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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Too Much Color!
Jim Colburn, Photographer
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Guy Rhodes, Photographer
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East Chicago | IN | USA | Posted: 7:32 PM on 07.27.13 |
| ->> I think they're fascinating, though some are better done than others. |
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Todd Spoth, Photographer
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Houston | TX | USA | Posted: 7:48 PM on 07.27.13 |
->> Totally agreed Guy.
Crotchety-ass old man Colburn strikes again! |
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Steve Ueckert, Photographer
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Houston | TX | | Posted: 10:31 PM on 07.27.13 |
| ->> Pleasantville? |
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Michael Granse, Photographer
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Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 11:40 PM on 07.27.13 |
->> The Malcolm Browne photograph (The self-immolation of ThÃch Quảng Đức, 1963) made me more uncomfortable in color than it did in black and white. It is a terrible thought for a man to set himself aflame, but the black and white version of this one has previously allowed me to mentally dismiss the flames in favor of the other elements of the image, as if to look away from the photograph without averting my eyes. It is a terrible thing, color or no color, but the colorized flames are a bit more difficult to blink away though this is strictly a psychological exercise.
I may never win a Pulitzer, but it is a fair trade if I never have to witness a moment like the Malcom Browne photograph. |
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Michael Ciu, Photographer, Assistant
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Amherst | OH | USA | Posted: 10:50 AM on 07.28.13 |
| ->> Loved them. |
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Chuck Liddy, Photographer, Photo Editor
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PLANET | EARTH | | Posted: 12:29 PM on 07.28.13 |
| ->> Todd, you might live to be old too. Don't be so quick to judge. Just saying........ |
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Michael Fischer, Photographer
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Spencer | Ia | USA | Posted: 2:03 PM on 07.28.13 |
->> I'm generally speaking with Jim on this. In many of these, I don't think the color adds much to the image. As a example, does adding color to the iconic image by Lange of the migrant mother and her kids add anything important to the image? Not in my opinion. Does adding color to the Eddie Adams image or in the Malcolm Browne image make them better? I don't think it does.
Why not? It some respects, while color makes the image more "real", I think we can also argue that color tends to divert us away from the story being told by those images. Truly eye candy. Were there any images I thought it did help? A few..... with the portrait of Audrey Hepburn being the one I enjoyed the most. Then again, I have had a crush on her since I don't know when.... |
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Mark Loundy, Photo Editor, Photographer
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San Jose | CA | USA | Posted: 4:03 PM on 07.28.13 |
->> I found the Bikini atoll atomic test to be shocking when pairing the blue idyllic water and sky with the violent explosion in the lagoon. The original is just another (albeit bigger) explosion from history.
--Mark |
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Mark Sutton, Photographer
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Herndon | VA | USA | Posted: 4:45 PM on 07.28.13 |
| ->> I remember in school one night we analyzed the Migrant Mother image by the GREAT Dorothea Lange for almost 2 hours. I mean my instructor broke down ever aspect of the image and now to see it in color SUX!!! She's probably rolling over in her grave at this... |
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Steve Ueckert, Photographer
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Houston | TX | | Posted: 7:49 PM on 07.28.13 |
->> @ Mark--
I feel Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" is a visual icon, I don't like seeing it in color any more than I would like seeing the Lincoln Memorial in color.
I have to add, though, I think the color adds an interesting element to the Karsh portraits and the Audrey Hepburn image should be in color.
Many of these images seem more to be duotones, somewhat sepia, rather than full spectrum. Regardless, as much as I appreciate straight greyscale images, this offering makes a compelling argument for the addition of color to many of these images.
How many remember the efforts of those who applied photo oils to B&W images / portraits? |
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David Minton, Photographer
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Denton | TX | USA | Posted: 5:07 AM on 07.29.13 |
->> I think I'm more bothered by the pastel colors in most of them. It makes them look like a hand colored photo from the era it was shot, not a version of the same photo shot in color. No idea who colorized the Yousef Karsh photos and the Toni Frissell shot, but they're onto something.
Speaking of this, the guy who runs Uniwatch.com does a regular "colorize this old sports photo" contest and the results interesting. |
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Brian Blanco, Photographer
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Tampa / Sarasota | FL | USA | Posted: 3:09 PM on 07.29.13 |
| ->> Is it wrong that I actually like these? (Most of them anyway) |
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Clark Brooks, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 3:20 PM on 07.29.13 |
->> "Is it wrong that I actually like these? (Most of them anyway)"
I hope not because there were several that I liked as well (especially the one of Mr. Fischer's heartthrob). I appreciated the colorization technique mostly because baby photos of me and my siblings, unlike Chuck's baby pictures which were painted on cave walls, are the hand-colored, black and prints these were made to emulate. |
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Joe Ahlquist, Photographer
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Emporia | KS | USA | Posted: 3:29 PM on 07.29.13 |
| ->> I agree with Brian. I think it's interesting to see what they look like in color. I'm not saying I think they look like "better" photos, but from a historical standpoint it's interesting to see history in color. That being said, some of them are definitely done better than others. |
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Sam Santilli, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Philippi | WV | USA | Posted: 9:27 AM on 07.30.13 |
| ->> Different strokes for different folks. As a history major, I like things kept the way they were created, in the same vein as the original artist conjoured in their mind. But the question still arises...if the artist had color film in that era, would he/she have used it. Photography was so much more an art form before digital, in the fact that you had to get it right in the camera, not in post with PS. Create what you see with your eye, not what you change with your grafx after the capture. |
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Andrew Brosig, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Nacogdoches | TX | United States | Posted: 2:44 PM on 07.31.13 |
| ->> Michael: Absolutely agree. Colorizing Migrant Mother is perhaps one of the dumber things I've ever seen done. It completely removed the emotion, the turmoil from the image. And coloring her left hand to match the tent pole, as one alert viewer in the comments section caught, really didn't help. |
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Jim Colburn, Photographer
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Omaha | NE | USA | Posted: 9:24 PM on 07.31.13 |
| ->> It seems as though Mr. Spoth didn't appreciate the idea behind the original posting. While that may come as no surprise it begs the question, "What's the Generation Y equivalent of "crotchety-ass"'? |
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G.J. McCarthy, Photographer
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Dallas | TX | US | Posted: 7:32 AM on 08.01.13 |
->> "Photography was so much more an art form before digital ..."
Not sure I totally agree on that one. You could apply the same logic to any kind of art, really -- writing, painting, music -- and I'm not sure it holds up. Maybe better said that art has become a lot more accessible, and signal to noise ratio has gotten higher.
But, I don't think it lessens, cheapens current art of any kind compared to what came before technology. Make sense? Still, it's an opinion and you're certainly welcome to it.
I'm not sure I mind the colorization all that much in some of the photos; it bothers me more in others. I do like the question, though, of whether or not the original photographers would have used color film had it been available to them, and I'm taking an educated guess the answer is most certainly a yes.
Good food for though, either way.
- gerry - |
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Chuck Liddy, Photographer, Photo Editor
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PLANET | EARTH | | Posted: 1:19 PM on 08.01.13 |
| ->> Jim I think you got that wrong....it's actually "Generation Whine" not "Y". 8) |
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Marshall Smith, Photographer
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