Is The Colour Real?

This is a question I quite often get in selling my photographs. Most people are not prepared to look at an image as an object in itself, rather as a recording of something. Why they should want a 'recording' since they weren't there seems dubious, but there you have it.

For the most part I work to create what I remember, but not always. The examples here are situations in which the colour is definitely over the top, and you know what - I don't care!

People often assume that if the image is digital, the colour must be cheating, and if from film, it can't be. This of course begs the issue of Fuji Velvia which always did make colours 'over the top' and what about Cibachrome prints which were very saturated and contrasty.

Ever see a post card with pastel colours? - I thought not.

We readily accept that a black and white image isn't a direct translation from real, and we forgive red filters darkening skies, green filters lightening foliage and polarizers seeing through reflective water surfaces. Somehow though, the fact that colour could have been a direct translation means that it must. Of course this begs the question of real colour - we don't see the blues that are real on a dull day or in the shade - yet what we 'see' is considered real and the blue is not - so who's to say.



Who's to say we even see the world the same way. We know that colour blind people see the world dramatically differently - what about the rest of us - are we all colour certified - I think not. Just as some of us have more sensitive senses of smell, there are some who can differentiate more colours and see subtleties more easily. Does this mean they see the colours as more saturated - or is it something else entirely?

What's real anyway, the last image is one many people don't believe - the rock couldn't have been that red - but everyone who has been to Red Rock Canyon agrees that it is - this is the colour they remember - only those who haven't been there question the colour. The image of Lake Louise is similar - the water really was that colour.