Pity it isn’t mine!
I was sent an email the other day with this (attached) amazing youtube video trailer from the BBC. The photography is simply sensational – incredible even! I presume the vision would have been captured on the new breed of high definition cameras and the colour graded to look this beautiful. When you look outside your window, the world takes on a pastel view.
The sky is light blue and the grass (if you can see any) is not only green, but also has a lot of glare from the sky. In both television production and stills photography the use of polarising lenses is used to reduce glare and unwanted UV light and reflections. Professional photographers (video and stills) always have these filters as part of there camera kit. They give the world colour.
Before I was a photographer, I was a television maker – I have worked as a writer, director, editor and colour grader. This grounding in the visual medium has given me my base for my photography. As an example, I was asked to make a corporate video for Nike a few years ago. I co-wrote the script, filmed all of the sequences, edited the package and finally, gave the film a thorough colour grade. I had over the many years before, learned that you don’t just capture the world around you – there is a sequence of events that makes great images and that is why I was allowed to produce the Nike film by myself.
I have written posts before on post production or processing of photos. To me, this stage is nearly as important as the act of capturing the image. Our brains make yellow dresses really yellow, the sky clear blue and the green of a the grass very rich in colour – WE filter out the ultra violet light. A digital camera chip just can’t do that. So we add filters and then in the processing stage (Lightroom and Photoshop), make the colours saturated. I took and processed the image below a while ago and have used it in a post or on a page before – but again, it shows how with a little tweaking, a photo can represent what we remember seeing. A good photographer makes photos, not just takes photos! and this doesn’t just apply to weddings or corporate photography, it applies to almost all images.
Enjoy the BBC promo – it will amaze you, I promise.
