Exercise: Primary & Secondary Colours

Ok, so for the past few days I've been trying to find scenes dominated by the hues of the colour wheel. 

'Seeing' the colours wasn't too much of a problem, but finding scenes of sufficient interest and those that would provide enough of the specific colour to fit the brief did seem a bit of a treasure hunt - especially in respect of violet. 

I have tried to vary the subject matter used for each colour, although my library of painted doors, window shutters, flowers and fruit & veg is expanding rapidly.. 

As suggested in the project brief, I've used over and under exposure in the scenes to help match the colours to the colour wheel. While this seems like a reasonable thing to do, and it does reinforce the concept learned in Exercise 1, I did find myself questioning the validity of this. After all, I'm trying to match colours against a printed colour wheel that has colours that vary in hue from other colour wheels I've seen in my research during the exercises - this part of the exercise seemed very subjective. Perhaps that's the point?

Below are the images I've selected to represent each colour, I only include the images that most closely resemble the colour wheel hue. Some images are slightly cropped - no other editing has taken place and in-camera colour enhancement features were switched off. My observations and findings follow the images in each section (I know this involves a bit of scrolling - I'm still struggling with blogger's formatting. Intuitive it ain't...)

Yellow

D300s 105mm Macro ISO200 f9 1/200th no exposure bias

D300s 55mm ISO250 f22 1/60th no exposure bias

D300s 200mm ISO200 f8 1/640th (+1/3rd stop)

Yellow is quite an abundant colour - both in nature and in many man-made objects. I have noticed that it is widely used in advertising, especially when accompanied by blue - its opposite in the colour wheel. 

Initially, I found yellow a bit tricky to accurately capture in plants - the two plant images here are the best from a very large selection I took. In many instances the subtle differences in the intensity and brightness of the yellows was not recorded - I think this was due to the high luminance of the petals and the bright conditions in which I was photographing. I found that the larger the plant was in the frame (on capture), the better the results. Those images with a larger area of (relatively) smaller plants tended to end up with simple blobs of indistinct yellow. 

Orange

D300s 105mm Macro ISO200 f11 1/13th (+1/3rd stop)

D300s 200mm ISO250 f6.3 1/1250th no exposure bias

D300s 82mm ISO200 f5.6 1/2500th (-1/3rd stop)

Panasonic DMC FZ28 ISO200 f4 1/320th no exposure bias

Orange was an easier colour to photograph than yellow - the images shot more closely represented the subject matter. However, trying to find oranges of the same hue as the colour wheel proved a little more  difficult than I'd imagined. Photographing a bunch of oranges might still take place..

Orange is a secondary colour in the painters' colour wheel - a mixture of red and yellow. It retains some of the luminance of yellow, but with the more 'solid' properties of red.

Although the oranges were easier to photograph than the yellows, they needed a bit more in-camera manipulation to match the colour wheel - I suspect this is because there are more variations in orange (as opposed to yellow).

It was while photographing the orange & white striped wash bag that I became consciously aware that I was not trying to replicate the scene I was photographing, but the colour on the wheel. Trying to accomplish this in-camera was fine for this staged still - life, but a little more awkward for the bonfire and pan of curry shots - both taking place in busy public events. Both of these images encompass a variation in the hue of orange, as opposed to the more solid blocks of colour in the other two images; the deeper oranges representing the colour wheel.

Both images also feature areas of black - this has the effect of emphasising one of the psychological properties of 'warm colours' - they appear to 'move forward' from the page or screen (Webb, 2010, p60)

Red

D300s 105mm Macro ISO 200 f3.5 1/50th (-1/3rd stop)

Same Settings but at 1/30th with VIVID Picture Control selected

D300s 31mm ISO200 f7.1 1/160th no exposure bias

D300s 34mm ISO200 f10 1/125th (-1/2 stop)

The primary colour red is very abundant, both in nature and man-made objects. My findings in photographing red were similar to those of the first exercise - the strength of the red was enhanced, and more closely matched the colour wheel when slightly under-exposed.

