How do you use color?

[biggy smalls]

I'm glad to see Ronnoco is still up to the usual.

[megan]

I've waited awhile to answer this thread. However, it's an interesting question.

For most until the past few years, I've mainly shot black and white; it most fit my vision. However, when I started my new_venus series, it required color. I don't know how I came to this decision, I just realized one day that in order to achieve what I wanted, I needed color - and the visions taking form in my brain were in color. It is, in part, because some of the work was my reinterpretations or inspirations from famous classical art. Color is used at times in a symbolic manner in painting. In my after_botticelli piece, I wanted my friend to model because of her brilliant red hair. The off-color in many of the pieces because of the Holga and the use of tungsten lighting is actually important to me. I rather liked the lurid, creepy quality it gave to some of the images. The choice of color, in this instance, was deliberate.

[drg]

Spring has sprung or is just around the corner. Lots of color is creeping back into our daily world and this is good opportunity to ask another question in the "How do you use Color" series.

This being the Photography as Art forum, the question is as much about how you, the photographer and or artist, uses color as how it actually exists. Photography in this realm may particularly have an expressive need that requires color to be manipulated or altered as much as to it being portrayed as accurately as possible.

Is spring bright enough and bold enough, or do you find that a little more saturation helps? Do you want to just turn it down a notch? Brighter, bolder, softer, toned, or calibrated. Where does photographic color fall in your personal spectrum?

No or right or wrong answers, nibble on the biscotti, chomp down on that tubular sponge cake, or pop a cold one and do tell,

Color. Fidelity or Fantasy ?

[Medley]

(cup of coffee and blueberry muffin in hand)

I tend to boost the color in most of my nature images, if only slightly. In doing so, I tend to find that boosting the color in Lab mode is generally easier, and produces better results than a saturation boost in RGB mode. It's hard to explain. The greens get boosted equally, but at the same time, the blue-greens are driven farther apart from the yellow-greens. It just provides a more natural looking result with less hassle, as far as I'm concerned.

I posted a tutorial on this method in the digital imaging forum some time back. Here's a link to that thread, for anyone who's interested: Photoshop Lab Color Boost Tutorial

I was hesitant to use the process initially. However, after using it a few times, I made a discovery. The people at the lab where I made my prints started becomming impressed with the vivid colors I was able to "capture".

There are times when I don't boost the colors, and times when attempting to boost them hurts the image rather than helps it. But it's something I always look at, something that's become part of my workflow.

-Joe U.

[megan]

Okay, I'm eating popcorn (and you know I'm a Luddite, so yes, it was popped with oil and kernels on the stovetop, not in a bag in the microwave) and drinking a glass of *really awesome* cabernet sauvignon.

I haven't weighed in on this subject yet because I'm primarily a black and white photographer. However, in the past few years I've used color a lot more.

Using my Holgas, I'm really happy to get anything I can get with it. I use either Portra VC or UC. (NC in a pinch.) I like the colors I get with that, and I tend to try to stay true to the contact sheet (with some color corrections occasionally) when scanning it to digital.

I'm still new to digital, and don't use it as much as I probably should. I admittedly find no joy in it, so I use it sparingly. What reading I do do on digital is generally in Outdoor Photographer (subscription) and occasionally other magazines. OP, being nature-oriented, has interesting debates about the use of color and digital. I tend to lean towards keeping color as natural as possible. (Note: If I am shooting digital, it's most likely for commercial work) It is tempting to oversaturate, but I prefer to stay a bit grounded and "real," whatever that may mean. I think tastes and expectations have changed a lot with digital - anyone can open their capture in a basic editing software and pump it up. However, when done badly, you can tell - and I think it ultimately detracts from the image.

That's just my opinion and preference, though... and remember, I'm a Luddite toy camera/film junkie!

[megan]

I realized I acually have weighed in on this subject, but at least I addressed the subject ina different way.

Actually, it being spring at all hasn't affected anything yet - especially since we just had a Noreaster a week ago. Gah. maybe I should give it a few more weeks.