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to answer as many popular questions here as I can. Click on a question in the list below to see the answer. When you're finished reading the answer, click the link next to it to come back to the question list.
Ethical Questions Photography as an art form sparks a host of ethical debates. These are questions about where I stand on some of the issues.
Print Related Questions The following questions address the finer details of Lightjet and Giclee prints and my personal approach to printing.
Technical Questions The following are technical support and equipment related questions, to do with this website and photography in general.
General Questions These are photography questions that don't fit in any of the other categories, and questions about my overall approach to photography.
A: No. My finished colour photographs are as true to the original slide as possible. Nothing has been added, subtracted, or otherwise enhanced in the process of converting the original slide to a photographic print or web image.
I do use Photoshop, however, to correct the scan of a slide to match the slide itself. The process of scanning film results in an image with maximal information about the film, not one that exactly reproduces its subtle characteristics. In the case of my colour photographs, I typically spend a day or two matching the colour, tone, and sharpness of the image on my computer screen to the slide on my lightbox. During this process, I also remove minor imperfections in the film, such as dust or scratches.
In the case of black and white photographs, I use Photoshop like a traditional photographer might use a darkroom. I digitally adjust the tones and contrast of a photograph, starting with a colour image for maximal control over the finished product. The resulting print is a second interpretation of the scene in a medium that allows for slightly more creative control. As in the rest of my work, no objects are ever removed from or added to my black and white photographs.
My photographs are not digitally enhanced, but that does not mean they are an accurate portrayal of reality. While photographing in the field, I use different shutter speeds, aperture settings, film, lenses, and camera positions to make the photograph look like I want it to. This is all part of the art of photography - I'm showing you how I feel about my subject by changing how it looks.
To me, this is different than manufacturing or perfecting a digital image. I create photographs while responding emotionally to my subject matter, something I couldn't do in my office. A "straight" photograph carries with it real visual and personal artifacts, while a digitally altered image stems mainly from the creator's imagination - art, certainly, just not photography.
All of the truly great photographs I have seen have been digitally unaltered. Their strength is really in their reality: the subtle imperfections that fantasy always lacks. Top
A: Yes. I encourage people to download photographs and text from my website. In fact, to view the website (or any website) your computer has to do this. I also encourage you to share this material with anyone, digitally or otherwise, as long as you tell them where you got it.
I don't want you to alter the photos or text or to take credit for any of the material on my website. Don't crop, resize, or change any of the photographs, and do make sure that any forwarded text is taken in its original context and credited to me. If you are displaying any of my material on your website or blog, a link back to http://www.markraymondmason.com would be appreciated.
To download a photograph, place your mouse pointer over the photo, then right click (two-button mouse) or click and hold (one-button mouse). Choose to save the image. Feel free to email the photo, copy and paste the photo into documents, or use the photo as a background on your computer's desktop.
To download a photography tutorial or photo description, click the "Download" button on the article / description page to open a printable pdf version. You can then print the tutorial or save it to your computer and read it later. Feel free to copy the article and distribute it to others.
My photography articles are free to copy and distribute. If you enjoy them, please consider making a small donation to an environmental or social charity, such as the World Wildlife Fund (www.wwf.org) or the Red Cross (www.redcross.org).
For more information, please visit my Copyright Information page. Top
A: No. All of the photographs you see on my website are of undisturbed subjects - that is, I didn't change the subject in any way before or after I made the photograph. That isn't always to say that all of these scenes occurred naturally - very little occurs truly naturally anymore - but none of them were created or altered for the purposes of photography.
I like to photograph randomly and accidentally occurring shapes and patterns, both in rural and urban areas. I dislike nothing more than making a photograph of something that has been created to look attractive - it feels like I'm ripping off someone else's art. Similarly, I don't like setting up scenes for photography - inflicting my influence on a subject would take away the same imperfect chaos that I'm trying to communicate to my viewer. Top
A: From the beginning, I wanted this website to be an advertising-free zone. Advertising, and the resulting pressure to spend money and consume products, has become too much a part of our daily lives. It is not welcome here.
Product reviews, though useful, are too close to advertising for my personal comfort. Discussion of products simply prods the reader to spend money - the same result as an ad. On top of this, unbiased reviews are difficult to find - companies have a sneaky way of creating good reviews without "buying" them.
Though I do sell prints, the main point of this site is to display my photography and to do my part to contribute to the photographic community through free photo tips and tutorials. Ideally, I want MarkRaymondMason.com to be a gathering place, a simple celebration of art, our world, and creative thinking.
I like the idea of people displaying my art. If you'd like to buy a print, I'd be pleased to sell you one. However, if you simply want to support this site, please sign the Guestbook and leave your thoughts for future visitors. We do not accept donations - instead, please donate to an environmental or social charity of your choice, such as the World Wildlife Fund (www.wwf.org) or the Red Cross (www.redcross.org). Top
A: I leave the edges of my images untrimmed after scanning in order to save as much of the image information as possible for viewing. The edges of a 35mm transparency are not always perfectly crisp, and the scanned image corners are not always perfectly square - this means most images will have a very thin, slightly uneven black border. Print sizes include this border. Cropping the border would create a clean edge, but would erase some information along the edges of the image. If you choose, you can cover this black line during matting. Top
A: My prints are stunningly detailed. Even my large (2 foot by 3 foot) prints are sharp, and hold enough detail to satisfy artificially close inspection.
