The Little World

For the organisers of this year’s WASMex show.

Not for the weather or the parking or the fences. For the lighting in the competition hall. It was vastly improved over previous years, and deliberately so.

The windows at the sides of the competition hall in the Liddelow Pavilion do let a lot of light in – when there is sunshine outside. This is fine for finding the tables, but sometimes diabolical for seeing the details of the competition entries. It tends to back-light some of them and make it difficult for human eye to see into the shadows nearest the viewer.

Combined with the overhead lights, the colour temperature can vary wildly – as a viewer you don’t notice it, but as a digital photographer you do. Hence the use of flash to overcome both problems.

Well, this year the committee mounted light stalks and LED bars in the junction of the centre tables and the result was a much better view of the models. A flash was still needed in some areas but others yielded to open exposure and the results were fine.

Lets hope the new hall to be used next year also has electrical outlets that allows this form of lighting to make the competition entries look good.