One of the questions that I am frequently asked by other photographers and hobbyists is how to take a shot that has sun flare in it.  I love the look of the sun’s rays shooting through the frame and wrapping around my subjects.  Contrary to what most people believe, it’s not a Photoshop trick- it’s done in camera and it’s actually a fun technique to master (although you should be careful of your eyes when photographing straight into the sun).

First, be aware that some lenses flare more easily than others, and some produce better flare than others.  For example, I am a Nikon shooter (the D3), and I dislike the flare from my 50 1.4.  For the purposes of my work I steer clear of that lens when I am trying to produce flare in camera because I dislike the look of the flare that it produces (unless I am silhouetting my subject, in which case I don’t mind using it).  The rays are less defined and will often be punctuated by bright green bubbles in the most unfortunate spots.  On the other hand, I love the flare that my 28 1.4 produces and I don’t mind the flare that my 35 2.0 is capable of producing.  So, if I am going after nice, intentional flare, I will choose a lens that provides me with the most pleasing flare that I can get.  Whether your flare shot succeeds or fails (according to the vision that you have in your mind) can often be determined by something as simple and immediate as your choice of lens.  If you have chosen poorly, then you could be dooming your flare shot from the start.  How can you find out if your lens produces beautiful or ugly flare?  Usually a google search can help you out, but if all else fails and you are choosing between lenses that you already own, simply test them out in the same conditions with the same subjects within minutes of one another.  You may not see the difference through the lens, but I guarantee that you will see the difference in the results.


I absolutely love shooting with a very shallow depth of field- I like to shoot my lenses close to wide open, and I am usually shooting at an aperture of 1.4 to 2.8.   One of the only times that I stop down (if you don’t know what that means, “stop down” is what we say when moving to a smaller aperture/higher number) in camera is when I want to take a flare shot.  If I want less-defined flare, I might keep it at f/5.6, but if I really want prominent flare, I might take it to f/13 and beyond.  What happens to my flare shot if I forget to change my aperture and I leave it at 1.8, for example?  I will still see the flare, but it will show up as a haze rather than defined rays of light across my frame.  This is the type of flare that can be replicated in Photoshop- the Boutwells (creators of the Totally Rad Action Set) have a few actions that will add this hazy type of flare to your shot.  As pretty as that can be, most of the time when I am after a shot with flare, what I really want to do is capture the defined rays.  Therefore, it is important to be cognizant of the fact that your camera settings will definitely affect the type of flare that you are capturing in your frame.


After I have chosen my lens and changed my camera settings, I frame my subject.  The flare that you will get in your frame is affected by the angle of your lens relative to the sun as well as the angle of the light relative to your subject.  It is really easy to overdo the amount of light coming into the frame and completely blow your shot.  Play around with it, moving around the light and around your subject.  Flare will often work best if the sun is wrapping around your subject or another object — if you keep your subject or that other object in between you and the sun, it is easy to change the look of your shot by moving an inch in one direction or the other.  Flare also works well when it enters the shot from the edge of the frame; you can achieve some beautiful rays of sun shooting across you image even when you aren’t shooting directly into the sun.  Once you have set up your subject, shoot a dozen (or more!) frames so that you have different flare patterns to choose from.  Often the difference between a shot that you love and a shot that you simply like can be a matter of inches.


Keep in mind (if you don’t shoot on manual) that the camera will want to underexpose your subject because of the amount of light entering the frame.   That will work if you are going for a silhouette effect, but if you want detail in your subject then it will be important to shoot in manual, spot meter or use exposure compensation when shooting into the sun.


I have included some examples of shots that I have taken that have varying degrees of flare.  When looking at these flare shots, notice that the shots with the longest rays are those that have been taken with the smaller apertures (higher numbers).

Post by Michelle Turner, Maine Wedding Photographer and Destination Wedding Photographer
Tags: Maine Wedding Photography, Maine Wedding Photographer, Wedding Flare Shot, Sun Flare Shot

I am happy to announce that I will be speaking for the third year in a row at Mystic!  For those of you who haven’t been to this awesome convention, this year is Mystic 5, and it is a fabulous three days of speakers, networking, and a few fabulous vendors!  I am pleased to report that I will be joining some of the best wedding photographers in the business, such as Jerry Ghionis, John Michael Cooper (aka altF), David Williams, DQ Studios- just look at all of the speakers below!   Stacey Doyle and I will be speaking about different ways tell a story through photographs- here is our seminar description:

There are multiple ways to interpret every scene- as wedding photographers who are hired to tell a story, it is imperative that we define our styles and develop ways to interact with our clients in order to deliver consistent, creative results at every wedding or session.  Join Michelle Turner and Stacey Doyle as they discuss the different methods they use to interpret every story and share their strategies for working with clients while putting their own creative spin on each session.  See how these two very different photographers have defined their styles through their creative choices, such as actively posing or loosely directing, using natural light or creating their own lighting, and interpreting similar scenes in different ways.

