Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you’ll be free if you truly wish to be.”—Willy Wonka
“Pure Imagination” is one of my favorite songs that is featured in the 1971 movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. The song was written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley specifically for the movie and was sung by Gene Wilder in the movie. Musical Trivia: The intro of the song, which also is the musical code used for entering the Chocolate Room when it’s played by Willy Wonka, happens to be the introduction of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro.”
Today’s featured photograph was shot at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas and reminds me of a scene from the original, Gene Wilder version of Willie Wonka. The original image file was captured using a 10-megapixel Olympus XZ-1 camera (it has a fast 24mm f/1.8 lens) and was kinda murky.
To punch up the color in the original image, I used the Detail Extractor filter that’s part of the Color Efex plug-in. It has a simple interface containing three sliders: Detail Extractor, Contrast, and Saturation. Shadows and highlights can be manipulated using the software’s Control Point technology that’s part of every filter that’s found in Color Efex.
Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography with new copies paperback available from Amazon for $8.83tp $100—don’t ask me, I don’t know why. with used copies available for giveaway prices, starting around five bucks, as I write this.