[Leica] IMG: What is reality, man?

[pklein at threshinc.com (Peter Klein)]

Thanks for the comment, Nathan. You may be right. I vacillated between 
several of the renderings,
and might have made a different choice on a different day.  My point was 
that when nothing is exactly accurate,
and you and the camera "see" differently, there often are several right 
choices.

--Peter

 > I hate to say it Peter...but I like the first image best. The blue 
video is
 > fine, and creates a nice contrast to the performer, whose skin tones are
 > very nice.
 >
 > Cheers,
 > Nathan
 >
 > Nathan Wajsman
 > Alicante, Spain
 > http://www.frozenlight.eu
 > http://www.greatpix.eu
 > PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
 > Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/
 >
 > YNWA
 >
 > ----
 >
 > On Feb 21, 2014, at 7:53 AM, Peter Klein wrote:
 >
 > > This is long, but you may find it interesting. I just spent several 
hours
 > > over a couple of days trying to get a picture "right." There were 
several
 > > different degrees of "right" and "not right," with no clear-cut 
answer.
 > > You might come to a different conclusion than I did. Come into the
 > > kitchen with me and let's see what was cooking. And see the 
following four
 > > pictures after my last example for the conclusion of the series.
 > >
 > > On Monday evening I shot a wild and crazy contemporary music festival.
 > > I'm friends with several of the musicians. The festival included 
several
 > > pieces where the musicians performed with computer-generated imagery
 > > projected on a big screen, as well as computer-generated sound. 
There was
 > > changing stage lighting, and spotlights on soloists that were 
drastically
 > > brighter than the ensemble lighting. Fun stuff. :-) I was sitting 
in an
 > > ordinary seat in row 3, and did not have stage access. As someone who
 > > plays music myself, and has shot plays and concerts for 44 years, I 
pride
 > > myself on knowing how to do things without being heard, disrupting or
 > > distracting. So no changing lenses during the performance, no 
chimping,
 > > and no excess fiddling with the camera. I set most parameters 
before each
 > > piece, and adjusted exposure by counting detents on my Olympus E-M5's
 > > exposure compensation dial. I ended up using my Pansonic/Leica 25mm 
f/1.4
 > > for the whole concert.
 > >
 > > One shot posed a particular challenge. In the piece "Up Close" by 
Michael
 > > van der Aa, a cello soloist doesn't just play with a string chamber
 > > orchestra and electronic sound. She also interacts with a projected 
video
 > > that runs during the piece. This created a perfect storm of mixed 
color
 > > temperatures. Here's the first white balance, done for the tungsten 
stage
 > > lights. The live woman is fine, the video is blue, blue blue.
 > >
 > >
 > > Balance it for the video, and the live performer becomes the Lady in
 > > Excess Red.
 > >
 > >
 > > So what to do? I tried black and white. Which was OK, but not quite 
what
 > > I wanted. Not enough difference between live and Memorex.
 > >
 > >
 > > I spent a couple of hours making masks (not my best skill, and I use
 > > Picture Window Pro, not Photoshop, so I don't have a magic lasso).
 > > Eventually I did a combination of a polygon for the screen, merged 
with a
 > > mask keyed to most shades of blue, plus another to reddish hues, 
cloned
 > > one into the other, blended the two white balances through this 
mask, then
 > > and manually adjusted the final result with the clone tool. It 
ended up
 > > mostly, reasonably technically correct, but the blue spill in the
 > > foreground is impossible, and it's not what I perceived when I saw it.
 > > During the performance, I didn't see the drastic color difference 
that the
 > > camera "saw." But there was a difference, and this rendering almost
 > > eliminates it.
 > >
 > >
 > > At which point I decided that realism was futile. OK, let's get
 > > interpretive. I tried a partially desaturated version of the original
 > > tungsten balance.
 > >
 > >
 > > But the picture I eventually chose to post was the one below. I 
used the
 > > tungsten white balance, so the live performer appeared normal, and 
a bit
 > > of selective color correction towards grey to reduce but not 
eliminate the
 > > blueness in the video performer only. This added some mixed-toned B&W
 > > surrealness to the video image. It was not exactly what I saw, but it
 > > evoked the same sensation as what I saw. Besides, my wife preferred 
this
 > > one. :-)
 > >
 > >
 > > Again, see the following four pics for the conclusion of the series.
 > > Thanks for bearing with me.
 > >
 > > --Peter