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These
"favorite children"
are actually twins! They illustrate what I love about hand coloring
photographs. You can create your own mood, or even a different
season. The first photo (Golden
Triangle Spring) was taken on the same morning as the
second one (Golden
Triangle Fall). Here we see Pittsburgh's Gateway Center
building complex (part of the downtown area known as the "Golden
Triangle" where the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers
meet to form the Ohio) on a June morning of lush trees and beautiful
blooming bushes, just before a drenching downpour. The other photo
was taken from a parking garage, looking down on the same trees,
after the rain abated. This time, the feeling is autumnal, with
a shaft of afternoon sunlight reflected on the aluminum "skin"
of one building. Some hand colorists like to take Polaroid photos
in addition to shooting their black and white film. By doing this,
they can check the actual colors in a composition and then recreate
them when painting their prints. I prefer to utilize the tones
from black to all the various grays to white but
change the colors as needed to communicate a particular emotion
in the finished piece. I can even turn a rainy day into a sunny
one as the second photo shows! I dub these fraternal twin prints
"Golden
Triangle Spring" and "Golden
Triangle Fall." And who's to tell me otherwise? |