Understanding Image Quality: Exposure

What is the recipe for great image quality? How do you know it when you see it? I’ll be writing a series of posts over time to delve into this in a way anyone can understand. The short answer? Great images are made by leveraging adept knowledge on powerful equipment to uplift free-spirited creativity.

I want to take a little time to explain some different aspects of image quality in a way that’s not too technical for non-photographers to follow.

The low-quality samples in my proofing don’t show the depth of detail in the final images. That’s part of the reason I’m writing this post! The image quality I explain here is the image quality you can expect from every one of my galleries. I work in accordance with the standards established for commercial photography by Adobe Stock and Getty Images, and branch out artistically from that starting point. If for some reason I ever couldn’t deliver that on a session, I would offer a complimentary reshoot rather than deliver those images.

Poor Quality: Background
Exposure Issues

There are many factors that make up the prevailing assessment of image quality. In portraits, focus should be sharp on both eyes. Exposure should be correct. The image should be free of excessive artifacts like noise, dust, chromatic aberrations, and color separation. There are times to break the rules, and I’m happy to do it for good reason. But quality standards exist to help us create the most rich, real, and beautiful images the state of our art will allow.

To put it more plainly, here’s a poor quality image. The highlights are clipped–see how the side of the building is white where it seems like it should probably be yellow? Those parts of the image are so overexposed that the camera’s sensor recorded no detailed data. The same thing happened in the shadows here. There are no details in the blacks.

It’s kind of like when you walk into the sun from a dark room and you can’t see anything until your eyes adjust. You’re not capable of seeing both the extreme dark and the extreme light at the same time–you have to adjust for one or the other. In the same way, this scene went outside the range of what my camera could capture.

The next image shows what the same shot looks like to me when I’m processing. The red is Lightroom’s highlight clipping indicator, and the blue is the shadow clipping indicator. I don’t turn these indicators off when I’m working. A quality image should look identical whether they are on or off.

I’ve also shared an example of a successful image side by side with the clipping indicators on and off. There’s no difference between the with and without indicator images. Even though this image was also shot in dramatic light, there is no clipping anywhere–detail was captured throughout the entire frame.

The takeaway is that protecting the quality of the entire frame is essential to making the most beautiful image possible.

Professional photographers not only recognize image quality issues, but they also have in-depth technical knowledge of the equipment they use, and are able to push its capabilities to the limits–or even beyond, with a measure of ingenuity and strong post-processing skills.

Dream Big Dreams

I feel pretty lucky that I was born to live in this time. The age of global information brings a lot of new complications to our lives, but it also allows light to fall on a lot of things that used to stay in shadow.

When I was in college, I was the first woman to arrange music for our University’s marching band. A friend was the first female drum major. When we were kids, the band didn’t allow female members at all.

We blazed through these firsts without giving them much thought, and that is amazing. We didn’t feel like pioneers, it just felt normal. Thank goodness for change! It has become much more widely accepted for all of us to follow our hearts, even if we don’t fit the traditional mold.

My little daughter is in love with airplanes. When she goes out wearing her tiny bomber jacket, people call her a cute little fella. Female pilots are still considered somewhat remarkable–women aerobats actually compete separately from men even now.

So, we watch a lot of documentaries about women pilots and we go to air shows whenever we can. I want her to know that people like her can do that–that it’s not reserved for someone else. Maybe as she grows older, her interests will change. But we’ll always be there to support her vision and help her find ways to follow her ambitions, even if there’s no example before her to follow.

Times keep steadily changing, and by the minute, it becomes less and less remarkable for anyone to do just about anything they want to do. It’s pretty exciting. And knowing where we came from, I’m so happy when I can lend a little boost to help her envision herself following her dreams.

“She believed she could, so she did…”

Giving The Gift of Legacy Photography to your Parents and Children

a large family portrait session in amador county, California by Relish Photography — A recent Relish family legacy session

Day to day we all go along, busy, immersed, often overtaxed. We take a lot of snapshots. We give lots of hugs. Maybe not as many as we’d like. If we’re lucky, a lot of people lean on us for what they need to get through life, and if we’re REALLY lucky, they’re there for us to fall on when we need it, too.

Family, right? We love them and they drive us crazy. But they’re always there.

A selfie of me and my husband on our first anniversary. This is a beautiful memory, but I wish we had some nice portraits from this year!

Stuck in our regular routine, it’s can be easy to put our folks on the back burner. We all have obligations and there’s a limit to the energy we can spend in a day. But as life has unfolded, I’ve realized how important it is to make time for family.

In the past I’ve always found ways to make our own family portraits here and there, usually by handing off the camera to a bystander for a snapshot. We all have bills to pay, and a portrait session doesn’t immediately rank as necessary. But this year, I made it a priority to invest in a portrait session for my family.

It felt right to honor my mom with a quality portrait of our three generations of women together, and I wanted my daughter to have a beautiful visual legacy to hold onto throughout her life. A professional portrait gives a level of honor to the family that the dearest snapshots can’t match; and there’s a transformative quality to seeing your family through the eyes of an outsider.

