Multiple Exposures, Digital Style

If you're looking for the multiple-exposures setting on your digicam, forget about it. It probably isn't there, unless you own a Fuji pro SLR camera or one of a handful of other models with this capability. So, what's the creative digital photographer to do?

In the film world, multiple exposures are a great way to create interesting, unexpected visual effects. Traditionally, this was done either in-camera by exposing one frame of film many times, or in the darkroom by sandwiching negatives together.

Unfortunately, most digital cameras don't support multiple exposures. But that doesn't mean it can't be done. Photoshop, the digital darkroom of choice for many, comes to the rescue.

There are a couple ways to approach gathering your source material for Photoshop. You can previsualize the final image you're after, shoot its parts (layers) with your digital camera, and then assemble these layers on the computer. Or, if you just want to experiment, grab a few pictures out of your existing library, mush them together, and see what happens. Suddenly, every digital image in your photo library becomes potential fodder for an interesting photo montage.

Assembling Multiple Images into a Montage

For the first option, we're going to shoot three images, as illustrated in picture 1

As you shoot, try to imagine each shot layered on top of the next one, resulting in an interesting image. For each shot, we're going to underexpose by a factor of 2. Set your exposure compensation to -2 and take three different shots. You've now captured three underexposed images that, when added together, will create one well-exposed image.

Bring these pictures into your computer, start up Photoshop, and open each one in turn. Copy two of the images and paste them into the first. You should now have a single image file with three layers. If you open the Layers palette (WindowLayers), you'll see your three images in the palette, as shown in

You'll now adjust the blending mode to Multiply. Click on the layer in the Layers palette to indicate that you want to work on it. Then, select Multiply from the drop-down menu (in the Layers palette). In picture 2, Layer 1 is highlighted, with Multiply selected in the upper left. Photoshop's Multiply feature takes each layer and adjusts its density and highlight colors relative to the layer beneath it. This accurately creates the same effect as traditional film-based multiple exposures.

Because you compensated for exposure when you recorded the pictures, these three light images should now look like one well-exposed shot, with the random and interesting effects you get from multiple exposures. You can also make minor density adjustments by using the Opacity setting in the upper-right corner of the Layers palette.

Creating Multiple-Exposure-Like Effects

But what if you don't want to go through the bother of shooting images with exposure compensation? The second option is to use your current pictures to experiment with multiple-exposure-like effects. Open up any number of images and bring them into one Photoshop document. As in the previous example, adjust the layers to Multiply. Now, adjust the opacity of the individual layers until you get an even exposure. Of course, one of the benefits (and frustrations too, because when do you stop fiddling?) of Photoshop is that you can adjust to your heart's delight. If a particular image (layer) is too dominant, adjust its opacity or delete it altogether.

Working in a Truly Digital Darkroom

Back in the darkroom days, technicians often employed techniques called burning and dodging. And guess what, Photoshop does too! This means that if you don't like the density of a certain area of your image, you can tweak it with these adjustments. Select the part of the layer you want to emphasize or deemphasize, and use the burn tool to darken it or the dodge tool to lighten it.

Even though creating multiple images has its roots in film photography, it's a terrific digital-imaging technique too. Let your visual imagination run wild.

Get Super Close

Digital cameras have macro capability built right in. But what if you want to get real close? Here's how to get a bug's-eye view of the world.

Since the early roots of photography, people have been fascinated with capturing the world up close. Super close. Bumps-on-a-frog close. Most digital cameras come with a Macro mode that allows you to get very close to your subject. Sometimes, this mode is simply called Close Up and is denoted by a flower icon on your camera. Depending on your camera, close can be defined as anything from 6 inches to 18 inches. But what if you want to see the very pores? This hack will help you get started.

There are a few ways to get these types of startling shots. The first way is to buy a macro lens that is designed specifically for this type of shooting. Unfortunately, these lenses are often quite pricey. A second option is to buy extension tubes for your DSLR. An extension tube is a light-tight tunnel that extends the distance from your lens to the camera body, thereby increasing magnification—the greater the distance, the more magnification.

