Colour: Project - Colour relationships

Exercise: Colour relationships

Aim:  This exercise is in two parts.  Firstly three images expressing the primary colours with their complementary  secondary colours using the specific ratios suggested by Von Goethe and secondly three images of alternative colour combinations that appeal with an explanation of why.

Approach and results:

I found that my attraction to colour was not always down to the colour itself.  In previous ‘points’ exercises it has been necessary to view the shots in black and white to ensure that the colour was not influencing the points in the frame.  I found the reverse in this exercise; I had to dismiss the object and think about the colour.  So a blossom tree that looked spectacular because of it's scale was not necessarily a good subject when you just think about the colour.

Red:Green - ratio 1:1.  This shot was side lit to avoid any shadows and to keep the red background from reflecting the flash.  The red has varying tones that follow the same lines as the leaf.  The green has the greatest tonal range giving the leaf more depth and making it stand out more.  The ratio of 1:1 only works if the colours are of the same brightness but also the subject influences how the eye sees the picture.  In this picture the red is the background and not a specific object vying for dominance with the leaf.   

Orange:Blue - ratio 1:2.  This shot was taken early afternoon when the light was fairly neutral.  I would normally have taken the roof line further up to the corner but this would have changed the colour ratios giving me too much blue.  I like the bold blocks of colour and simple lines.  Again there is a range of tones from the softer blue sky through to the deep blue of the shadows on the wall and the more vivid orange of the door.

Yellow:Violet - ratio 1:3.  Finding violet and yellow was quite a difficult task.  It is not a popular combination in the urban environment.  I created this shot by picking the yellow flower and placing it in the shot whilst trying to keep it looking natural.  I feel that nature makes a better job of violet and yellow combinations that don't appear as pleasing or complimentary in the urban environment.

Green:Orange - ratio 4:1.  These colours are offset on the colour wheel and are therefore not obviously complimentary.  The orange is brighter and stronger than the green and provides a series of points of interest, drawing the attention of the eye.  It is definately the colour that makes this image.  If you picture it in black and white it becomes a collection of flowers and leaves that makes the viewer wonder why the shot was taken. 

Red:Orange - ratio 5:1.  There are many shades of red in this image so judging the ratio is not so easy.  These colours are next to each other on the colour wheel and both on the 'warm' side.  This creates a rich, warm, almost glowing image.

Violet:Red - 2:1.  These colours are next to each other on the colour wheel but fall on different sides, warm (red) and cool (violet).  The red is bright and vibrant so I chose to make it smaller.  The violet would have been overpowered and insignificant otherwise.  The overall result is still a warm image as the firey red is enhanced by the rich violet.

Learning points:  I find the 'supposed' complimentary colour combinations less interesting or appealing than those that create a warm or cool image.  I also prefer the offset combinations that create tension in an image.

It is important to take into account the significance of the subject when identifying colour; is it the colour or the subject that attracts?  I was completing this exercise whilst blossom trees were out but if the same colours were shown to me in say a handful of sweets would I be drawn to them in the same way? – I doubt it!
The ratios are a guideline and only work for the average brightness.  A very dark green against a bright red would not warrant a 1:1 ratio.
The colour reproduction on the blog is, as ever, not faithful.

Colour: Project - Building a library of colours

Exercise: Primary and secondary colours

Aim:  The aim of this exercise is to take images dominated by a single colour from the colour wheel, vary the exposure (over and under) and then select which is the closest match to the colour wheel.

Approach and results:

The exercise suggests changing the aperture to get the different over/under exposure.  When taking pictures where a colour fills the frame you are usually close or zooming in.  Either way you will generally have a fairly shallow depth of field.  Altering the aperture rather than the shutter has a more noticeable effect on the image.  I altered the shutter for the violet pansies as I was so close that the depth of field would be lost.  I was working with a shallow depth of field anyway as I needed to capture the flowers without motion blur created by the breeze.

Metering – the evaluative meter is ok if the colour fills the frame.  If the colour fills part or even the majority then the spot meter is better, especially if the other elements in the frame are of a distinct difference in brightness as the evaluative metering starts to compensate.  The orange tulips are an example of this.

