Hello! I'm Ochiai, and I handle the design work here.

This time I'd like to talk about "memory colors."

Have you ever heard the term "memory color"?
As the words suggest, it refers to "color as we remember it." Those into photography may already know about it, but let me explain with a few examples.

A commonly cited example is the blue sky.

You take a photo of the sky, and when you check it later you think, "This looks different from what I had in mind."
That sense of discomfort arises from the difference between the actual color and the color you remember.

The blue sky in this photo looks beautiful, and it just feels right. But the real sky isn't this vivid. People remember colors as being more vivid than they actually are.

These remembered colors, which differ from the actual ones, are called "memory colors."

The season when cherry blossoms start to bloom here and there has arrived.
Most cherry trees in Japan are Somei-Yoshino, and we tend to picture them as a lovely pink, but in reality their color is a pink that is very nearly white.
Next time you're out, do pick up a cherry petal and take a look. You may really feel the difference from your memory color!

Another well-known example is skin tone. Even though we see it every day, we apparently remember it shifted toward the color we personally find pleasing, rather than the actual skin color.

These days digital cameras are the norm, and photos are often edited afterward.
When you see a beautiful photo, you may think, "It's just been edited, right?" But if you use the actual colors as they are, the image basically looks dull and feels somehow off.
It's rather curious that true-to-life colors should feel unnatural, but by bringing them closer to the colors in our memory, we can preserve a scene as a photo that looks natural.

Some recent cameras apparently even correct colors automatically at the moment of shooting to bring them closer to memory colors.

Raising the saturation doesn't automatically make a photo beautiful, but knowing that there's a difference between actual colors and remembered colors may come in handy someday! (Here's hoping!)
So that was a story about memory colors, something I learned while studying photography.
This is a photo taken at Yusanji Temple in Fukuroi, and when I raised the saturation it just felt right. It's that feeling of "Yes, this is what autumn leaves should look like!"...

I can't deny the feeling that my writing skills aren't quite up to conveying what I want to say, but I hope to level up my writing as well as my design studies so I can write better articles!!!