But what if your digital camera isn't an SLR or doesn't take interchangeable lenses? The third, and most affordable, option is to buy a close-up lens that mounts on top of your current lens, the same way that filters attach. Some cameras have adapters for these auxiliary lenses. But if yours doesn't, third-party manufacturers such as Raynox (http://www.raynox.co.jp/index.htm) have devised clever workarounds to enable this capability on just about any digital camera. The advantages are that you don't have to buy a whole new lens and that you can use the close-up lens with any camera, including an SLR. This is the tool we're going to use for this hack.

Get the Glass

First, go down to your friendly photo dealer and see what type of close-up attachments are available for your camera. I've had a lot of luck with the aforementioned Raynox lens, which is well made, affordable, and readily available. Raynox makes a wide variety of goodies for all kinds of cameras, including close-up accessories for digital cameras. The lens comes with an attachment to help you mount it over your built-in glass. Turn on your camera and—voilà!—you have a super-macro digital camera.

How close can you get? Close-up lenses are described by a diopter number that indicates how close your lens can get to the subject, in units of fractions of a meter. For example, a lens marked +12 will let you get within 1/12 of a meter (or within just 8 centimeters). For those of you inclined to use the imperial system, that's just over 2 inches away—also known as pretty darn close! What's fun about all of this math madness is that these measurements are based on the lens of your camera being set to infinity. If, like many cameras, yours has the ability to focus manually, you can get even closer by using the close-up lens and its built-in close-focusing setting.

Mount the Camera for Best Results

So now you have a close-up lens attached to the camera and are ready to shoot, right? Well, almost. Shooting one inch away from a subject is tricky, because the lens has very little tolerance for being even a little too far or too close to the object. If you move out of that one-inch in-focus area, your object will quickly get soft. This means that to take really good shots you need to mount your camera on a tripod.

You'll also need a good location to shoot the object. Place the object on a table with a white background, either cloth or paper. Ideally, you want your camera to be facing straight at the object. So, get a chair and sit down in front of your camera.

One advantage of shooting with a tripod is that you can have long exposures without having to worry about camera shake. To be safe, either use a shutter cable or, if your camera can't accept one, use the built-in self-timer. Even the shake from you holding down the shutter button can blur the image.

Try getting as close as 4x (picture 1) with your regular camera lens. It won't work—that is, unless you add a little glass. But don't stop there. Try 8x (picture 2)! But wait, there's more! Is 12x (picture 3) close enough for you?

A close-up of a flower at 4x

A close-up of a flower at 8x

A close-up of a flower at 12x

White Balance for Good Color Tone

Before taking your shot, it's a good idea to measure the white-point of the image and set your camera accordingly. This will save you lots of color-balancing work later in Photoshop. For most digital cameras, this is done by selecting the measure white-point feature on your camera and holding the shutter halfway down. The camera will then measure the light of your image and base the white-point on the particular lighting you are using. If you can't measure the white-point manually, some cameras will let you choose from a menu of presets, such as tungsten, florescent, or daylight. Set your camera appropriately to get the best color balance possible.

Flash Versus Available Light

So what about flash? Why bother with it if you can just use tungsten or available light? Well, one of the advantages of using flash is that you can control how the item is lit and where the shadows will fall. You can try using your camera's built-in flash, but this will often not give you the kind of control you need because the flash will be literally inches from your subject. Small soft-box flash units are ideal here, providing a soft, even, neutral light to your close-up images. You can pick up a soft box flash unit from your local pro-camera store. A soft box is simply a portable enclosure for your flash that has a translucent nylon face that softens the intensity of the flash as the light passes through it. This makes the light softer, a more suitable quality for close-ups and portraits. I recommend using two soft boxes, one on each side, to produce even illumination.

Final Thoughts

Super-close-up shooting can make even everyday items more interesting and will allow you to discover a whole new way of seeing the world and creating images. Experiment with different kinds of objects, both natural and human-made, and get ready for some visual surprises. You already have the camera and, with a minimal investment, you are well on your way to capturing the world from a bug's-eye perspective.

Make Your Own Passport Photo

Don't spend money for a terrible passport picture that you'll be embarrassed to show to strangers all over the world. You can take your own shot, and make great first impressions instead.

