Kokoro - Wandering Through a Photographic Life

Backstage Kokoro

A "behind-the-scenes" look at selected images in my Kokoro project —
Content, photographic notes, EXIF data, creative process, miscellaneous commentary, and original digital captures. And now with additional audio comments about selected images!

From Kokoro #041 - A Lesson Learned, Again

The default for color rendition in photography is "realistic color." But what is meant by the term realistic? How the eye sees, I suppose, would be the common understanding. But, what if we try a different definition — say, how the heart feels the color?

These images from Smiley's Shop were all mistakenly made with an incorrect color balance setting in my camera. They are all quite warm, a sort of yellowish-orange. My first reaction was to fix it! But, once "fixed," I had to admit that they all looked wrong. That is, they no longer looked like I felt them, even though they may have been more accurate to my eye. In the end, I chose to preserve that sense of warm nostalgia by keeping the warm color balance, although I did conclude that it was a bit too much as recorded by the camera. I simply tweaked the vibrance down to about -40 in Lightroom to soften the intensity. To my eye, they now feel right, even though the coloration is still not accurate by objective standards. This is art! Who says objectivity should be the final arbiter of such emotions?

Original digital capture (downsized for the web)

0.4 sec at f / 8.0, ISO 400, Panasonic DMC-G1, LUMIX G VARIO 14-45/F3.5-5.6, 36 mm

Brooks Jensen

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