Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Over Enhanced Skin Tones Mar Winter Olympic Coverage

Watching the Winter Olympics tonight I noticed how the new technology of HD worked for and against the event. The depth of color and detail made the skaters look like I was watching them through a window not a TV. That was great, Then they cut to the panel of experts and things went south.

Apparently these on-camera folks learned about the "skin tone detail adjustment" that is available in modern HD cameras. This feature is actually the camera recognizing skin tones and softening them to eleminate the details that might be more obvious in HD. For example pits and blemishes, thought small will show up. So, I suspect the on-camera talent insisted that the technical folks turn this control to the max to smooth out their skin and eliminate any wrinkles or imperfections. What you get is a smooth almost plastic look. It was like watching "pod people' rather than humans.

Scott Hamilton is in his 50's but his face looked like a pink blob, only eyes, nose and mouth breaking the uninterrupted smoothness. Oh come one folks, you look like mummies not people. Live with your wrinbkles and stop trying to use technology to mask the fact that you are aging. Big deal, we all age, it's what experience and life is about!

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