Why is it that whenever you have an official photograph taken, you're made to look like a criminal or terrorist? Sometimes, you don't have a choice in the matter, such as for your driver's license (or booking at the county jail). But when it comes to passport photos, you can submit your own picture, and I recommend you do.

There are general requirements for an acceptable photo:

• Photographs must be identical and recent (within six months), with a clear full-face and front-view image. They may be in color or black and white.

• The photographs must be at least 2" 2" (5cm 5cm), exclusive of any white borders. The image size, from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head (including hair), should measure between one inch and one and three-eighth's inches. There should be at least one half inch between the top of the head and the photograph's border.

• There must be a clear contrast between the background and the image of the subject. The background of the photographs must be white. Grainy photographs cannot be accepted.

Easy enough, right? Now let's talk about actually taking the picture, because that's the important part. Here is the equipment you'll need:

• Digital camera with a self-timer or remote release

• Tripod or alternative way to position the camera

• Two pieces of white foamcore, cardboard, or some other sturdy, reflective surface

• A stool or something else to sit on

• Inkjet printer with photo paper, preferably with matte surface

You want to avoid that stark, deer-in-the-headlights appearance that's usually caused by using a single flash in a darkened room. You might still use a flash for your shot, but if so, it should be a fill flash and not the sole source of illumination.

Look for a well-lit area that has a white or light background. You might use a brightly lit room in the house (with lots of light coming through one or more windows) or an outdoor setting, where you can use the side of the house for the background. But you don't want the sun shining right in your eyes. Diffused light is better.

Position your sitting stool at least five feet away from the background. You don't want to record much background detail. Instead, you want the background a little out of focus, and distance is the best way to create that effect.

Put the camera on the tripod and point it at the sitting stool. A trick I like to do is to put a lamp on the stool to act as my model while I'm aligning the camera. If you have a helper for this project, that person can serve as your stand-in. Position the camera slightly above eye level of the subject. By doing so, the picture will be more flattering and, if you do use a fill light, the shadows will be cast downward and out of the picture.

For your first test shot, turn off the flash. Let's see how it looks with natural light only. Turn on the self-timer, have a seat, smile slightly, and hold still until the camera has recorded the image.

How does it look? If one side of your face is too shadowy, then position one of the pieces of white foamcore so it reflects light onto the dark side of your face. Try another exposure and make more adjustments to the reflectors until you get something you like.

Sometimes, you just can't get enough pop in the image if the room lighting is too flat. In this situation, turn on the fill flash function. If you camera has a control for flash exposure compensation, set it to -1. The goal here is not to have the flash serve as the main light source. Instead, you just want a little additional pop to augment the ambient lighting.

If you're taking your own photo, try positioning a mirror behind the camera to help you pose. Also, some digicams have swiveling LCD monitors. If you have one, turn the flip screen all the way around so you can see yourself in the monitor. It's a great time-saver!

Finally, once you get the exposure you want, take a look at the color balance. Is it too cool? Sometimes, in this type of lighting, the color tint tends to be on the bluish side, which isn't good for anyone's skin tones. To compensate, set the white balance to cloudy and try again. By now, you should have a pretty good-looking photograph. The picture shows a more flattering passport picture than I'd get from government photographers.

Upload your images to the computer and pick your favorite. Adjust the brightness and contrast to suit your taste, but don't get artsy. Remember, this has to be a clear, evenly lit image.

Once you have everything in order, make a duplicate of the picture by using the Save As command. Resize your copy so that it's slightly bigger than a 2" 2" or 5cm 5cm square, and print out two copies on your printer. I think that matte surface photo paper looks better for this application.

Trim the photos to size, and head on down to the government office. You now have a passport that you can proudly show to strangers across the globe.

Secrets of Whiteboard Photography

Never rewrite anything you can digitize. If you've ever been tasked with copying a full whiteboard after an intense brainstorming session, you know what I mean.

You've just finished participating in one of the most amazing brainstorming sessions of your career. The massive whiteboard, which covers an entire wall of the conference room, is covered with words, arrows, and diagrams. You're about to rush from the room to begin putting these plans into action when your boss says to you, "Robertson! Would you please copy down these notes and circulate them to everyone who attended the meeting?"

