[Leica] It ain't just the M8

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

On 12/19/06 7:14 PM, "Peter Klein" <pklein@2alpha.net> typed:

> 
>> From the dpreview Pentax SLR forum:
> 
> Look at the school orchestra pictures in this link (scroll past the 3 cat
> pictures):
> http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=21335804
> 
> Yes the stage lights are very red, but I don't think that accounts for all
> of the purple/magenta shifts in the black clothing.  Also note the
> variations in color shift between the black pants people in adjacent
> seats.  Such as the two girls immediately to the right of the conductor in
> the last photo.
> 
> --Peter
> 
> 
Well they've got a cyclorama behind them.
And stage lighting.
Maybe a hundred lights above then and on the sides all taking and probably
having gels. Burnt amber. Cheery cherry red. Forgot the names. But there's a
thousand of them. And with out gels they're all tuned to different levels
which make each one a different color temperature. Many well under 2000k.

In the days of film before Fuji made Kodak get their act together you always
got all kinds of interesting results in mixed lighting. Even just Tungsten.
Non continuum spectrum lighting was like an experiment in quantum
metaphysics. Parking lot shots At night looked like they were shot on the
Planet Xenon in a different time warp continuum with its Methane atmosphere
making for all kinds of multi demoniacal cross overs. Extended exposures
making for frisky reciprocity failure..  And fabrics would fluoresce like
who knows what and you'll never guess. In the shade on a Sunday afternoon.
Test test test. Color was a crapshoot unless you were in a daylight setting.
Always boring. Like a sunny day.

In the 90's we quickly forgot about that as the Fuji films had figured most
of that stuff out and then Kodak quickly followed. And got their blue out
FINALLY (I'm sure they had to fire somebody big)
And then with digital the colors got even cleaner in mixed lighting.

Now we seem with the Leica dig. to be where we were in the 80s with flim.
Ok with me. Seems like only yesterday. I was missing them...that..

I desaturate the heck out of my images anyway often starting with a
completely desaturated and monochrome raw and then sneaking some color back
in at the very end of my tweaking and seeing if I can scan looking at any
color at all. Sometimes I can. often it stays black and white. And once I a
blue moon I got for the gusto and let the colors vibrate. Shimmy and shake.


Mark Rabiner
New York, NY
40?47'59.79"N   
73?57'32.37"W

http://rabinergroup.com/