Master of Photography - Sky Arts

[Iggy]

Master of Photography
I have manged to catch up on watching Master of Photography on Sky Arts via Virgin as I was in Singapore when it started.
It makes for interesting viewing where a series of 8 tasks are set for 12 contestant photographers who then have to present just one image each after each task to the judges for critique. One photographer is eliminated each week.

Twelve photographers from across Europe have been selected from hundreds of applicants to compete in a range of tasks to become the next Sky Arts Master of Photography.
https://www.sky.com/watch/title/series/ ... hotography

Sky Arts announce second season for Master of Photography as €150k winner of season one is unveiled - 08 September 2016
https://corporate.sky.com/media-centre/ ... 20unveiled

Here is what David Candlish said about the first series:
http://davidcandlish.photography/news/2 ... -tv-review

[Iggy]

More details and Leica's connection:
https://leicarumors.com/2017/05/22/leic ... 2017.aspx/

[Mike Farley]

Thanks for the update, Iggy.

The show is being broadcast on Sky TV, but for those who do not subscribe the service it is also available on NowTV. That includes the option to watch the previous series.

http://watch.nowtv.com/watch-entertainm ... 0wodPYsFyQ

[Sarahrs]

Thanks for highlighting. I'm quite enjoying the series and waiting for the last obvious weak photographer to drop out before the real blood letting begins.

I've used their approach on my last photo trip to arendual with the challenge of showing place suitable for a travel magazine. Think I even got a couple of worthy shot, though I might have to do a bill gray and decide live is too short for bad skies and putting in somethng well sunnier.

Has anyone used the challenges for inspiration?

[Iggy]

I rather enjoyed this week's Master of Photography where the remaining 5 photographers had to go home to get their images that included a self portrait. The one that revealed the least of his home life and produced images with little empathy was knocked out, leaving 4 for the final challenge next week.
Repeated on Sky Arts on Monday.
Iggy

[Paul Heester]

Have you all seen the last episode?? (No spoilers).

I rather thought the remaining finalists did poorly with the time they spent with different indigenous people. If it was a case of deciding the winner on that round alone then no one for me stood out. As it was the judges seemed to review all the previous rounds as well - a much better idea - and I believe the winner was deserved.

[Iggy]

I rather thought the remaining finalists did poorly

Through out the competition all the competitors were making rather basic mistakes in spite of having some of the best lenses at their disposal.
It was obvious that it had been a long time since they had their work critiqued.
They would have done better if they had spent a whole year at the Croydon Camera Club taking part in all 15 club competitions before progressing to Master of Photography.
They could have learnt a lot from the judges comments at our club competitions!?!
Iggy

[Mike Farley]

Through out the competition all the competitors were making rather basic mistakes in spite of having some of the best lenses at their disposal.

It isn't the equipment. One of my more sucessful images of recent times was taken with a camera and lens combination which cost well under £700 bought new. It got the joint highest score of my acceptances in the last SPA Biennial Exhibition and featured in the judge's comments at this year's last SLF finals day. Mind you, it was a real b*****d to print. The inexpensive lens vignettes quite badly, which is not usually too much of problem except when, as in this instance, the photo consists of almost entirely pale tones.

http://lightintotheshadows.proimageblog ... ape-image/

[Iggy]

Mike wrote:
One of my more successful images of recent times was taken with a camera and lens combination which cost well under £700 bought new.

When, as a hobby, I was writing some 50 feature articles a year for UK & US tropical fish magazines and had 30 to 40 images a month published, I was using just a Fuji S7000 bridge camera costing ~£350 new that did have wonderful macro capabilities with good depth of field. I stopped using a great Pentax slr camera, macro lens & more that Asahi Pentax had provided free of charge when I was an ambassador for them.
So yes, cheap cameras can produce great images good enough for publication.
I still think that the contestants would have benefited from taking part in CCC competitions and receiving critique, prior to taking part in Master of Photography!
Iggy

[Mike Farley]

On a slightly different tack, neither is the newest equipment necessary to make good images. Admittedly the Nikon D3 was an expensive camera in its day, but despite being 10 years old it is still capapble of turning in professional quality results.

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/41396 ... flashlight