Copy those notes?! Not even Leonardo Da Vinci could reproduce those drawings. Suddenly, an air of calm comes over you as you recall "Secrets of Whiteboard Photography" from Digital Photography Hacks. You pull your digital camera out from your backpack and go to work.

Why rewrite something that's already been written, when you can photograph it, save it as a .jpg file, and circulate it to anyone with a browser on their computer?

This hack will make more sense to you if you first understand how a camera sees the world. Most cameras are calibrated for capturing blue skies, green grass, and other middle tones. And, more often than not, your camera will try to convert anything on the extreme end of the exposure scale to those same middle tones. So the black cat becomes gray and the whiteboard becomes a murky beige color.

So, job number one is to find your exposure compensation adjustment and set it to +1. That will tell your camera to overexpose the subject and make the whiteboard white, not gray.

Then, turn up the room lights, open the shades, and turn off your camera's built-in flash. Those little strobes might be fine for blinding your best friend at her birthday party, but they're not so good for shooting whiteboards—unless, that is, you don't care about reading the writing. Flashes tend to nuke white shiny surfaces.

Now, take a test shot like the one shown in the picture. How do the colors look? Some cameras have excellent auto white balance settings and will compensate for most lighting situations. If the color looks off, you might want to override the auto setting.

If the lights in the room are fluorescent, look for the fluorescent setting on the white balance and try a test shot with that. Often, the adjustment will greatly improve the color balance. In addition to fluorescent, you also have a preset for tungsten bulbs. Use the one that best suits the lighting in the room.

Here is where the true art comes in: composing the shot. To avoid extreme distortion, where the whiteboard looks like a parallelogram from high school geometry, you must keep the plane of the camera parallel to the plane of the whiteboard. In most cases, this means nice and straight on the vertical axis (no tilting) and level on the horizontal axis (such as placing it on a table). This will minimize distortion and render the photo of the whiteboard closer to how it appeared during the meeting.

Most cameras, especially point-and-shoot models, produce some degree of barrel and pincushion distortion. So if your lines around the edges of the frame are a little bowed, don't think you are necessarily doing this hack wrong. Of course, you can always cheat a little and not show the frame of the whiteboard in your shots.

For large whiteboards, you might want to record the information in two or three shots so that it's readable on the computer screen and doesn't look like tiny tracks left by ants with dirty feet. You can zoom in on key concepts (and name the file accordingly later) or simply shoot the board in sections, moving from left to right. Use your judgment here.

If your shots look a little blurry, that's probably because the room lights aren't bright enough for a decent shutter speed and you're getting what's known as camera shake. Most of the time, you can solve this problem by increasing the ISO setting from 100 (the default on most digicams) to 400 or even 800. That will give you a faster shutter speed, which should result in sharper images.

Remember to return to the default ISO setting after shooting the whiteboard, or you'll be very disappointed with your next batch of landscape shots.

Now that you have the pictures in the camera, upload them to your computer and give each one a descriptive filename. You can send them as email attachments, but I find that rather inelegant. Instead, build a quick-and-dirty web page and post it on the company server. All you have to do now is send everyone the link. That way, they can look at the pages they want and use their browser's forward and back arrows to move from image to image.

Photographing whiteboards is a good option for occasional use, but if this becomes a daily task, you might want to investigate digital whiteboards that transfer the scribbling directly to a connected computer. Check out Smart Technologies (http://www.whiteboards-usa.com/smart/whiteboards/) for more information.

Get the Big Picture with a Panorama

They say two heads are better than one. When it comes to showing the "big picture," many heads—er, shots—are definitely bigger than one.

Many people are frustrated by their inability to capture the majesty of awesome natural monuments such as the Grand Canyon. I've heard this phrase a dozen times: "This picture doesn't really do it justice. It looked so fantastic when I was there."

Bad photography isn't the culprit here; inadequate coverage is.

Let me ask you this: if you went to the Grand Canyon and had to look at it through a toilet-paper tube, how impressive would you think it was? Probably not much. The same thing happens when you try to capture the magnificence of a vast location with single shots on your point and shoot. This doesn't mean that you have to go out and buy a camera with a superwide lens. Instead, put the magic of digital photography to work for you.