Two sisters throw dry leaves in the air while mom and dad steal a kiss in the background. — A Relish family session. This is more than just a pretty Christmas card. What a gift this image will be to these sweet girls as they grow older!

I’m so fortunate that I can give other families the opportunity to create family legacy portraits. These images are are so beautiful to create, and fill my heart with love and reverence. If you haven’t had a family portrait made lately, it’s time! Get everyone together, get dressed up, and celebrate your family’s legacy. Do it for your kids, do it for your parents, and do it for yourself.

How I wish we’d done this with my dad, too. I have mostly snapshots of my dad. He left us before I became a serious portrait photographer myself, and we never really knew the value of professional family portraits until the opportunity was gone. I can’t go back and recreate those legacy images for my dad. But going forward, I can honor my family with professional portraits regularly. And, as a photographer, I can give others the same opportunity to create a lasting, visual legacy for their families with every family session I schedule.

Me and mom. ZAMS Photography by Zita Makkos

Why I Don’t Use Presets

*One of my images with a popular preset applied. The white patch on the right is burning my eyes! that highlight was not blown out in the original image.*

My feed’s always flooded with ads for photography presets, also known in the social media world as filters. These pre-made sets of editing actions can be mass-applied to a whole photoshoot at once. Some photographers use presets as a tool to save time and give all their work a consistent look.

When a stylized preset is applied, the image can become more about the preset than the actual image itself. For this reason, presets can help increase the impact of images that are lacking in interest or quality. But they fall far short of hand editing when they meet with great image quality and attention to detail.

Clients and colleagues have complimented my processing and asked if presets are a part of my workflow. So, I wanted to take a few minutes to write about my approach to processing, and explain why I don’t use presets.

If you’ve ever followed a photography feed or even talked about photography near your phone, you’ve probably seen preset ads. Brixton film, Jake Olson, who else sells presets? There are so many out there. The example photos look dreamy–bright, rich, deep and intense, or soft, muted, and tranquil. Surreal in a really good way. It’s easy to think that mood was created by the preset alone.

But, no. A professional photographer shot those images, and although the preset was applied, many other actions were also taken to create that final product. When presets are simply applied wholesale, one-and-done style, the effect is not always so dreamy.

Left: My hand edit; Right: a popular preset with no other edits

When I began studying as a photographer, I was incredibly fortunate to have a very patient and technically-minded mentor who taught me in depth how to shoot and edit for the best possible image quality. It was a major milestone for me in my path to begin shooting professionally when I was accepted as a contributor for Adobe Stock and Getty Images–two separate commercial image sources, each with a strict insistence on impeccable image quality. My artistic editing springs from that foundation of technical excellence. I start with a clean image, and branch out to create a little fantasy in my editing without losing that integrity.

Consider the images above. On the left, in my hand edit, I kept the blacks dark and the whites bright, making space for the midtones. I clipped the blacks gently to give a soft matte look. I softened the green but left it a natural hue. I augmented the direction of the light. I removed some distractions from the background and minimized the prominence of the textures in the road and grass. I pumped up her hair and subtly straightened her posture, and I processed her skin first by hand and then by applying my custom look with a sophisticated skin texture algorithm.

Left: My hand edit; Right: the same popular preset as above.

In this detail crop of the same image, you can really see the difference in the level of detail between the hand edit and the image with the preset applied. The preset made her white shirt look blue and her face look orange. Her hair is not flattered, and her eyes are darkened so much that the light in them is almost totally lost. The preset brought out unwanted detail in the background and flattened her face, making it appear more broad. The same broadening and flattening effect can be seen in the preset-applied image below right. The skin tone is unnatural, and popped details in the gate steal attention from her face.

Left: My hand edit; Right: another popular preset–her face is flattened and broadened by detail loss.

I love an artistic, stylized edit, but presets don’t give me that. For my workflow, they remove detail and rob the processing experience of its intention and artistry. There’s nothing a preset can do that I can’t create by hand, which gives me so much more freedom to create.

Left: My hand edit; Right: original image straight out of camera with no edits

Presets do serve as a great reflection of popular culture. In 10 years, we may look back on them with nostalgia the same way we look back now on Glamor Shots, In Living Color, and JNCO pants. SO cool at the time, right? So NOW. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the love may not last.

As much as I enjoy being gently swayed by the changing tides of style, it’s important to me that I stay rooted in classic beauty. I want to make sure the work I’m creating will still be relevant and just as enjoyable in 10, 20, or 50 years. And, above all else, I want my portraits to be about the person, not the processing.

Using Photography To Find Purpose and Say “Thank You”

A group of Jackson firefighters after our first firehouse studio session

We all have something we can give to others in life. It’s easy to feel like what you have to give may not be as special or important as what others do. Maybe that feeling might keep us from giving sometimes. Isn’t that too bad?

It’s taken a while for me to find my niche in life. I’ve had so much rich life experience but it’s taken a lot of trials to find where I really belong. On the flip side of exploration and diverse experience has been a feeling of searching for that one right purpose that could give me a sense of meaning in what I do.

My dad, Captain Franck Tremaine, at mom’s house.