During every step of the imaging process, I take great pains to ensure that my final prints will be as sharp, detailed, tonally rich, and colourfully accurate as I can make them. This usually means taking a lot of time for each photograph. It also means rejecting all but the best photographs - out of the many thousands of photographs in my archives, I only choose to show the few that meet my exacting technical and creative standards.
For more information about prints, please visit my Prints page. Top
A: At first glance, a Lightjet print looks similar to other fine photographic prints produced by either traditional or digital methods. On closer inspection, however, a Lightjet print will reveal finer details, better colour accuracy and saturation, and more highlight and shadow detail than any other print.
To create an image, the Lightjet 5000 digital printer uses fine coloured lasers to expose archival photographic paper. Since the process exposes the paper's emulsions instead of printing with dyes on its surface, the print will resist fading better than a normal dye-based digital print.
Simply put, a Lightjet Photo print is the most accurate, vivid and archival photographic print experience available today! To see sizes and prices of Lightjet Photo prints, please visit my Prints page. Top
A: Somewhat counter-intuitively, I start with a very high quality colour slide. Using a colour image allows greater control over tone and contrast than capturing a black and white photograph in the field.
After digitizing the colour photograph, I convert it to monochrome using photography software. Instead of simply desaturating the image, I selectively filter it using techniques similar to traditional black and white photography, brightening tones from some colours while darkening tones from others. This allows me to exercise more control over the photograph than if I were to use coloured filters in the field.
Using colour film to produce a black and white image results in a higher contrast print that suits my take on photography. With my typically intimate, abstract style, crucial details can become muddied in lower contrast black and white films. Top
A: A 35mm film frame is 24mm x 36mm, or a 2:3 size ratio. While scanning and printing an image, I maintain that ratio, leaving the image uncropped and at its original proportions. This produces a final print that will not fit most standard size picture frames.
Most prints will require custom matting. However, some standard sized frames will fit well - for instance, a 24" x 30" frame looks very natural around a matted 11" x 16.5" print. Top
A: These photographs were prepared for the web on a typical flat-screen monitor with a typical colour profile. However, computer monitors vary a great deal in the way they display colour, detail, and tonal depth. Even the software you use to run the monitor will affect how a photograph will look. The result is that photographs look quite different from computer to computer.
The good news is that this website will look roughly the same on most newer monitors if you go through a rough visual calibration routine. This routine will enable most monitors to display the photographs on this website similarly to how my computer displays them.
For more information, and to calibrate your monitor, please visit my Monitor Setup page. Top
A: Digital sensors have come a long way in recent years (written October 2007), but I still prefer good quality chrome (slide) films. I prefer the highlight and shadow reproduction of film; also, by scanning a slide, I can create a digital file of much higher resolution than one from a digital camera, capturing more image detail and allowing for a slightly larger print.
There are many good reasons why other photographers prefer digital equipment. Storing and printing images is quick and easy. There's no film to buy, and many hundreds of images can fit on a tiny reusable memory card. Images can be checked in the field, and colour casts can be removed on site.
I'm not averse to using digital technology - once film becomes unavailable, or once I decide that digital sensors have truly eclipsed its capabilities, I probably will. For now, though, I truly don't mind committing the extra time and energy it takes to make the best photographs I can. Top
A: I like to use 35mm film cameras and non-zoom lenses because they're small, lightweight, and capable of excellent results if used carefully. However, these photographs could have been made with using many different types of equipment from many different manufacturers. I can make large, excellent quality prints by using the 35mm medium to its fullest; others can get similar results with other formats. Top
A: I have in the past, and I probably will again. However, setting up gallery showings is a time consuming process, and I don't always have the hours to devote to it. Any future gallery showings will be posted on my website. To view prints privately, please Contact Me. Top
A: When people ask me for photography advice, one of the first things I tell them is to avoid using any kind of formula to create a photograph. Concepts like "the rule of thirds" or "the zone system" are restrictions on an already restrictive art form. Create a photograph from scratch - not from a conceptual template. The results may be less impressive at first, but the style you develop over time will be all your own.
I encourage photographers to appreciate other art forms as well. Many of my favorite visual artists (Claude Monet, Andrew Wyeth, Salvador Dali, Francisco Goya, and Pablo Picasso, among many, many others) are painters, not photographers. Photographers have a nasty habit of mistaking a technically good photograph for art. Other visual artists must spend more time on a piece, and so spend more time thinking about its style and expressive elements.
I have written some articles, tips and tutorials on a range of subjects relating to photography. To read them, please visit my Photography Tutorials page. Subscribe to my Daily Photo Tips RSS Feed to receive a brief photo tip every day.
To download a photography tutorial, click the "download" button on the article page to open a printable pdf version. You can then print the tutorial or save it onto your computer and read it later. Feel free to copy the article and distribute it to others.
My photography articles are free to copy and distribute. If you enjoy them, please consider making a small donation to an environmental or social charity, such as the World Wildlife Fund (www.wwf.org) or the Red Cross (www.redcross.org). Top
A: I've started to. Since the beginning, I have usually only photographed abstract scenes from nature or out-of-the-way urban areas. However, I've always been a little curious about photographing what is arguably the artist's most common muse: the human body. I've created a little work, but the learning curve is steep and I expect that the best is yet to come.
I've also compiled a small collection of lifestyle photos in my More Photos page, showing my family and friends on various adventures. I don't concentrate on this type of photography, but once in awhile I like to make photographs of the incredible environments we find ourselves in. Top
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