If you are interested in attending Mystic this year, be sure to visit this website for more information, or feel free to shoot me an email!

Post by Michelle Turner, Maine Wedding Photographer and Destination Wedding Photographer
Tags: Mystic5, Seminars for Wedding Photographers

I should title this post “Finding a Better Black and White”, or, more accurately, “Finding YOUR Black and White”.  Because really, black and white images are completely subjective.  I, personally, like black and white images that don’t have blocked up shadows; rather, I like to see shadow detail instead of straight black.  I also like a flatter, warmer image with a touch of grain.  I truly miss black and white fild, and I have worked hard to create and/or find actions and presets that will help me achieve the black and white look that I want.

As I mentioned a few posts down, my workflow consists of a combination of Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop.  Most of my work is going to occur in Adobe Lightroom- in fact, many of my images will be processed in Lightroom and nothing else.  Keep in mind that I deliver high- anything from 750 to 1250 images per wedding and 100-250 per portrait session, so I’m only fine-tuning a handful of those in Photoshop.

My first step is to import the photographs into Lightroom.  I have three black and white presets that I have developed (one of the great things about Lightroom is the fact that it is incredibly easy to develop presets that give your raw photos the “look” that you like).  All three of the presets create a black and white with less muddy skin tones, but still a fairly flat black and white since I don’t want to lose all of that shadow detail by adding a lot of black or contrast.  The great thing about Lightroom is that you can mix your black and white to taste in the grayscale mix section of the Develop module- I like my skin tones to be a bit creamier, so I lighten my red and yellow tones (because the skin is made up of red and yellow) while darkening my blues.  My Lightroom black and white presets will give me a file that I am happy to show the client, but one that can be improved by taking it into Lightoom.

Now for the Photoshop bit- most of the time I create my own actions, but when it comes to black and whites I go with the master.  I have to admit, I’m a Photoshop Action junkie.  I’ve tried almost everything out there because I love and adore Photoshop and I get a kick out of trying new actions.  But I have to admit, IMHO Jeff Ascough (a really fabulous photographer out of the UK- if you haven’t checked out his work please do) has created the best black and white actions out there.  They really give your digital files a tactile, film-like look, and I just adore how customizable they are.  Check them out here.  Almost every black and white file I have manipulated in Photoshop has one of these actions run on it.  (Now would be an important time to mention that ANY action will give you a bad result if your file isn’t properly exposed with the appropriate white balance BEFORE running the action.  Garbage in, garbage out.)

Finally, I will occasionally run a specialty action to “season” my black and white images.  I like them to be a bit grainier, with a subtle vignette and blurred edges.  I also like a touch of a warm tone, and a more subtle contrast shift.  There are two actions that I really like when it comes to seasoning my black and white images, and both of them come from the Totally Rad Action set (one from the original, the second from the remix set).   The thing I love about these actions is that they are completely customizable.  So many action sets out there flatten your images or make the adjustments to the background layer, leaving you unable to tweak them.  The TRA set is different- the layers are left open, letting you play with the opacity of each layer to come up with a look that is your own.  My favorite is the Old Skool action (the set has several)- I run it and then lower the opacity to anywhere from 20 to 40%.  (Keep in mind that I am starting with an image that has already been adjusted with a Jeff Ascough black and white action.)  This gives my images just a touch of grain, vignette, and tone, adding a bit of a vintage look to them.  The second action that I use to season my black and white images (used less frequently) is the Homestead black and white image.  Once again, I change the tone and compression layers and then lower the opacity on the overall effect.  For me, it is important to add just a touch of these actions.  I don’t want my images to scream “TOTALLY RAD OLD SKOOL ACTION” or any action at all; rather, I want the effect to bit a bit more subtle.

The great thing about Lightroom and Photoshop is that MY black and white may not be YOUR black and white.  But these two programs (along with the actions and presets that I and others have developed) will give you endless options for coming up with your own look!

