Leaving Dull Enough Alone.

There was a break in the drizzle today, so i tagged along as Rosco padded about downtown Beeham, looking for walls to shoot in the late afternoon sun.  After a little while, we came across a large brick warehouse type building that looked as if it was vacant and filled only with dust gathering junk ... except for one window that gave solitary signs of life. 

Back home, after chow, Rosco was eager to see what he had captured.  So I fired up our ever-failing Mac and brought the picture up on screen.

I heard a snort. 

"It looks like a wet sponge," Rosco said, "although it doesn't smell half as good." 



"But wasn't the dreariness at least part of what you wanted to capture?" I asked. 

"Spose..." Rosco said tentatively. 

"Well let's fiddle!"

Rosco thought the foto needed more color.  "You mean you want to saturate it," I asked.  "No we can do it now," Rosco replied.  "No, Roski, 'saturation' means to add more color.  It's the inverse of exposure."  "Inverse?"  "The inside out of" "Ah.... Well yes, move the saturation button to "more"."

The picture brightened up like a fruit bar.  Rosco hesitated.  "Move it the other way," he said.  "You mean de-saturate it?"  "If that's what you call it, yes." 

Rosco liked that result, but I told him it was clichéd for us humans. "What does that mean?" Rosco asked.  "It means the bone has been chewed over already." "Oh," Rosco said... "nothing wrong with that if its still chewable."  "Well, let's try a compromise," I suggested, as I slid the sliders back toward the color zone.

As with many compromises we both kind of liked the result and kind of didn't. "Let's try something else," I said.  "What would that be?" Rosco asked.  "We could just brighten it," I said.  "You mean add more light....?"  I knew where Rosco was pointing with this question.  "Lightness, in the color not on it" I answered.  "You and your words," Rosco snorted, as I moved the brightness slider.  

Original & Brightened

I asked.  "It looks like a new sponge" Rosco said. "Well it's your picture," I reminded him.  "At least it's not overdone; it just is."  And we left it at that