It’s important to be aware of the fact that all daylight films are balanced for sunlight and they display a heavy blue tone on overcast days or in shadow areas. This blue shift may be perfect for a few subjects, but harmful for most. This blue cast can be neutralized by filters (see Chapter 7). Only if you are aware of the color shift can you work with it to your advantage (Figure 6-12, Figure 6-13, and Figure 6-14).
In the same way, indoor color film is balanced for tungsten light of a specific color temperature. If a different type of tungsten bulb is used, the color balance will be altered—usually in a detrimental fashion, but sometimes beneficially, if you know which way the colors will shift. In any studio situation, you can alter the lighting as well as the film, and you can filter either one for maximum control. There is no need to wait for conditions to change, as you often must in outdoor situations. Beware of the effect of fluorescent light; everything takes on a strong green cast which can be corrected only with heavy filtration.
Taken at sunrise as a dramatic cloud swept over the rugged Sierra summit, this photograph displays the warm coloration characteristic of early morning and late evening light. The same scene photographed during the midday hours would have had a cold, blue-gray color throughout. Color is dramatically different during the first few minutes and final few minutes of the day.
Figure 6-10. Mt. Lone Pine and Sierra Wave Cloud
Taken from a location close to that of Figure 6-10, but at midday, this image displays a color balance that has changed to cooler, bluer hues. It’s surely a truer rendition of the actual colors of the scene, but the colors of sunrise and sunset can’t be overlooked.
Figure 6-11. Sierra Nevada Mountains and Alabama Hills
These two photographs were made minutes apart in the same location, Figure 6-12 under sunlit conditions and Figure 6-12 as a cloud passed over the scene. These images show subtle but important differences in the film’s color balance. Figure 6-12 (in shade) exhibits a colder blue tone in both the melting snow and granite rocks on the high slopes. That color balance strikes me as more appropriate to convey the feeling of cold, as opposed to the yellower, warmer rendition in sunlight.
Figure 6-12. Snow Cups, Sierra Nevada Mountains
The foregoing discussion has involved issues during the day, but what about nighttime color photography? In urban areas, contrast created by the inverse square law where streetlights and other point sources produce extremely spotty, contrasty situations is difficult to overcome. One clever way to overcome this is to shoot well after sunset (or before sunrise) but with enough dusk or dawn light to even out the spotty lighting. Away from point sources, moonlight photography can be quite successful. Generally, light levels will be too low for your meter to respond, but you can experiment with exposure times under full moon, half moon, or quarter moon lighting. Once you lock in the necessary times for such lighting—always requiring extended exposures—you can open up a whole new area of photography that you had previously never considered (Figure 6-15).
In-camera digital sensors can detect the color balance of light and correct white balance extremely effectively, obviating serious problems that film encounters regularly. This is a great advantage for color digital work. But then again, there can be exceptions such as the following.
Not long after World War II, portraitist Arnold Newman was commissioned to photograph Alfred Krupp of Germany, the industrial baron and Nazi arms supplier. Newman was Jewish. He managed to get Krupp to pose for him on a small platform raised above the spreading floor of his factory, with the assembly lines below as a background. Fluorescent lights flooded the factory, and Newman augmented them with auxiliary lighting placed below Krupp’s face and almost behind him. He did not filter to correct the fluorescent color shift. Because the two of them were high above the factory floor, nobody else saw what was happening, and Krupp himself had no knowledge of photographic processes. The resulting portrait shows a ghastly, green-faced monster with ominous shadows crossing his face diagonally from below—the devil incarnate. Newman knew what he wanted and he understood his material. The powerful effect might have been far more difficult to achieve digitally due to effective white balance sensors. But I must also admit that the black-and-white version of this portrait is, to my mind, even more effective simply because the sick green color is missing. To me, that color goes overboard and pushes the envelope too far.
Figure 6-13 was made under sunlit conditions, Figure 6-13 under cloudy conditions. These two photographs show the same sun vs. shade color shifts that we see on the snow cups (Figure 6-12). Which is more appropriate? To me, it’s a toss-up. I see no clear winner despite their obvious differences.
Figure 6-13. Red Mountain Heather, Sierra Nevada Mountains
Subjectivity and Mood of Color
Color renditions of every film and digital sensor are different. Papers vary as well. Which combination is best is a matter of purely subjective judgment. My favorites may prove to be those you dislike most. By working with these variables over long periods of time, you become familiar with their characteristics—their strengths and weaknesses—and learn to exploit their advantages while minimizing their shortcomings.
As an example, I have always disliked Polaroid color print film. In my opinion, the colors are erratic and muted. Yet Marie Cosindas has produced a large body of outstanding color Polaroid portraits and still lifes. By working with the inherent characteristics of the film, she has produced images that can be likened to paintings of the Baroque and Romantic periods. She often dresses her subjects in lavish costumes, uses flowers or ornate objects for embellishment, and tends toward darker tones to create a lush and intense mood. Often one brilliant color stands out against the prevailing deeper tones. In the hands of many photographers the results could prove outlandish or absurd, but in hers they are magical. Much of the credit must be given to her painstaking patience in learning the characteristics of the material.
Figure 6-14, digitally captured, was made in the early evening under cloudy skies, giving it an overall blue cast. Using basic global Photoshop adjustments—hue, saturation, and contrast curves—Figure 6-14 shows how I brought in the colors that my eyes saw at the scene (note the path). I made no attempt to aggrandize the colors or saturate them needlessly, but rather to show the scene realistically.
Figure 6-14. Forest Trail, North Cascade Mountains