Obviously the hue of the objects had an effect on this, but objects painted red tend to fade quicker (or simply more obviously?) than other colours, so the in camera 'boost' may be required as a result. Red is an 'advancing' colour and 'is perceived as one of the strongest and densest colours' (Freeman 2007, p115).

As an experiment I also used the camera's Picture Control (colour enhancement) setting to demonstrate how it effects red. The initial strawberry image is not only the closest to match the colour wheel, it also accurately replicated the scene I was photographing. Viewed on its own the image looks fine - when viewed alongside the more 'vivid' manipulated jpeg it appears dull. In the same way the vivid image appears fine when viewed in isolation, but over-processed when compared to the 'neutral' jpeg setting of the camera - with least processing.

Violet

D200 50mm ISO100 f2.2 1/250 (-1 stop)

D300s 170mm ISO250 f10 1/25th (+1/3 stop)

D200 105mm Macro ISO400 f7.1 1/1000th (-2/3 stop)

I found violet to be a bit elusive - especially the hue represented on the colour wheel. Even now, the images I've posted aren't as close a match to the colour wheel as with the other colours. Many things that may first appear to be violet, upon closer inspection, are nearer to a deep blue. I think that violet is one of the hardest hues to accurately visualise and identify.

All three objects posted here required adjustments to the camera's metered exposure. The 'red' cabbage, a solid object, needed to be over-exposed, whereas the translucent glass and petals required relatively heavy under-exposure.

I have less violet 'frame filling' objects in my photo library than any other colour - I was interested to note that all three examples contain only violet and white. Other violet images I have also contain yellow - this appears to dominate and makes selecting a colour wheel violet even trickier.

Blue

D200 105mm Macro ISO320 f5 1/25th (-1 stop)

D200 16mm ISO 160 f20 1/20th (-1 stop)

D200 105mm Macro ISO250 f14 1/50th (-1.7 stops)

Blue, the colour of the sky - easy right? OCA colour-wheel blue, not so easy.  The blue on the colour wheel in the course text is very dark, I'd even go so far as to call it indigo. It's so dark that even a polarised Yorkshire sky in summer was way too grey..

Thanks must go to Brittany farmers, the huge embroidery / bead collection of t'wife and The Blue Man Group fridge magnets for providing blues of (nearly) sufficient darkness to let me get somewhere near the right hue. 

Freeman (2007, p115) suggests that blue 'recedes.. is relatively dark and cool' and that it's a colour that many people have difficulty in judging precisely. As can be seen, all of these images involved heavy under-exposure to deepen the blues - supporting Freeman's observation. 

With the beads and fridge magnet this isn't a problem as they both have shiny surfaces and maintain their vibrancy, but the painted window shutter, in being underexposed by a stop, looses impact and appears to recede even further. This might be recoverable with a bit of post-capture enhancing of saturation and vibrancy levels, but had I not been attempting to match the colour wheel, I would have selected this version - metered as being the correct exposure:

D200 16mm ISO 160 f14 1/20th

Green

D300s 105mm ISO200 f16 1/100th no exposure bias

D200 105mm Macro ISO400 f7.1 1/800th (-2/3 stop)

D300s 38mm ISO250 f10 1/100th (- 1/3 stop)

Green - the colour of nature, is the most easily distinguished by the human eye - we can perceive more shades, or hues, of green than any other colour. It's association with nature has led to green being sybmolised as a calming and natural colour.

The green of the colour wheel does not have the richness or the luminance of a jade or emerald green, it is more neutral, as such it neither advances or recedes. Trying to perfectly match that colour was a task made more difficult by the ability to perceive the slightest shift in a green - our eyes are too accurate when comparing greens.

Before they were displayed so closely together I thought that the images above were all pretty similar in hue. It's obvious that they aren't, but they each contain such variations in shade, that I'm sure the colour wheel green is in each of them somewhere..

