Camera charts out of context

This image is one in a very odd series of photos. Well, odd if you're not familiar with video production. These photos are actually entries in a contest sponsored by the makers of color bars, gray scales, and other charts used to calibrate digital cameras. My friend Chris Courtney sent me a link to the contest because he's entered with this photo of his wife Nicole. Out of context though, the "Charts In Action 2009" page looks, as I said, rather odd.
Charts In Action Contest 2009

[#1 posted by katkins , March 30, 2009 12:36 PM]

Bad title, I think. Why are these charts "out of context"? They're always in context when you shoot some color reference shots?

[#2 posted by David Pescovitz , March 30, 2009 12:44 PM]

Good point. Hmmm...

I was trying to get across that for someone who wasn't entirely sure what those are, seeing a series of photos of folks holding them in myriad locations with no explanation elicits a bit of a WTF reaction.

[#3 posted by Anonymous , March 30, 2009 1:07 PM]

It's an unusual picture for a scene using a color chart.
Sadly, it's an extremely common example of turning 'local contrast enhancement' up to 11, as is so popular lately.
Notice the magical halos around everything?
Last time I checked, the Eiffel tower does not glow.

[#4 posted by arkizzle , March 30, 2009 1:22 PM]

The charts are in context, but the photos are not.

The photos are a kind of meta-photo, intended to inform the process but not be part of the set. So, stripped of their meta-use, and viewed as pictures in their own right, they are 'out of context'.

Ta Da! :)

[#5 posted by Takuan , March 30, 2009 1:31 PM]

gee, most of the time all you can see on film or tape is the chart itself.

[#6 posted by ChuxMix , March 30, 2009 1:36 PM]

You want color cards?
Check these out...
http://www.flickr.com/groups/colorchecker/pool/

[#7 posted by Alex_M , March 30, 2009 1:52 PM]

Chuxmix: Yeah, actually I do. Strangely, I can't find any for sale. (yes of course I asked at the photo store..)

Guess I need to find a more professional photo shop.

[#8 posted by ian_b , March 30, 2009 2:10 PM]

would be cool to see some kind of "eye of judgement" technology used to superimpose stuff on the cards

[#9 posted by Roy Trumbull , March 30, 2009 2:24 PM]

In the early HDTV days before a system had been defined there were tests of video compression using standard video. One of the best tests had an elegant period limo in the foreground and an English house with a pointed metal fence around the perimeter. As the limo drove slowly past it was strange to see what happened to the fence at different compression ratios.

[#10 posted by seanboing , March 30, 2009 2:57 PM]

some of these look photoshopped.

[#11 posted by tubgull , March 30, 2009 3:13 PM]

@#10 Yeah. I was noticing that too. Are people photoshopping the company's chart into photos they took using other charts?

[#12 posted by Anonymous , March 30, 2009 3:31 PM]

Missing something here:

"This image is one a very odd series of photos"

[#13 posted by arkizzle , March 30, 2009 4:13 PM]

Yeah, I think he accidently a word out.

[#14 posted by Antinous / Moderator , March 30, 2009 4:25 PM]

Um, Ark, there's a goatse on that page.

[#15 posted by arkizzle , March 30, 2009 6:39 PM]

Oh.. :(

*ahem*
NSFW?

[#16 posted by Dedalus , March 30, 2009 9:37 PM]

this post is gonna end up making me go out and spend a couple 100 on vid equiptment i dont need....

[#17 posted by beneditor , March 31, 2009 4:43 AM]

Proving that whatever the contest, it's a chick on a bike FTW...

[#18 posted by Dedalus , March 31, 2009 4:48 AM]

im dumb - what's FTW?

[#19 posted by arkizzle , March 31, 2009 5:36 AM]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ftw

[#20 posted by Anonymous , March 31, 2009 2:04 PM]

The picture of the guy with it right in front of his face is not a colour chart but a focus chart. They should know that.