I reject reality!

We applaud Artists whose vision escapes reality and allows them to re-create on canvas what they see in their mind's eye, so why should we limit our photography to accurate reproductions of reality. Do you remember sitting on the shores of Lake Michigan watching a sunset with that favorite girl when you were a teenager? Carefully consider that image in your mind - were those grey clouds with a tinge of red orange and blue above a lake of grey-blue water, or do those colors burn with the flames of your romance and your thoughts of that night.

When we do a still life of a bowl of fruit, will we settle for that weak orange color of a Valencia orange, the thin red and green color of an apple, or do we saturate those images to increase the saliva flows and the desire to reach into that photograph and grab that fruit.

Study the B&W photographs of the depression and dust bowl eras, study how the photographers added noise and contrast to their images to convey the ultimate hardship of these people's condition. Should we not use saturation the same way.

My goal is never to reproduce reality, but to induce emotions, and saturation is but one tool available to produce that image.

I reject reality!

We applaud Artists whose vision escapes reality and allows them to re-create on canvas what they see in their mind's eye, so why should we limit our photography to accurate reproductions of reality. Do you remember sitting on the shores of Lake Michigan watching a sunset with that favorite girl when you were a teenager? Carefully consider that image in your mind - were those grey clouds with a tinge of red orange and blue above a lake of grey-blue water, or do those colors burn with the flames of your romance and your thoughts of that night.

When we do a still life of a bowl of fruit, will we settle for that weak orange color of a Valencia orange, the thin red and green color of an apple, or do we saturate those images to increase the saliva flows and the desire to reach into that photograph and grab that fruit.

Study the B&W photographs of the depression and dust bowl eras, study how the photographers added noise and contrast to their images to convey the ultimate hardship of these people's condition. Should we not use saturation the same way.

My goal is never to reproduce reality, but to induce emotions, and saturation is but one tool available to produce that image.

I reject reality!

We applaud Artists whose vision escapes reality and allows them to re-create on canvas what they see in their mind's eye, so why should we limit our photography to accurate reproductions of reality. Do you remember sitting on the shores of Lake Michigan watching a sunset with that favorite girl when you were a teenager? Carefully consider that image in your mind - were those grey clouds with a tinge of red orange and blue above a lake of grey-blue water, or do those colors burn with the flames of your romance and your thoughts of that night.

When we do a still life of a bowl of fruit, will we settle for that weak orange color of a Valencia orange, the thin red and green color of an apple, or do we saturate those images to increase the saliva flows and the desire to reach into that photograph and grab that fruit.

Study the B&W photographs of the depression and dust bowl eras, study how the photographers added noise and contrast to their images to convey the ultimate hardship of these people's condition. Should we not use saturation the same way.

My goal is never to reproduce reality, but to induce emotions, and saturation is but one tool available to produce that image.

I reject reality!

We applaud Artists whose vision escapes reality and allows them to re-create on canvas what they see in their mind's eye, so why should we limit our photography to accurate reproductions of reality. Do you remember sitting on the shores of Lake Michigan watching a sunset with that favorite girl when you were a teenager? Carefully consider that image in your mind - were those grey clouds with a tinge of red orange and blue above a lake of grey-blue water, or do those colors burn with the flames of your romance and your thoughts of that night.

When we do a still life of a bowl of fruit, will we settle for that weak orange color of a Valencia orange, the thin red and green color of an apple, or do we saturate those images to increase the saliva flows and the desire to reach into that photograph and grab that fruit.

Study the B&W photographs of the depression and dust bowl eras, study how the photographers added noise and contrast to their images to convey the ultimate hardship of these people's condition. Should we not use saturation the same way.

My goal is never to reproduce reality, but to induce emotions, and saturation is but one tool available to produce that image.

Well said, SS319! While I don't use saturation too much, I think it's a great tool available in the photographer's quiver.

If you're trying to evoke an emotion, colors do that very well. One only has to look at Van Gogh's "Starry Night." The intensity of colors in that painting is something we know that didn't actually occur in that night sky, but it's what was in Van Gogh's (troubled?) mind that he conveyed to the viewer. I had the good fortune to visit the Museum of Modern Art, in NYC. Matisse, Van Gogh, and others used "over-saturation" incredibly effectively! Even though Picasso's "Three Musicians" was on an adjacent wall, "Starry Night" drew viewers to it like moths to a flame. Of course, many wanted to just take a snapshot of it, but many others, myself included, just stared at it, getting lost in the emotion of the scene. Incredibly effective use of "over-saturation", in my opinion.