We had a digital color, flash photo of the event organizers to work with for the press release.
If you look through family photos, you’ll notice that the quality of the photos deteriorates markedly in the 1970s. The introductions of flash bulbs and inexpensive color film cast a grotesque reality over our loved ones. Picture albums go from the handsome black and white shots of the ’50s to the lurid, crime-photo-like color of the ’70s.
Digital cameras have improved the quality of the color, but the flash still removes the shadows on faces, and lends an unnatural harshness to subjects.
Sepia, worked through the color balance sliders in Photoshop (after converting the file from RGB to grayscale), can help to mitigate some of the damage which color and flash do to modern snapshots.
There’s nothing wrong with color photos or flash. These are two of the most important advances in photography before digital emegerged. The problem is not with flash or color, it’s that they are usually used improperly by the camera operator. Explain why there are so many stunning color flash photos out there.
All you need is a little training and you can stop taking ugly snapshots and start taking nice photos. No computer, digital camera or Photoshop required. Heck, I have used my little fixed-lens point-and-shoot film camera to take better flash photos than many modern digital cameras.
Photoshop is nice but making some weird old-timey thing out of what is actually a decent snapshot is pretty silly. I’m sure some artsy customer will squeal over that junk you’ve created, but most people just want normal photos.
Don’t play Photoshop games, just be straightforward with your photos and your customers will respond.
Yeah, you sepia pushing digital maniacs. How dare you! I’m so angry I could just, just, just,… I can’t even think of something. What you wrote must be the most offensive thing I’ve ever read. Spit, sputter, huff…
BTW, anyone have a life they can lend me?
I can see how the sepia tones enhances the ladies faces. Thank you for sending me the link!