to help reduce the level of contrast, I realise that this was not as successful as I had imagined. Had I had more time, I think I would have revisited the three sites in similar weather to the original pictures to see how adjusting the composition might have worked better.

Assignment one : Workflow

Camber Dock

I thought quite a while about what subject to focus on for this assignment and opted to explore Camber Dock in Portsmouth which I felt offered a range of subjects from working fishing boats, leisure craft and a well known fish market all bound by residential buildings.

1 Preparation
I researched the Camber Dock area e.g. opening times of the Fish Market that I wanted to visit. Given the consistent weather forecasts indicating cold, cloudy weather, I also checked out on the internet what techniques fellow photographers were using to overcome dull or at best cloudy / bright weather  to see whether there were any tips I could pick up on. This led me to taking the tripod on every site shoot so that I could use as wide aperture as I needed avoiding camera shake and a circular polariser. Other checks covered the battery level and storage capacity of the memory card being used. Also decided to re calibrate my computer monitor and printer in readiness for printing the final selection of images.

2 Site visits

An initial and brief visit to primarily walk the area ( as the weather was not very good that day ) made me think that a straightforward landscape approach for outside images could likely produce  pedestrian / picture postcard views. Looking at the theme from a different angle I decided that action shots and images that captured the range of colour,texture and pattern that constantly drew my eye as I walked around the dock might work better.

3 Capture images
I completed two site visits and combined the images taken on both days. This was worth doing since the weather was different on both days giving a different perspective for the images. I tried  different approaches e.g. bracketing to see how the images  might be improved on site. Inevitably images were deleted on site but given the light difficulties I did have to bring the majority taken back home since it proved too difficult to see the impact of the changes on the camera display screen.

4 Technical edit

The technical edit reduced the images down to 156 images.  At this stage, I started to think what I really need from software to allow me to easily make value judgements and how best to organise the material. In the past I have created my own filing system of folders and subfolders and this simple approach has worked well so far. Experimenting with Photoshop came unstuck due to some kind of corruption of software but up to the point of becoming aware of the software problems I was not convinced that that approach provided me with an improved approach re-organisation within the workflow. That said, it is early days and I feel the need to persevere with getting to grips with the 'Organiser' side of things once I have sorted the software problem. My fall-back position looked to be using Windows Photo Gallery to grade the photos at the first selection stage.

5 First selection 

At this stage I had to decide what software to use given the problems I was having with Photoshop's interaction with my hard drive. In the end I opted to not use Photoshop for organising / tagging the images. Using Photo Gallery's system of star rating, I looked  
 for images that drew my eye from the point of view of content e.g. texture, colour, pattern, sense of place etc.  I was probably not critical enough at this stage since the initial selection came to 70 images ( three star ).

6 Second selection

Applying a more critical eye and using Photo Gallery processing software, I now came down to 19 images ( four star ). At this point I decided to give myself a break from looking at the images so that I could come back to the review stage with a fresh eye.

7 Review

Worth standing back for a while as  I found it much easier to choose the final selection of 12 images ( 5 star ).

8 Final selection
Each image was then numbered using my current numbering scheme and given a caption containing technical detail. The final selection is more abstract than reality perhaps...



P488 :f3.5 @ 1/400  ISO 200 +0.3exp.  18mm  Cloudy WB

I liked the angle of this shot  ( P488 ) which emphasises the shape of the boats against the sky. I decided to adjust the saturation for this image to bring out the colour more.



P489: f5.6 @ 1/50  ISO 100 55mm Cloudy WB cropped

In the above image the reflections emphasised by the blue cable caught my eye first. The swan was a bonus given it was on the move at the time.



P490: f4.5 @ 1/320  ISO 100  148mm cropped Cloudy WB

I wanted to capture the swan juxtaposed against the incoming fishing boat which meant taking the shot quickly. The cropping was slight and vertical from the left. I also adjusted the contrast increasing it a little. I’m happy with the result liking the position of bollard, swan and boat …

P491: f4.5 @ 1/80  ISO 100  18mm Cloudy WB

The intention here is to draw the audience from the boat coming in to the catch i.e. the oysters framed within the yellow structure of the boat…a natural frame so to speak. The image came out a little dark so I increase the brightness and saturation a little.



P492: f4 @ 1/125 @ 1/125  ISO 100  28mm Cloudy WB cropped

What attracted me here in P492 was the rich colour of the inside of the boat, the blue working gloves and the crab leg left over from the morning’s work. I did try cropping more closely to bring together the linked images of gloves and crab leg but lost a lot of the rich colour, pattern and shape so drew back to this composition. Saturation was increased a little to enhance the colours.



P493: F14 @ 1/160  ISO 200  55mm AWB cropped

I really like the outcome of this shot i.e. the composition, colour and reflection of the dock pub in the water.



P494: f13 @ 1/25  ISO 400 -0.7exp. 24mm  AWB cropped

I spent some time in the fish market trying all kinds of shots of fish, the working area, the imagery and notices on the walls etc.  to try and convey a sense of place.This lobster was quite splendid and I think tilting the shot works well.



P495: f5.6 @ 1/50  ISO 800  27mm Cloudy WB  cropped

You couldn’t miss this sign as it faced the entrance. Obviously seen better days and somehow the broom leaning against it seemed to emphasise this. There was very much a tension in the indoor fish market between the up to date fresh fish presented in a safe and healthy environment and signs like this one set on the periphery of activity.



P496: f8 @ 1/13  ISO 800 24mm  AWB

Until now I didn’t realise how difficult it actually is to photograph dead fish in a way that hints at the live animal. The eyes always indicate freshness apparently but capturing the beautiful markings took a number of shots from different angles and ISO settings. I increased the contrast slightly when processing this image to enhance the markings.



P497: f8 @ 1/30  ISO 100  37mm  AWB

I chose this image ( P497) because I liked the composition. I turned it round to view it in portrait rather than landscape as I think it works better that way. Contrast, saturation and brightness have all been increased slightly.

P498: F5.6 @ 1/30  ISO 100  31mm Cloudy WB

What drew my eye here were the shells and stones trapped behind this piece of fishing gear plus the rhythmic pattern and contrast of colours. I increased the contrast and brightness a little to enhance the image.

P499: F4 @ 1/160 ISO 100 114mm Cloudy WB

I had to use the telephoto lens here to get close enough to the subject to try and capture the beautiful reflection that I could see from afar. I took the photo at a slight angle as I wanted to achieve an abstract image. Try as I might I could not capture very well the slight tremor in the water which reminded me of impressionism. Again I increased the saturation and contrast to bring out the colour and shape.

9  Backup /archiving
The 12 final images were backed up on an external hard drive as usual.

10 Prints

8 prints were taken. Despite re-calibrating my computer display and printer, the prints were not as good a match in colour as I would have wished.




11 Conclusion

As I worked through this assignment, I wondered how what I chose to to do in terms of the workflow process might differ from what others might do here. I think the key area may be the selection process and how images are tagged for future and retrospective use. I still feel more comfortable with my customary practice of using folders to differentiate the levels of selection rather than grading with say a star based system which I felt somehow slowed things down for me. That said, this may well be the process of learning and getting used to a new approach getting in the way. Once I have sorted the Photoshop software problem, I think I will persevere here for a while longer so that lack of familiarity with the 'Organiser ' side of things does not influence my thinking here as to what to use in the future.