Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/04/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> > Mark - the mixed light is bothersome in my opinion - this is the type > > of situation where the M8 excels in B & W > > >Hugh >Think the color might be bad or not so great or have mixed feelings on it? >Desaturate! That's my answer. >Less is More. > >And one could not only match the real desaturation of the real world as we >really see it one could take it a step further and have it be a bit less >color. No one ever does that but me. I'm the only one. And when they do I >hope they ask me first. Get proper permission. >Mark Rabiner Two comments: I've been watching lots of X Files reruns lately (I never watched the show to begin with) and they use a lot of intentionally strong mixed lighting in the show to create a spooky, moody effect. I think that as a result I'm seeking out this kind of light rather than avoiding it. Second--Mark raises a good point about color saturation. My recent readings about human color vision lead me to understand that our color vision fades gradually at a certain absolute light level, with our black and white system taking over. This suggests a procedure that I have not tried yet--use Photoshop to simulate graduated desaturation, where there is more desaturation the darker the image is. I'll try the idea out on some of these images and let you all know if I get anything good. I would gently take issue with Mark's claim that he is the only one who desaturates--the look is quite common in advertising photography in the last 5 years, and in some movies. I have tried Mark's global desaturation effect on some images. The result is sometimes pleasing, but it always reminds me of 1960's color snapshots that are fading--lending a sense of poignancy and transience, but often at the expense of presence or immediacy. My own visual impression of the world is that there are little islands of very saturated color afloat in a sea of softer colors. (And in the winter in Seattle, a sea of nearly colorless drabness.) Perhaps our cameras see too much color in the shadows to reproduce human color sensation. Mark Davison >From: Mark Rabiner <mark@rabinergroup.com> >Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org> >To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org> >Subject: Re: [Leica] IMG M8 natural light portrait >Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2007 04:01:45 -0400 > > > > >On 4/21/07 2:34 AM, "Hugh Thompson" <hewthompson@mac.com> typed: > > > Hugh > > > > On 20-Apr-07, at 8:34 PM, MARK DAVISON wrote: > > > >> Here's a friend caught in mixed light at a dinner party. (Not an > >> award winning shot, but I like the way the mixed light wraps around > >> his face.) M8, CV 28 / 1.9, B+W 486 UV/IR cut filter, -2/3 > >> exposure compensation. > >> > >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/MarkEDavison/F1April07/ > >> L1000771.jpg.html > >> > > > > >I'll put my two cents in on this one too you're saying the mixed light is >rubbing you the wrong way my fix would be to desaturate by half. >Go back to the source and it looks just like it. >We get so used to our hyped up color from the results we used to get with >film. The world does not have hyped up color that the average photo >especially most slide films have or had. And now digital. >Especially the blue from the outside. Looks like neon. That's not how it >looks. A great effect though and darned hard to tone down because of that. > >Think the color might be bad or not so great or have mixed feelings on it? >Desaturate! That's my answer. >Less is More. > >And one could not only match the real desaturation of the real world as we >really see it one could take it a step further and have it be a bit less >color. No one ever does that but me. I'm the only one. And when they do I >hope they ask me first. Get proper permission. > > > >Mark Rabiner >8A/109s >New York, NY > >markrabiner.com > > > >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information