In yesterday’s post [Tracking the Light’s Panchromatic Pan Am] I alluded to the various color profile presets available on my Fujifilm X-T1 digital camera that emulate film types.
Here I’ve displayed several images all exposed individually within a few minutes of each other as a means of exploring the effect of each of the color profiles. Other than scaling for internet presentation, I have not altered the color, contrast or sharpness of these images and the effect is essentially how it appears in the camera-produced Jpg file.
Which do you like best?
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That’s why “correct” is in quotation marks. Correct, to MY eye, for the conditions of THIS photograph, which as I recall, was the exercise.
But doesn’t the appearance of the color on the locomotive reflect the prevailing lighting and atmospheric conditions, as well as dirt, grime and dead bugs that have stuck to the paint? The best way to get the ‘correct color’ might be to photograph freshly dried, un-tainted paint under ‘true daylight’ conditions (5500 kelvin lighting). Unfortunately, this would never match the way locomotives actually appeared in the field. Further complicating matters are issues of ‘white balance’. The human eye naturally corrects for extreme lighting situations, but what the eye sees (or actually the brain) rarely reflects the actual color balance on-site.
I, being a railroad photographer, was more concerned with the “correct” color of the locomotives…
I like the X-T1—Velvia color profile best. I base that on the realistic color of the green vegetation.
I think I like Provia the best. Astia looks a bit “washed out.”