ERIC KIM

How to See in Color

To see the world in color; a skill:

Basic ideas:

1. Juicy colors

  • Cindy red

First idea; look for very juicy colors. The juicer and deeper the color, the better.

2. Post-processing

To accentuate and exaggerate colors, post-processing is key. I have found that Lightroom CC (the new one) has very good algorithms to process colors to hyper-saturate the colors.

3. Texture and contrast

Also, we perceive colors most strongly when we see a contrast between colors. Colors don’t stand alone; they are always in comparison to something else.

4. Subtle colors

The colors don’t need to be extreme. The colors can be subtle; a pop of color in the midst of a lot of grey.

5. Traveling to colorful places.

For example, Mexico City as one of the most colorful places I’ve been to. It is true; the more colorful the place, the more inspiration you will find to shoot color.

6. Flash

  • girl on her phone flash
  • cindy hands flash Ricoh gr ii face covering
  • Tokyo flash, RICOH GR II. Escalator.
    Tokyo flash, RICOH GR II. Escalator.
  • Lips pink. Portra 400 flash, London.
    Lips pink. Portra 400 flash, London.
  • Sapa, 2019
    Sapa, 2019 #flash #ricohgrii
  • Street portrait, woman looking right. NYC, 2015. RICOH GR II x FLASH
    Street portrait, woman looking right. NYC, 2015. RICOH GR II x FLASH
  • walking woman kyoto flash Ricoh gr ii 28mm
  • Fishing technique. Flash Tokyo street photo, 2018 . Kurosawa
    Fishing technique. Flash Tokyo street photo, 2018
  • Out of focus street photo with flash, woman with clear umbrella. Tokyo, 2017
    Out of focus street photo with flash, woman with clear umbrella. Tokyo, 2017
  • Eric Rivera, street portrait with cigar. 1 meters, with flash, Leica M6, Kodak Portra 400, 35mm lens
    Eric Rivera, street portrait with cigar. 1 meters, with flash, Leica M6, Kodak Portra 400, 35mm lens
  • Eric kim Wells Fargo flash street photography nyc
  • Umbrella and flash in color. Kyoto, 2017
    Umbrella and flash in color. Kyoto, 2017. Ricoh GR II and flash, shot through clear umbrella.
  • Woman with pink leggings. Shot with flash with slow sync speed (1/15th second)
    Woman with pink leggings. Shot with flash with slow sync speed (1/15th second)
  • Selfie through broken glass with flash.
    Selfie through broken glass with flash.
  • Construction site man, with flash. Shibuya, Tokyo 2017
    Construction site man, with flash. Shibuya, Tokyo 2017. Note how the flash responds to the reflective material on his vest.
  • Stylish woman outside of department store. Kyoto, 2017.
    Stylish woman outside of department store. Kyoto, 2017. RICOH GR II with P mode and flash. Blue jacket, yellow lights.

Shooting with a flash will hyper-saturate the colors. If you see something colorful, make sure to also shoot it with flash.

7. JPEG

I also am in praise of JPEG; especially when shooting with vibrant JPEG setting filters. Why? Camera companies spend millions of dollars in R&D (research and development) to make their cameras optimized for JPEG. To fiddle around too much in RAW seems like wasted energy to me.

On the Fujifilm cameras, their color JPEG filter presets are fantastic. Ricoh GR II is great in positive film JPEG preset, and I really like the cross process filter on RICOH GR III.

  • Cindy red