 The results varied due to the metering on the camera and shrinking the images for the blog has made many of them look the same.  My preferences are as follows;

Yellow - overexposed.  This was closest to the real thing.  The large area of yellow (naturally bright) has caused the camera to underexpose.
Orange - correct exposure.  Over exposure produced false colour.  Under exposure lost the original brightness.
Violet - Underexposed - To keep the depth of colour the underexposed shot was most accurate.
Red - Overexposed.  Here the camera has compensated for the bright tomatoes and bright background by under exposing.
Green - Correct exposure.  A wide range of greens and more varied brightness has resulted in an even exposure.
Blue - Underexposed.  As a transparent subject with quite a lot of white reflections this looked more accurate underexposing, keeping the depth of colour.

The main learning point is that the brightness of the colour determines how the scene is metered and this needs to be taken into acount when taking the final shot.  I have experienced this when shooting in woodland and finding the camera wants to brighten the scene all the time.  I generallt need to underexpose to recreate darker scenes.

Interestingly it is the brighter colours from the colour wheel that benefitted more from overexposing to maintain the brightness and the darker colours that benefitted more from under exposing to keep the original depth of colour.

Colour: Project - Colour relationships

Exercise: Colours into tones in black and white

Aim: The aim of this exercise is to show how black and white tones can be controlled by the use of coloured filters.

Approach and results:

I chose to use jpeg images in Photoshop so that I could alter the colour sliders or select the preset filter options.  Having ‘played’ with the sliders I then chose to use the set filters for the exercise as these presumably represent existing filter standards?  It is interesting to note that in replicating the filters, Photoshop did not just boost the chosen colour.  Taking blue as an example, reds, greens and yellows were reduced whilst cyans, blues and magentas were raised.  I expected some levels to be reduced in compensation but wasn’t sure which ones.  It would be an interesting comparison to do the exercise with the camera set to black and white with coloured filters on it.

I spot metered on the grey card and lit the still life with a single wireless flash and softbox.  As this was a technical exercise I didn’t spend too much time on composition, choosing to concentrate on the colour.  However, I chose flash as my test shots using daylight were dull, rather flat and unevenly lit.  Flash gave even lighting, vivid colour and depth.

The web images below are not entirely representative of the results.  They are all darker than the originals.  This is something I find continually when using the blogging software.

The most dramatic effect was made using the blue filter.  Applying the blue filter made the blue towel much brighter but turned everything else almost black.  I'm assuming the reason for this is that there is no blue in any of the other objects.  The other filters are not as dramatic because the objects contain a range of overlapping colours and shades.  There was very little difference between the red and yellow filters.  Yellow made the red pepper and the flowers slightly brighter than the red filter.  The green filter brought the brightness of the green pepper closer to that of the red pepper giving it equal emphasis in the frame.

Altering colours using Photoshop in the past I have found any particular colour can have a range of other colours that are not obviously visible.  For example there is usually a lot of yellow in a green landscape so adjusting green does not have as dramatic an effect as adjusting yellow.

The grey card remained consistant except for the blue filter.  There is an element of blue making up the grey in the image.  I zoomed in to pixel level on the grey card and there are faint hints of blue that will have been affected by the filter.



Original





Default





Blue filter





Green filter





Red filter




Yellow filter



Learning points:

It was useful to note what changes Photoshop used as defaults for different filters.

It was also useful to learn how I could control the tones of any of the colours in the image altering the viewers focus on the different objects in the frame.

You can narrow the bands of colour controlled by the sliders in Photoshop if you wish to be very specific e.g. raising the orange slider can affect the red and yellow depending on how close they are to the orange.

Colour: Project - What makes a colour

Exercise: Control the strength of colour

Aim:  The aim of this exercise  is to discover the effect on colour from altering exposure. 

Approach and results:

I chose to use an old phone box for this exercise.  All these shots were from the same position with similar light.  This cannot be guaranteed despite taken the pictures as quickly as I could as the cloud cover was continually changing.  All shots were at 1/400th of a second.  The apertures were f3.2, f3.5, f4.0, f4.5, f5.6; f4.0 being the original camera meter reading.  I spot metered on the red to ensure that this was accurate.  The 1/2 stop under exposed shot is not only stronger in colour but, to my mind, a more accurate coluor representation.  The more overexposed shots start to become 'red/orange' rather than red.

 

Learning points:

This exercise was not as simple to complete as first though due to the changing conditions.  The first 3 pictures look very similar but the full size jpgs do not.  Shrinking for the web has not helped any differences stand out.

Slightly underexposing strengthens colour in an image whilst giving an accurate representation of that colour.  Large areas of a single colour can confuse the camera's meter.

Elements of Design: Project - Rhythm and Pattern

Exercise: Rhythm and Pattern

Aim:  The aim of this exercise is to produce two photographs; one conveying rhythm and one conveying pattern.

