Interesting Photo of the Day: Parachutist at High Altitude

Interesting Photos

If you like moody sepia tones, then you’re totally going to fall for this skydiving selfie (pun very much intended), which was posted by timothy53:

“Sky Diving Selfie” by timothy53 (Via Imgur. Click image to see full size.)

The so labeled “skydiver” in the image is actually a member of Go-Parachuting, a company that provides military parachute systems testing and training for the French special forces.

There is some discord about whether or not the image depicts a high-altitude (HAHO) or low-altitude jump (HALO), and still others debated about whether the sepia tone filter ruins or enhances the shot, but there’s one thing that all parties seemed to agree on—the sepia preset and the parachuter’s gear make the shot look like something right out of a Halo game.

Some online viewers appreciated this effect, but many expressed their distaste for the editing choice. Users brought up some really interesting points supporting both sides, but before we list some of them, take a look at the original image, which was posted by exoomer:

Unedited version

Those who supported the poster’s decision to apply a sepia photo filter to the image largely seemed to prefer the yellow-tinged image for its epic emotional affect. “Changing it to sepia at terminal velocity. B to the A.” wrote one Reddit user, while others described the filter as “dramatic” and said that the yellow tones made them feel like the scene was taking place on the planet Venus.

Negative-leaning viewers stated that the filter distracted from the skydiver and his amazing feat and that only amateur photographers and “art students” use one-click presets at all.

Still, some users expressed more balanced viewpoints, such as skraptastic, who wrote that “There is really nothing wrong with [using sepia filters] if you are going for an old timey feel, but there are really very few times it is ok.” We tend to favor these types of grounded perspectives that encourage pioneering creativity but also reward solid executions of tried-and-true shooting and editing methods.

Where do you stand in the photo filter discussion, and which version of the skydiving selfie do you prefer? Let us know in the comments!