Beyond The Photo

[admin]

Jeff: I would be interested in your comments about taking photographic images to the next level. By this I mean taking a photograph that was taken to capture the image as seen by the photographer at the time it was taken but is later altered to obtain a more artistic effect.

An example would be the great photos taken by Paul Yan that not only capture the image but add colour or reflection with the result transcending the image alone. A modern day example of this might be the "CSI Miami" effect in which the images become more colourful than a routine trip to Florida might suggest.

RIC has also explored with this technique in some of their catalogs in days gone by.

[jps]

With color film (transparency/slide) you pretty much had to do any enhancing through the choice of film primarily although some printing papers, such as Cibachrome, offered higher saturation. A color enlarger has filters to balance the inherent bias in certain emulsion batches of both the film and the paper, these being Cyan, Magenta and Yellow, with some enlargers offering a neutral density (grey) filter to control exposure of the paper. These days it is quite easy to turn your average photograph into just about anything you want with digital image processing, sometimes in-camera but primarily in post processing with software such as Photoshop (PS), which has an enormous range of special effects "plug-ins" available to choose from.

Regarding what Paul Yan has done, the reflections would be done traditionally in front of the camera, now you can add thing in PS that never existed in reality! Some of Paul's photography takes advantage of narrow depth of field allowing parts of the image to be thrown out of focus leading the eye to the desired object of interest. I have always been more of a traditionalist, hence my b&w photography using a 4x5 view camera and film; the view camera offers great control of depth of field, which is how much in front of and behind the subject is in acceptable focus. Of course, I use a digital camera for photographing my instruments and my band's performances as it is far more convenient for web use. I still have a lot to learn regarding PS itself; it is a program that is all encompassing for web design, graphics, photography, etc. In fact, most photographers probably use only a very small fraction of it's capabilities.

Form what I see in the earlier RIC catalogs is the use of intensely colored backgrounds to enhance the look of their instruments. Now you can drop out a background and change it completely in PS.

[admin]

Jeffrey: Thanks for your insights into this area. This topic has certainly captured my interest over the years. Perhaps Paul Yan will offer his perspective as well.