Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/02/02

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] My attitude about Colo(u)r
From: pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein)
Date: Wed Feb 2 23:50:42 2005

Bravo, Tina!  You really stirred the pot with those two mosque 
shots.  Kodachrome?

Seriously. . . which one is "correct?" I have no idea.  The first looks 
like it's lit only with blue sky behind the camera; the second looks like 
early morning or late afternoon light.  I'll guess that the second is 
closer to what we would see in normal daylight, but warmer.  I'm basing 
this on the color of the bricks, which is the only frame of reference I 
have in the shot.  Then again, there is a mosque in Samerkand, Uzbekistan 
that looks like the bluer picture (it was shown in a Leica Photographie 
International in the last few years).

The problem with color is that our brain has this white-balance program 
running inside it that would put any DSLR to shame.  So we quickly find 
what ought to be "white," baseline it, and presto--the world looks as we'd 
expect.  A good thing, too--if we ever saw how things really look under 
florescent light, I'd think we'd be sick to our stomachs half the time.

We seem to make an exception for warm light.  Sunsets, the golden hour, and 
all that.  That's why some of us like the warmer picture of the young 
(German?) couple at the table.  When I see the two pictures one above the 
other, I recognize that the top one is "truer."  But I kind of like the 
bottom one better if I see it by itself. More romantic.  Some of us 
tolerate/like wider swings from reality than others.

And reality is for people who can't handle Velvia.   :-)

--Peter

At 07:48 PM 2/2/05 -0800, Tina Manley <images@InfoAve.Net> wrote:

>Color is very subjective.  Here are two photos of the same scene made on
>different days.  Which one is "correct"?
>
>http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley/image/39336098
>http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley/image/39336122



Replies: Reply from images at InfoAve.Net (Tina Manley) ([Leica] My attitude about Colo(u)r)