Approach and results.  For 'pattern' I wanted to show the repetition of a particular shape.  I chose the tiled rooftop of the holiday home we were staying in at the time.  I filled the frame with the tiles, making the pattern borderless and endless to the eye.  I chose to use black and white to enhance the pattern by taking away any colour variation (not that there was much).  I also tried to crop the image as symetrically as I could to make the pattern look as even as possible and waited until the light was at an angle to bring out the pattern.



Pattern

For 'rhythm' I chose this line of pegs across a balcony in the town we were staying.  I wanted the progression across the frame to be more than just a line.  The pegs move from top to bottom and from orange to brown to blue.  They remind me of notes moving across a page of music.  The brown merges with the background leaving an orange/blue compenentary colour combination.
 

Rhythm

 Learning points:
It is important to fill the frame with a pattern so that the pattern continues on in the viewers head.
For rhythm it is important to capture some progression and not just repetition.  It is not just shapes that can create the rhythm but also colour.

Elements of design: Project - shapes

Exercise: Real and implied triangles.

Aim:  The aim of this exercise is to create two sets of images; the first 'real' triangles and the second 'implied' triangles.

Approach and results:

This first set of 3 images are of real triangles i.e. they have real edges that form a triangle.  This first image is an actual triangle.  The frames of the windows in this building are triangular creating an increasingly large triangle as you include more windows.

F13  1/125 sec  ISO200

This second image is a triangle by perspective.  The railway track is straight but the angle of the camera creates the triangle.  There is direction and movement as the track dissappears into the distant tunnel.  This is also backed up by the viewers knowledge that a railway track suggests travel and direction.

F5  1/25 sec  ISO200

This third image is also a triangle by perspective as the beams on the roof converge in the distance with the cross beams forming a series of traingles.  There are other considerations in this image; the pillars and lights make this image less 'clean' than the previous one.  The previous image is simpler and the traingle more obvious and stronger.

F6.3  1/80 sec  ISO800

 This second set of images is of implied triangles i.e. traingles that are made by the eye.  The first two are quite obvious triangular still lifes using similarly sized tea light holders.  The diference being the second image is an inverted traingle.  They both create very structured still lifes but in this case I think that the inverted triangle is more effective as it places a single object at the front of the image creating a hierarchy or order in which to view the image.

F20  1/60 sec  ISO200

F20  1/60 sec  ISO200

This third image is of a wine tasting event.  The vinyard owner with his animated explanation and gestures, the customer taking in the bouquet and the restaurant owner listening intently behind.  There is a structure and order to the image that tells the story of the event.

F4.5  1/15 sec  ISO800

Learning points:

Real and implied triangles can be used in images to create structure and direction.  They create order within the image and also an order in which to view the image.

Elements of design: Project - Using lines in composition

Exercise: Implied lines

Aim:  The aim of this exercise is to identify and create implied lines in images.

The first part of this exercise is to identify the implied lines in the following two images.  I found the second image more obvious than the first.  There is an obvious eye line from the horses to the trainer.  In the first image I think the line is that of the direction of the bull moving through the bull fighters cape.  As you cannot see the faces of either the bull or the bull fighter you cannot identify any eye line even though there will be one.  The clearest and strongest line is that of motion of the bull and cape. 

The second part of this exercise is to identify implied lines in three of my own images.  This first image is of the roof of a motor museum.  A line of vintage motorcycles had been mounted on the roof, all pointing in the same direction creating an implied line.  There is also the real line of the roof but this is overshadowed in this image by the motorcycles.

In this second image there is an eye-line that extends along the line of the glass from left to right.

In this third image there is direction and movement and an implied line from left to right following the subject as they travel along the zip line.

The third part of this exercise is to plan and take two images that use the following implied lines;

• an eye-line
• the extention of a line, or lines that point.

This first image was taken in the props room of a local theatre.  the two faces on sticks were stacked in a packing case with a number of other props and they were staring at each other.  A minor bit of rearranging took place to give me this shot.  There is still a lot going on in this image but the strength of the implied line created by the eye-line immediately focuses the viewer to the point where it is difficult to look at anything else. 

In this second image I wanted to create the extension of a line.  The implied line runs from the stalk, down the leaf pointing to the conker making the leaf look like a hand stretching out to grab the conker.

Learning points:

Implied lines in an image give it context and a sense of deliberate purpose.  These images are much stronger for this reason.

There are many ways to include implied lines in an image.