My dad was a firefighter for 40 years and was admired by many for his courage, candor, and commitment. With a role model who had made such a massive impact on life in my community, I put a heavy expectation on myself to do the same. I could enjoy my work or studies, but the question always remained, was I making a difference?

This week, I’m creating art to glorify, celebrate, and THANK the incredible men and women of the Jackson Fire Department. Their job is unbelievably taxing, and alienating in ways that most of us are fortunate not to understand. My hope is that I can use my particular set of abilities to give them something that will fill them with pride and confidence.

Firefighter Vincent
Firefighter Kinzer
Firefighter DiGirolamo

Firefighter Hart
Engineer Digirolamo
Firefighter McCombs

After a lot of searching and a lot of growing, I’ve come to realize that there are so many different facets to our lives, and they’re all important. The people on the front lines of life can’t do what they do without a really great support system behind them.

So here I am, finally accepting that I have the soul of an artist and the mind of an engineer, and not at all the body of a firefighter! And that’s ok. It’s better than ok. I can use what I can do to lift up other people who have different things to give than I do. We all do this for each other and it’s what makes life amazing.

Captain Martinsen
Firefighter Anaya
Firefighter Otto

Firefighter Kinzer
Firefighter Hart

If you’ve struggled with feeling like you don’t have much of value to give, take a second look at where your strengths lie. You have something in there that someone else really needs.

Driving The Back Roads: Crafting the Relish Senior Session

I watched the weather all week and Friday was looking spotty but I decided to keep my appointment with Bella unless it was literally pouring. I know that might not be the right choice for everyone, but Bella was one of my high school senior models and we were going out to play and experiment. Sometimes a little rain can make magic.

A beautiful shot of senior model Bella in Jackson, CA

We met up after school on a Friday afternoon. After chatting a little about logistics and taking some opening shots in the spot where we met, we hopped in my car, bound for the Amador backroads via downtown Sutter Creek. Our plan was to drive slow and stop wherever we felt the pull to shoot. I saw a side street that attracted me so I parked on Main. But after a few shots and a little wandering, The Antique Gardener caught my eye and I put two and two together.

I was elated when we were graciously welcomed to shoot in the back garden. The Antique Gardener is one of my favorite spots in Amador County. There is something about that space that reaches me at a great depth. I would move in if they’d let me.

The Antique Gardener in Sutter Creek, CA was an amazing location to explore.

We relaxed and took our time shooting in that beautiful garden. After a few more stops throughout town, a little good natured heckling from “The Locals” (I’m looking at you, John Campbell) and a fun surprise bump into John Michael Poulson of Lexie Jean Photography (one of the area’s leading real estate photographers), we loaded back up and cruised on toward Amador City the back-back way (because since the highway got bypassed, the old highway is the new “back” way).

All along the back roads we stopped here and there to shoot in the beautiful spots we saw, and we wrapped it up by setting up studio lighting in a wide piece of road to catch an amazing stormy sunset.

Stopping wherever we wanted was fun and relaxing.

The sunset was so worth the few drops of rain we felt!

Through the whole session we got just a few drops of rain, but the sky was gorgeous and it couldn’t have been a more perfect day. I’m so glad we went, and I’m so glad we worked this way. It’s usual to set a time limit on a session, or plan to shoot in a certain location because that’s convenient. But there could be no comparison to the rich story of Bella we created by tripping around together and following our hearts for the whole afternoon. I hope I can always work this way with my seniors.

How To Photograph Small Children Without Frustration

Little ones don’t usually think sitting still for a picture sounds like fun. It may be possible to barter a few fleeting seconds (literally, seconds) with a two-year-old, but realistically, photography takes more time than that.

So. When I do a session with little kids, I don’t worry so much about getting them to hold still. I like to set them up in a situation and get them to play and have fun. It’s up to me to do whatever acrobatics are needed to capture the perfect moments that ensue. I shoot many frames to get a few, and when there are multiple people in an image, it is likely a composite of several original shots.

You wouldn’t necessarily think this was two different shots, but sometimes, that’s what it takes!

If you have a session scheduled with your kids, don’t stress too much about how they act when you get there. Straight out of the car and feeling pressure to “be good,” little kids probably won’t be able to sit still and smile for the camera right off the bat.

A little shy at first… what a beautiful image came of it! Big smiles are beautiful but they aren’t our whole story.

As a photographer, I expect this. The best way to handle the situation is, if they’re being silly, be silly right along. If they’re being reserved, capture that mood and give them time to get a feel for the situation. These are things kids do when they’re uncomfortable. A lot of times, that little bit of space held for them leads to them settling in and becoming a lot more relaxed.

Sister wanted some individual attention while brother settled in. I could tell it made her feel really special.

Long story short, making beautiful images of little kids sometimes requires thinking outside the normal conventions of portrait photography. Let them be kids. Get them playing and laughing and then surprise them with a squeaky toy behind the lens. Let them run circles around you. Tell them about the bunny in the camera that they’ll see through the lens if they’re looking at JUST the right moment…

Your patience and forbearance (and the photographer’s skill in Photoshop lol) will pay off 100 fold.