Dear Bill,
I don't usually ask my friends about their studies, particularly as the best have often had rather strange trajectories. However, I'm quite willing to show off my PhD if you want to come and see it and buy me lunch afterwards. The paper says "Applied Mathematics" and a line or so later "Algorithmics", whatever that means. I also happen to have an undergraduate maths degree, and an engineering graduate diploma, and learnt to count when I was a kid and can still do that. If you ever come to visit, I'll be delighted to trade a print with you.
A more interesting question is whether I have standing in the science community.
Maybe a perusal of the following link may convince you that some people have read, and discussed, what I writ when younger ?
Google search on one of my papersNow, I believe that I've paid for my place at the table. Let me speak a bit about photography. As you stress, there is a place for "accurate" color, and a place for "pleasing" color, and then there are all those psychophysical complications which make the subject of color so difficult and interesting.
In my blog proposal, I propose resolving the conflict between "accurate" and "pleasing" color by associating two things which *together* would create the color during a Raw file conversion:
- An "Calibration Profile" that would be established for every camera by whatever method the color calibration community agrees appropriate. ICC guys might choose an ICC input profile, DNG guys might choose their usual matrices with color temperature interpolation.
- Then a "Digital Emulsion" would be overlaid on top of the accurate color to create a pleasing "look". This could again be effected in a variety of ways - the ICC guys could use an ICC abstract profile, the Adobe guy could overlay an adjustment layer over the image while it's being twiddled for Raw conversion.
The main point above is that both communities, those who want accurate color and those who want pleasing color could get what they want: Someone who wants saturation could use a Velvia-type "Digital Emulsion" overlaid over the calibration profile of his camera. Someone who wants to do product would choose a more neutral rendering with the appropriate tone curve for product, again overlaid over the calibration for the camera actually used.
As far as workflow goes, the difference between my approach and what is done at present is that at the moment both the "Calibration profile" and the "Digital Emulsion" are collapsed into one profile, and I propose separating them clearly.
At present, if you use a "neutral" profile in the Raw converter, you cannot preview a look. So you move your files into Tiff, and then apply the look, but at that point the Raw conversion is already frozen.
This is because a converter only shows the effect of applying *one* profile at a time. I propose that it should be able to overlay two - to paraphrase what my friend Guy Mancuso says, "as a Photographer you need to be able to see what you are doing".
Edmund
Edmund,
As Andrew Rodney likes to point out, most photographers want pleasing color, not necessarily accurate color. You may remember from film days that Kodak strove to reproduce colors accurately with Ektachrome, whereas Fuji strove to get saturated colors with Velvia. Both films had their uses. Velvia was great for landscapes, but often did violence with Caucasian skin tones.
I see that you have a PhD, but do not state the field in which the degree was granted. Scientists and physicians use photography extensively to document their observations, and accurate reproduction of color is usually desired in this situation. Also, photographers shooting clothing or other merchandise for a catalog want accurate color, or else customers may return the merchandise because if it does not meet their expectations.
The eye can adapt to misrepresentation of many colors, but is intolerant to poor reproduction of memory colors such as human skin, green foliage, and blue sky. It will accept overly bright red flowers, but not a person who appears severely sunburned or jaundiced.
Bill
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