Monday, September 6, 2010

A plant that reminds me of coffee bean

Sometimes, you might have the experience of seeing one thing but was reminded about something else. Maybe because of the shape, colour, etc. If you ever watch the movie 'I Love You Philip Morris', the part that when young Jim Carrey was looking at the cloud and thinking of xxx, might rings a bell for you? (If you have yet watch the movie, go find out what xxx is as I don't want to be a movie spoiler here).
Anyway, this post is not about movie, nor gay stuff.
It's about photography, just like most of my posts are.
Particularly, it's about my recent shots and video of a plant which reminded me of coffee beans (see photo below). Ya I know it didn't seem like coffee beans at all, but that is how I felt about it anyway...
Sometimes, you just got to agree that senses, like arts, are very subjective matters:)
In relation with coffee bean, it also reminded me of some photo style that you might find in cafe or restaurant where the colour is somehow fading, nearly monotonic, yet presents it's subject well with simplicity... it is this simplicity that makes it blends well with the atmosphere instead of being too overwhelm like pieces you will find in exhibition hall.

So in the post-processing, it is this colour fading style that I am after.
I first created the photo version in CS3, used only moderate contrast, desaturated the colour, and adjusted the hue a little to introduce some reddish touch in it to make the whole theme like a 'tea' colour scheme.
Then, I apply the same thing when colour grading (or colour correction in a layman's term) my video.

Here is the outcome, enjoy!



My wife love the music very much, we both agree that the paces of the video and music are matching so well that as if they're performing tango dance.