{"id":1995,"date":"2012-05-17T12:23:22","date_gmt":"2012-05-17T03:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2012-05-17\/1995"},"modified":"2012-05-17T12:23:22","modified_gmt":"2012-05-17T03:23:22","slug":"another-kyoto-stroll-seeing-or-not-seeing-as-the-case-may-be-reds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2012-05-17\/1995","title":{"rendered":"Another Kyoto Stroll: Seeing (or Not Seeing, as the Case May Be) Reds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nNOTE<\/b>: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I took another walk in Fushimi yesterday (a south<\/span>-east area of Kyoto),\nsimilar to that of my previous post (“A Few<\/span> Over-Process\nUnder-Thought Photos From Lunch<\/a>”), but with nice weather. Red and orange<\/span>\nseemed to be a theme.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

For the most part, cherry trees here in Japan don't bear fruit in a\nmeaningful<\/span> way (normally just small bitter fruits<\/a> that\nare usually unnoticeable to begin with), but at the start of yesterday's\nwalk I came<\/span> across a real<\/span> fruit-bearing cherry tree in front of someone's house,\nwith a note<\/span> “Enjoy them once they become red”...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1600 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nEnjoy!<\/span>\nthe red ones\n<\/div>\n\n

Sadly, they were not red, so I couldn't partake.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nDecidedly Orange<\/span>\nnot yet red\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nBurnt Orange<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Not far from the previous train-track pic<\/a>, but a different<\/span> train line.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2500 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nScruffy<\/span>\n
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n\n\n1050×<\/span>1680<\/a>  ·  1200×<\/span>1920<\/a>  ·  1600×<\/span>2560<\/a><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 1100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nNot Scruffy<\/span>\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1250 sec, f<\/span>\/1.4, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nCafe Lil Donkey<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Lunch was at\n\n \u30ab\u30d5\u30a7\u3061\u3044\u308d\u3070<\/a>\n\n(which, according to the “Lil Donkey” on their website, I take means<\/span> “Cafe Little Donkey”). The food was<\/span> very good... the cook has a real<\/span> sense for quality.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 800 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFringe of Red<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

After lunch, I came across<\/span> what appeared to be a maple<\/span>-tree bush (short\nand bush-like, but the leaves seemed clearly to be momiji<\/i> — Japanese maple) that was\npredominantly green, but with a few<\/span> deeply-red elements splashed here and\nthere...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 800 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nSlight Non-Fringe of Non-Red<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nMomiji Alien <\/span>\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Further along, the red level was escalated substantially with another fruiting cherry tree laden with cherries in their prime...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 640 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nThese are Red<\/span>\nbut, sadly, lacking an “Enjoy!” sign\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

And finally, some roadside flowers that turned the red up to “11”...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nWhat a Challenge<\/span><\/span>\nthe red is, literally, off the charts\n(where by “literally” I mean<\/span> “figuratively”, unless, of course, you were to actually try to chart the reds)<\/span>\n
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n\n\n1050×<\/span>1680<\/a>  ·  1200×<\/span>1920<\/a>  ·  1600×<\/span>2560<\/a><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

The challenge here is that the reds were so super deeply saturated in\nreal life that display technology just can't handle them at the same\ntime as handling the rest of the image properly. The camera (Nikon D700)\nitself did an admirable job of it, considering that the detail was there,\nbut once the color data is squished down to the limits of my laptop\nmonitor, the reds become an ugly, solid unrefined blotch. I complain<\/span> about this\ntechnological limitation often, such as in “Why Does “Brightness” Wash Colors to White?<\/a>”\nand “Brilliant Flower, Not-so-Brilliant Processing<\/a>”.<\/p>\n\n

So, in the picture above, I manually<\/span> toned down the reds by painting\nnegative exposure in Lightroom. This traded off the unnatural solid\nblotchiness for some unnatural darkness, a trade<\/span>-off that seemed in this case to be the lesser\nof two evils. It's an HDR-like\nprocessing<\/a> that didn't result in an obvious unnatural “HDR look”.<\/p>\n\n

This next closeup shot may illustrate the problem better...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/8, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nCompletely Fake HDR<\/span>\n
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n\n\n1050×<\/span>1680<\/a>  ·  1200×<\/span>1920<\/a>  ·  1600×<\/span>2560<\/a><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Here's the original shot out of camera, with defaults in Lightroom except the white balance, which has been set from a separate<\/span> WhiBal shot...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/8, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nOut Of Camera Washout<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

In Lightroom, I lowered<\/span> the exposure and other develop settings enough\nso that the reds weren't clipped, so that they finally showed just a bit<\/span> of\nthe detail that was there a-plenty in real life, resulting in an image that\nwas dark except for the red leaves...<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/8, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nTamed Reds<\/span>\nat the expense of everything else\n<\/div>\n\n

This shows how much brighter the reds should<\/i> be compared to the rest of the image, but if I set<\/span> the exposure\nso that the rest is reasonable, the reds are pushed brighter than display technology currently allows. And so the<\/span> conundrum.<\/p>\n\n

Flattening the contrast so that both the reds and greens are “reasonable” on their own can make for an okay result (as I hope<\/span>\n“Completely Fake HDR” above is), but the completely unrealistic lack of red vividness is a limitation<\/span> that drives me nuts.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I took another walk in Fushimi yesterday (a south-east area of Kyoto), similar to that of my previous post (\"A Few Over-Process Under-Thought Photos From Lunch\"), but with nice weather. Red and orange seemed to be a theme.<\/p>

For the most part, cherry trees here in Japan don't bear fruit in a meaningful way (normally just small bitter fruits that are usually unnoticeable to begin with), but at the start of yesterday's walk I came across a real fruit-bearing cherry tree in front of someone's house, with a note \"Enjoy them once they become red\"...<\/p>

Sadly, they were not red, [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1,2,6,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}