Orange Beer

“What is wrong with your beer?” he said. “It’s orange!”

And I thought: yes, indeed, why?  I mean, beer is usually a yellowish brown.  But then I remembered: brown and orange are really in the same family of colors – only brown is darker.  Try it: choose a nice brown color in photoshop.  Now drop on a curves layer and brighten it. As it brightens, you’ll see it go in stages from brown, to light brownish, to an orangish, to a yellow.  Mess with it a little more (darken the shadows), and you’ll get a true orange – even red, if you take it far enough.

When photographing beer, if the strobe hits the bottle dead on (in this case from beneath), it’ll light it up – essentially lightening up the browns in the beer.  In beer the browns are already warm & on the orange side, so it lightens them up – to a full orange.

The photo to the right/top of this post is the exact photo that started this.  Note the hues of the oranges – the closer to the light source, the more yellowish it is – the higher up, the darker – until the neck of the bottle draws light in to itself again.

• Yousef Karsh on Audrey Hepburn

There are several things about this photo.  First, it is much, much better in print.  It’s larger, there are better details, and it’s much more impressive. I believe that this is true of all of Karsh’s work.  See it in print, or you lose much of the intent.

Now, the subject is Audrey Hepburn.  Ms Hepburn is, of course, one of the most beautiful creatures to have lived on this planet.  But she was much more than that, even in 1956.  Go ahead, read the Wikipedia article on her.  It’s worth it.  When Karsh was doing her portrait, he captured a great deal of the suffering and sadness that went with her.  He also captured her elegance and her subtle strength.

This image is on the back cover of Regarding Heroes.  Again, highly recommended.

I have now re-watched it several times.  What do I like about it? Well, there’s definitely a European feel to it, although that likely comes from the Techno.  It’s not heresy, but it looks like it on the surface – it requires some deeper thought to get it.  It’s cool, but positive.  There’s a bit of subversiveness in it.  It ties in to raves and drugs.  It explores being reborn.  Graphically, it’s slick, smooth, with strong colors.  Movement is fast, implied, but stops long enough for the impression to sink in.  Jesus2000 with his followers is a great (but busy, by necessity) composition in any medium.

Just something to watch and absorb.  Enjoy!