Will the world end if I post a colour digital photograph on Photosensitive? I hope not. In keeping with my desire (see the last post) to improve my eye for colour, here’s a picture of the rusty old car (featured several times on this site) permanently parked down the street from our place. I did a bit of post-processing on this image to give something of the flavour of cross-processed colour slide film.

On a compositional note, I once borrowed “Image” by Michael Freeman from the public library. (Sadly, it seems to be out of print.) In it he discusses the elements of composition and the appropriate use of colour. He spends a lot of time talking about the use of red as an attracting element — the eye is drawn to even small patches of red in any composition. Does that happen here?

Aside from some well-corrected nearsightedness, my vision is good. Why is it, then, that I’m almost unable to “see” photographically in colour? Though I enjoy taking colour photos, and it’s a simple process to convert a colour image into tonally rich B&W in Photoshop, I often find myself up against something of an internal mental block when I know I’m taking colour originals (digital or film). When I try to “think in colour”, my compositions become weaker and I avoid taking photographic risks.

I really enjoy colour photography, so the only possible reason I can see for my personal photographic colourblindness is simple habit: my “formative years” in photography were spent taking B&W film images, and that means that I still instinctively reach for a film camera when I want to take meaningful pictures.

How can I learn — or force myself — to take the same chances with my colour photography as I do in B&W?