Digital Photo Tip: Be a Caption Queen

Posted on June, 2014 by Mark Turner

Chances are you’re going on a vacation somewhere this summer and you’re going to take a whole bunch of pictures. You’re going to want to savor those memories in the years to come. That means you need to caption your photos and file them where you can find them again. I wrote about digital filing systems back in November 2011 when I wrote “Where’s My Stuff?” This month I’ll address captioning.

Edna Turner) — I made this portrait of my Grandmama Turner in our garden in 1962 when I was 8 years old. My dad wrote the caption on the bottom of the print before it went into an album.

My mother was a captioning queen. She was super organized and diligent about writing names, dates, and locations on the margins or back of prints or on the edges of slide mounts. My dad, who taught me the basics of photography, was also pretty good about captioning his pictures. I’ve also been diligent about captioning my photos, since if I can’t find it I can’t sell it. Continue reading →

Digital Photo Tip: Choose an Exposure Mode

Posted on May, 2014 by Mark Turner

Canon G12 exposure mode and ISO dials — Exposure mode and ISO dials on the Canon G12 compact camera

Most digital cameras, except for the very simplest, offer several exposure modes . How do you choose which one to use? It depends on what’s most important in the photo you’re making. This month I’ll explain the difference between the primary modes: Program Automatic, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, and Manual. Your camera may also have a variety of Scene modes. Continue reading →

Digital Tip: Polarizing Filter

Posted on April, 2014 by Mark Turner

With the advent of digital photography we have so much post-processing control in applications like Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, or Photoshop Elements that many of the filters we once used are no longer needed. But there are two exceptions, filters that I still carry and use in my outdoor photography. This month I’ll remind you why a polarizing filter is still important.

Most people, when they think of a polarizing filter, associate it with darkening a blue sky. That’s certainly one of the most common uses of this filter. You can compare the effect of the polarizer in this photograph of our home made on a sunny afternoon with the sun roughly 90° to the left of my camera. Without the polarizer the grass is lighter green, the sky is a pale blue, and the brightness values of the yellow paint, the grass, and the sky are similar. Continue reading →

Digital Tip: Photographing Christmas Lights

Posted on December, 2013 by Mark Turner

Holiday lights on outdoor Christmas tree

This holiday season you can’t avoid coming across wonderful light displays that add a festive touch to our long nights. Whether it’s the lights on your own home, a favorite neighborhood you like to visit, or one of the great public garden holiday light displays, you can make great photographs of the lights. Just don’t expect to get top results with your phone camera (although it doesn’t cost you anything to experiment). Continue reading →

Digital Photo Tip: Window Light Portrait

Posted on October, 2013 by Mark Turner

One of the things that sets professional photographers apart from snapshooters is that we’re always looking for the light, seeing how it plays across our subject. Modern cameras are very good at getting an acceptable exposure in almost any light, but we’ve all seen thousands of photos taken in very bad light. You can do better. Here’s one approach.

Natalie and I were visiting her mother, Betty, not too long ago. She lives just a mile from us so we’re there often. Her home has a wonderful sun room, with windows all along the south wall and a couple of skylights so the room is bathed in light. Betty spends a lot of time sitting by the window where she can watch the birds in her garden or reach a book on the shelves beside her chair. Continue reading →

Transient Memories

Posted on June, 2013 by Mark Turner

People have been taking snapshots of friends, family, and the places they visit since George Eastman first popularized photography with the first Kodak camera in 1888. In the 125 years since then a nearly uncountable number of photographs have been made. The pace of picture taking has only increased since the invention of digital photography and digital cameras becoming affordable to nearly everyone.

People upload 300 million photos every day to Facebook alone, according to a July 2012 story in USA Today. Sites like Facebook, Flickr, and Pinterest have become today’s photo albums. But will they be around in 75 years? Will our children and grandchildren be able to look back at these glimpses into our lives?

Snapshot of Byron Turner on board ship en route to Europe, summer 1939. — Snapshot of my dad, Byron Turner, on board ship en route to Europe, summer 1939.

My parents were both avid scrapbookers when they were in their twenties, the same age as our two boys are today. They both had cameras and they took pictures of their adventures. Continue reading →

Digital Photo Tip: Embrace Overcast Skies

Posted on June, 2013 by Mark Turner

I love gray skies. They’re a giant soft source, wrapping the world in flattering light that is nearly perfect for photography. Given that it’s still spring in western Washington, we’ve had a lot of gray skies and rain lately. The forecast has been rain, alternating with showers, a bit of drizzle, some mist, and an occasional sun break. It’s a perfect time to head outdoors with a camera.

On one of the last days of May I paid a visit to the native plant demonstration garden on Memorial Highway a few miles west of Mount Vernon. The weather was overcast with intermittent light rain. In other words, ideal for photographing specimen plants and flowers.

So what is it that makes overcast skies so nice for photography? Continue reading →

Digital Photo Tip: Watch Your Horizon

Posted on May, 2013 by Mark Turner

The strongest photographs lead the viewer to concentrate their attention on the subject and minimize anything that might be distracting. One thing that’s easy to miss is the relationship of the horizon line to your subject, particularly when photographing people. You don’t want the horizon to slice through someone’s head. Continue reading →

Digital Photo Tip: Sharp and Fuzzy

Posted on April, 2013 by Mark Turner

One of my readers asked me recently, “How do I control depth of field and get a fuzzy background in my photos?” It’s a technique I use a lot to help create contrast between subject and background. This month I’m sharing the secrets to this professional tool.

Oregon-grape blossoms, wide aperture, telephoto lens, close-up — Oregon-grape blossoms, wide aperture, wide-angle lens, close-up

First, a definition of the term. Depth of field describes the area in front of (closer to the camera) and behind the subject that appears acceptably sharp when the lens is focused on the subject. We often describe it as “shallow” when only the plane of focus is sharp, and “deep” when more elements in the photo in front of and behind the subject are sharp.

Continue reading →

Digital Tip: When One Exposure Is Not Enough

Posted on March, 2013 by Mark Turner

1204906 John Day River [panoramic merged] [Juniperus occidentalis]. OR 19, Kimberly, OR. © Mark Turner — John Day River valley, merged panorama

I’m a big fan of doing all the necessary preparation work to capture my vision in a single exposure, with all the elements in place in the instant the shutter is open. But sometimes that just isn’t possible and I rely on some of the digital magic that allows me to combine multiple exposures into a single finished image.

There are three main reasons I’ll create a composite image:

Subjects, particularly in a large group portrait, don’t all cooperate at the same time
The brightness range in the image is greater than my camera’s sensor can accommodate
The subject is too large, or the working space too small, to fit into one frame

The key to creating a composite digital image is planning ahead. It’s not something you can do successfully, and believably, without knowing where you’re going. I always use a tripod so as many elements as possible line up perfectly.

Unless I’m going to use High Dynamic Range (HDR) techniques to fit a wide brightness range into a single frame I make sure my exposure is that same for each frame that I’ll be blending. That almost always means manual exposure and a constant aperture. I don’t touch the zoom on my lens and I keep my lighting the same.

Let’s examine each of these three variations on blending multiple exposures. Continue reading →