It’s just so vivid!

As someone who likes to work in black and white most of the time, I have a slight problem when it comes to shooting color. When I have photos where the subjects are all “colorful” I tend to take it to the extremes. I really want to jazz up the saturation, contrast, and vibrance to really make it COLORFUL. Of course I do know when too much is too much and I try not to push colors beyond the limits of my files, but I tend to go to that point and back it off a little from there. Like Jerry Seinfeld joked about “extra strength” and “maximum strength” aspirins, “I want to know how much can kill me and then just back it off a little from there”.

So with my annual visit to the county fairgrounds while the Country Fair was being setup, I decided to keep the color in check this time around. Fueled by the film simulations in my Fujifilm camera, I went with the “Classic Chrome” look when processing the images in LIghtroom. The colors are slightly muted and the contrast is slightly tweaked to give, I’m guessing, a Kodachrome-like slide film look to the photos. I like the look as it doesn’t look like I’m trying to be hip and giving my photos a “vintage” feel yet it does tone down the digital look.

As for the photos, I usually like to visit the fairgrounds a day before the fair starts, when things are being setup, and a day after, when they start to tear things down. I like the look of the rides, although they’re not making it easy on me as they get the same rides every year. I keep hoping for something different to mix up my photos a bit. That creates a challenge in itself but I try to push myself anyhow to look at things differently and to try new perspectives to keep it interesting. The “before’ photos I usually do in color and I try to shoot for black and white with the “after” photos. If all goes well, I’ll be able to shoot the “after” photos next Sunday and I’ll be sure to pass them along.