Almost every digital camera available today is capable of creating breathtaking panoramas by stitching together a series of shots into one gigantic, seamless scene. Back in the days of film, you probably played around with this technique by taping together snapshots to make a bigger picture. One of my favorite artists, David Hockney, put a creative spin on this technique with works such as "The Brooklyn Bridge Nov 28^th 1982" and "Pearblossom Hwy." Hockney's works are usually referred to as photographic collages. But the concept is similar to our exploration here—taking a bunch of small images and combining them to make a big picture.

Unlike Hockney's work, however, our panoramas are very linear, moving from left to right. If your camera has a Panorama mode, use it; it helps you capture the images in a way that's easier for your computer to deal with later. That's the process. You shoot 3 to 12 pictures, moving from left to right, then upload them to your computer where they can be stitched together as a sweeping vista.

Let's start with the shooting technique. You'll get the best results if you use a tripod, and you'll have even better luck if you have a bubble level to go with it. That way, you can align your camera to keep a straight horizon line through the entire picture-taking sequence. If your tripod doesn't have a built-in level, go to the camera store to buy one that attaches to your camera's hot shoe.

Look for a location with the sun to your back. Most panoramas cover about 180°. You want the lighting as even as possible on that scene so that you don't have abrupt shifts in the color of the sky, which makes it more difficult to stitch together the scene and end up with continuous tones.

Once you have your camera mounted and aligned, swing through the scene and follow the horizon line to make sure it stays level.

If your camera has a Panorama mode, enable it. Otherwise, just make sure you overlap one third of the frame as you move from shot to shot. This will give your computer lots of information to stitch the scenes together.

Swing the camera to point in the direction of your left shoulder and shoot the first frame. Move the camera one frame to the right (remembering to overlap the scene by one third) and shoot again. Work all the way through the sequence until your capture the scene in the direction of your right shoulder.

Review your images on your camera's LCD monitor. If you like the way they look, you're finished. Otherwise, recompose and shoot the series again.

If you don't have a tripod with you, shooting a panorama is still possible. Put the strap around your neck and extend the camera until the strap is taunt. Align your first shot to the left and fire. Don't move the camera after the exposure. Instead move only your feet and align the next shot. Essentially you have turned yourself into a human tripod.

Pay close attention to the horizon line as you work through the sequence. You won't get the full height of the scene by using this method, because you're bound to misalign the camera slightly as you work through the series of shots. But you can crop the picture after stitching and still get an amazingly good panorama.

Here's an example of the technique in action. Standing on a balcony overlooking New York's Grand Central Station gives you an inspiring view. So why does the picture in Figure 2-6 look so uninspiring?

Now take a look at Figure 2-7. Ah, now that's better! By stitching six shots together from a Canon Digital Elph S-400, I was able to show how Grand Central really looks to my friends back home.

Cameras with a Panorama mode will label the pictures differently than your standard single shots, so you can easily identify them when you start working on the computer. The normal image file will look something like IMG_0001_JPG. But on Canon cameras, for example, panorama files should read something like this: STA_0006_JPG, STB_0007_JPG, STC_0008_JPG, and so on. You can look at these files and right away know which one was first in the series (STA), second (STB), and so on.

Once your pictures have been uploaded to your computer, you can either use the stitching software that came with your camera, or the Photomerge function in Photoshop Elements or Photoshop CS. Either way, the software will endeavor to stitch together the sequence of files into a continuous composition. The more careful you are when you record the scene, the more success you'll have when working on the computer.

Even if your camera doesn't have a Panorama mode, you can still use Photoshop to connect the shots. The pictures won't be labeled differently, so you'll have to preview them, figure out the order in which they were shot, and then move them into Photomerge. Photoshop will take it from there.

One of the great advantages of shooting panoramas is that your 3-megapixel camera suddenly becomes an 18-megapixel monster when you stitch together six 3-megapixel shots. You can make prints that are 3 feet wide instead of just a regular old single-frame 4" 6".

Many camera stores carry frames in panorama dimensions. You can print your final composition on 8.5" 11" inkjet paper, trim it, and display it in one of these frames. I guarantee that it will make a much more powerful impression than the original 4" 6" print that just didn't do the scene justice.