photo: jackie theriot
I've been going through my parents' photo albums, peeling off old photographs.
After I've scanned each photograph the first thing I do in Photoshop is AUTOCOLOR the image. Very often this has the effect of bringing new life to the photograph. The too-reddish or too-greenish prints blossom into more realistic tones on the screen, closer to what the world actually looked like back then. Yet these AUTOCOLORed images can seem inauthentic.
For example, in my mind, 1973 is a golden year. Every photograph from that year is sunny and green. When I AUTOCOLOR it, sure, the image acquires a more accurate palette, but it's like the 1973-ness has been completely stripped away.
I know the world wasn't more golden in 1973. I know it's just the film casting a nostalgic glow. Still, I prefer to keep the year in my mind that way, falsely authentic, so I undo the AUTOCOLOR function, making it unrealistic again. Some things are better too yellowish.