These days everybody is doing instagram, hipstamatic or other kinds of textures and filters. I am a lover of plain, personal photography and I dread a future were everything look “the same”, because we are using the same programs to transform our photos. At the same time I am a bit curious. So I downloaded a free version of a program called onOne. And now I have transformed three of my photos using preset filters from them, trying to give the photos some patina the easy way.
The photos is from a wonderful dance performance I saw last week. It was performed with 24 ladies from 65 to 87 years, and one young girl. There are more photos from the performance Patina, in my web gallery. These photos are originals, not transformed.
Bente Haarstad Photography 
“Patina” – an excellent project!
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Patina_35 is very very powerful.
And I like patina_17 as well in your gallery.
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I have the OnOne software too! have fun with it!
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Three very different moods, each of which tells the story so well!
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These are nice, but like yourself, I’m more of a purist. Quite honestly I think instagram and various iPhone filters will have a fairly short shelf life, with those users moving on the the next trendy thing. And meanwhile, ‘true’ more classic styles will prevail. 🙂
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i am one who rarely manipulates an image, though my focus has always been about recording subjects that interest me for my own enjoyment or for reference photos for my art. i love what you did with the experimental image, and i love the rest of the images – and the story of the ladies as well.
thanks so much! z
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One observation . . . the lighting on the original make it look like thy have been “touched up” as well.
Movies, paintings, and even photographs, are never “really” like they are in real life; typically artists adjust them to what they saw in their minds, visualized, or remember.
What we are referring to is then degrees of “visualization”.
That said, while I prefer photo-realism as well, I adjust saturation, sharpen, and compose the photos to be visually pleasing to my eye. But, additionally, there are certain “looks” that suit particular settings and subjects. That means I don’t process every photo the same, and I play with mood just like the people lighting the stage did with the choice of lighting to showcase the ladies and their garbs.
Finally, some of those onOne or DxO, or Topaz Suite, or Dream Suite, or HDR Express, or even the filters within Photoshop can occasionally push our creativeness onto a different path. I find those side trips rewarding, even as I return to my tried and true.
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I wish I could have seen that performance. I think experimenting with some digital manipulation can make our photos more expressive of what we want to communicate, but I also don’t want my photos to be a copy of others. We must strive to stay authentic to ourselves. I love what you are doing here.
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I honestly found out that instagram and some other programs enable phone pictures with interesting resolution. Normally pics taken with phones are not so good. On the other side a good photographer with a proper camera makes a whole world of difference!
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I like both versions. I especially like the one in your gallery with the shoes lined up in front of the women. It looks like it was a fun show. No harm in using both original and edited versions. Variety :-).
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I prefer your original photos and I just love that group of ladies.
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I enjoyed these photos a lot. I read the comments from other photographers who defended more or less the use of photoshopping their pictures. However, I am not a pro photographer but I do know a bit about what makes for a good photo. I consider my photos a bit above average using the poor quality lens that I must at this time use due to lack of funds. But I strayed a bit from what you wrote. I don’t use photoshop althoug it is on my computer. (I have used the sepia and black and white some) I think there is a time and a place to make some things average, stand out a bit more. But to use a great deal of manipulation to change the scene sort of takes away from what the photographer was actually able to see and do with what was at hand. Sharping a photo is good, however, I don’t even to that. I just use what my crummy lens produces.
After so much altering, it is no longer a picture that you captured- Iphone or photoshopping. Too much change is not a good thing. My humble opinion which might not count for much. **smile**
I liked these photos a lot. Very nice. Lovely ladies to be confident enough with growing older and to go out and dance in a nightgown. Impressive.
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I might humbly point out that whatever camera you use, or even if you use film, and have it developed, your photos do go through a process of manipulation.
If you have not altered the settings on your camera, it will have sharpened the photos on its own. If you have not changed the algorithm, the camera will add contrast, saturation, and punch-up the photo based on whatever program the factory loaded on your brand of camera (that process varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and from camera to camera, just as it did from film to film).
If you want the “actual” photo, what your eyes see, the closest you can come is shooting “Raw”, with all the bells and whistle turned down to minimum (can’t switch them off that I know of).
Even then, what your eyes see is manipulated by your brain.
Tastes and preferences differ, but you should be at least aware that it is very unlikely you are capturing what your eyes see. For one thing, cameras capture color casts that the brain automatically adjust to make objects appear “natural”. That’s why photos taken in natural light differ so much from those taken indoor under incandescent lighting (the strong yellow or orange cast to indoor photos).
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Such an interesting ballet that you went to enjoy. Truly it shows that age only makes one better. I also downloaded the onOne presets for lightroom and have had a lot of fun playing with them. You did a wonderful job selecting the filters for these images. It really makes these photos special.
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onOne is really good, I highly recommend them… the idea is to apply the effects selectively and with taste! I watched a couple of their online video (they call it onOne University) and it will give you good ideas on how to enhance your images.
And BTW, I agree with you about the instagram thing… all the pics are starting to look the same!! 🙂
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The photos were excellent but it left me feeling sad.
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I think the originals are much better, instagram gives a in my opinion a fake sense of nostalgia. Instagram is a kind of yesterday’s news and in most cases( not yours) is masking the unability to make really good and appealing picture. Thanks for sharing and openness
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Sometimes it’s fun to use such filters or so. But I like your originals better. Nevertheless I have to say that the third photo in this post is very good. That filter is cool. It must have been a great event. I don’t know why but these ladies reminds me of the cool Performance Group “The Hungry Hearts” even if they are much younger. 🙂
Ha en kjempefin dag! 😀
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I don’t like instagram , HDR and others like this.
I think photographers who use too much this are not real photogrpaher, but retouchers
In french : Je n’aime pas les personnes qui utilisent de trop les logiciels comme instagram, hdr ou autres de ce genre. Ils ne peuvent pas se dire photographes. Je les considère alors uniquement comme des retoucheurs. Souvent, c’est la retouche qui rend leur image plus jolie et si ils la publiaient naturellement, leur image paraitrait bien fade ou mauvaise. Je ne généralise pas non plus car il y a des retoucheurs qui prennent de belles images.
Sometimes using filters or others is great for see our picture in various thème. Only sometimes 😀
ps : Sory for my very bad english 😀
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I love real photography as well, not a fan of using filters and shades to alter original photos, unless they turned out really bad, but still, nothing beats the real thing.
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The photos are lovely and the second one in particular works very well, but like you, I like ordinary plain old photography. Sepia and B & W are about my only other loves.
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I find this so different, yet elegant and real all at the same time. Love it 🙂
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I’m in love the go-stop undulating rhythm of rhapsody in your photographs ~ Blessings friend
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Such kind of photographs I´ve never seen yet. They are strangely touching.
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This is great of this lady’s and nice filters.
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What a lovely performance. You have captured it beautifully.
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VERY INTERESTING STUFF!!! MAYBE OVER THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS YOU WILL TRY SOME OTHER EXPERIMENTS. HAVE A GOOD CHRISTMAS!!! MARI
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Forget the photography manipulation or otherwise I just love the women. Great to see older women in a dance piece, so rarely seen – dance, after all is about life and we all get older! Thanks for visiting cowgirl, please come again!
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