Post by Michelle Turner, Maine Portait Photographer and Maine Wedding Photographer
Tags: Maine Portrait Photography, Maine Portrait Photographer, Photoshop Actions, Lightroom Presets, Black and White Actions and Presets

One of the questions that I am asked by other photographers quite frequently is how I edit my photographs.  Do I spend hours in Photoshop?  Am I using another program?  How am I processing my photographs to achieve a consistent look/feel?

For me, it is a two-step process.  The first involves Adobe Lightroom- this is where I do all of my initial editing, color correcting, and image prepping.  The majority of my photographs will be edited in Lightroom AND NOTHING ELSE.

The second step involved Adobe Photoshop- if I really like a photograph and I feel that it would benefit from some additional work (vintage overlays, textures, dodging and burning, selective rather than global color enhancement), I will take it into Photoshop.  Only about 30 photographs per wedding reach this stage, because this is where I really take the time to play and make an image look like I remember it feeling.  I’m not necessarily a realist when it comes to these photographs- sometimes a photograph will look little like I remember the moment feeling- I use Photoshop to try to bridge that gap, whether I remember a darker moment, a warmer light, or even a grungier feel.

As is the case with every photographer, my time is very precious to me.  So, in order to streamline my workflow, I have harnessed two of the greatest time-savers in Lightroom and Photoshop- I have created user-specific presets and actions.  What do I mean by that?  Well, over the past several years of using Lightroom and Photoshop together, I realized that I treat certain types of photographs in very specific ways.  If it is a bright sunny day then I might brighten and enhance the sky.  If we are in flat light, I might brighten the skin tones.  I might add some warming textures to grass and foliage in the summer to give it a deeper, richer look.  Rather than go into detail about action and preset creation here (there are tutorials all over the web), I thought I might give some visual examples of what can be accomplished in just a few seconds with each program.  Remember, most of the time I am going for subtle enhancements rather than over-the-top changes.  (I am going to use images from Chris and Amber’s session- they are expecting their first child soon!)

In this first example, I wanted to enhance the sky, grass, and water.  In Lightroom I ran a preset to brighten the skin tones (by lightening the reds and yellows in the photograph), while darkening and saturating the blues and cyans.  I also added a touch of clarify and vibrance.  My preset also includes a touch of fill and brightness- I want to get the image close to how I like my finished product to look so that I can spend less time in Photoshop and also deliver many images directly from Lightroom.  Once I brought the image into Photoshop, I ran an action I developed to run a selective color enhancement, which I painted into the sky and the grass.  I also separated the shadow areas a bit with some custom shadow/highlight settings.  And voila- 30 seconds later I have an image that I’m happy with, that isn’t too over the top.

When I took this second photograph, I needed to expose for the highlights in order to preserve the background.  This was an incredibly bright day, and I didn’t want to blow out the water or the couple, but I also wanted to retain a soft, natural light feel.  In Lightroom I ran one of my presets to enhance and brighten the greens while separating out the shadows and brightening the skin (I brightened the yellows and reds and dropped the saturation while brightening and shifting the hue of the greens).  In photoshop I wanted give the photograph a more three dimensional feel while separating the couple from the background and enhancing the foreground.  To do so, I ran one of my dodge and burn actions (using curve adjustment layers, NOT the dodge and burn tool), and then followed it up with a texture that I photographed last year (that is one of my favorites) on soft light, painted out of the couples face.  With actions, this was a 40 second fix.

This third set is a good example of the straight out of camera file not looking like I remember the moment feeling.  Autumn and Chris were cuddling together in the bright sun, and we were talking about their baby (did I mention that they are expecting!!! yay!!).  I remembered the moment being very bright and warm. In Lightroom I ran one of my presets to enhance the sky and brighten the skin (as in the first example.  I also ran a preset that added a very subtle vignette and opened up the shadows.  Then I brought the image into Photoshop and added a cream fill layer on multiply to give the image a vintage feel, while running an action to separate the shadows a bit more and adding a texture overlay (locally applied, not globally applied).   Once again, actions helped to keep the retouching under a minute.

Post by Michelle Turner, Maine Portait Photographer and Maine Wedding Photographer

Tags: Maine Portrait Photography, Maine Portrait Photographer, Maine Portrait Photography, Photoshop Actions, Lightroom Presets