Conclusion

I found this exercise frustrating and rewarding in equal measure. The frustrating part being trying to match a perfectly good scene, full of colour, to the colour wheel. I took many images that weren't close enough to manipulate by the exposure controls of my cameras - these have, however, been filed and have provided a good start to a catalogue of colours.

I did enjoy the narrow brief of capturing images dominated by a colour - as I said at the start, this is something that I've never consciously done; apart from sunsets that  have included a vibrant orange, but that would probably be the only time I've photographed a single colour for it's own sake.

I have become a lot more aware of the photographic and compositional opportunities the colours in themselves present. The exercise has also made me more conscious of bracketing at point of capture - I'm aware of the technique, but it is not something I do so much, due to the ease of manipulating later via computer software.

Project: Building a Library of Colours

This project, and the next exercise, involve photographing images that feature, or are dominated by distinct colours.

The colours to be captured are those of the painters' circle.


In the circle the primary colours of red, blue and yellow are represented alongside the secondary colours of violet, green and orange.

The following exercise calls for scenes, or parts of scenes, dominated by each of the primary and secondary colours. Each scene will be photographed three times, with half a stop over and under exposure, so that the variation will allow a closer match to the colours of the wheel.

Exercise: Control the Strength of a Colour

The introduction to Part Three talks about Hue, Saturation & Brightness. Hue is commonly referred to as a colour - we name a colour (i.e. red, green etc) because of its hue. Saturation is the intensity of the colour and brightness is, well, it's brightness (bright, dark etc).

The text suggests that the theory of the alteration of colours is more important to understand for the painter, as they create their colours, whereas photographers record what is already there. Although, with some photographic knowledge, and an understanding of how a camera works, manipulation of the colours presented in a scene can be achieved at the point of capture.

The use of 'traditional' photographic filters, such as polarising filters and coloured filters (both on the lens and flashgun), as well as white balance, can also alter the colour characteristics of the image recorded. Post-capture the process of altering the colours is also now available to anyone who uses digital imagery and basic photo imaging software.

The Nikon DSLR cameras I use have 'Optimize Image' (D200) and 'Picture Control' (D300s) settings that allow the captured image to be manipulated in-camera; both cameras have 'normal' or 'standard' settings, the D300s has 'Neutral' and both have 'Vivid' - all of which alter the processing of jpeg images to suite the scene, or artistic intent. 

The first exercise is one in controlling the strength of a colour, using the controls of the camera. The aim of the exercise is to photograph a strong, definite colour, using a viewpoint that fills the frame.

The average camera reading is to be established, before a series of images are taken - one at the 'correct' exposure, then two overexposed at a 1/2 and 1 stop, followed by two more underexposed, again by 1/2 and 1 stop. The images are then to be compared and a conclusion arrived at as to the strength of the colour achieved across the group of images.

For the exercise I immediately thought of red as the colour I would use - it is a strong definite colour, and one that I thought would be easy to find at the roughly the correct hue. I then went hunting for post boxes - most of the ones I found were faded, and not sufficiently strong in colour, or in shaded / cluttered areas. So I decided to arrange a still life shot of some flowers, these were easier to arrange and I could spend as long as needed to ensure the lighting was constant before taking the shots. 

My wife was quick to point out that the only time I buy flowers is to photograph them. She may have a point...

I used a Nikon D300s mounted on a tripod, with a 105mm Macro lens to allow the petals to fill the
frame. The camera was operated by a remote shutter release. The whole set-up was arranged indoors, to prevent the flowers being moved by wind, and in front of a large window to provide even lighting.

I set the camera to ISO 200 and automatic White Balance, Standard Picture Control (Image Optimization) and Spot Metering. 

I first set the camera to Aperture Priority and selected an aperture of f11, the camera metered and set the corresponding shutter speed to 1/250th. I then switched to Manual Exposure mode, keeping the same settings and took the first image.

My camera is set to record in 1/3rd stop intervals, so I actually took 3 images either side of the 'correct' exposure to achieve the intermediate and full stop differences by altering just the aperture, the shutter speed remained the same. The resulting images are to the right.

Ok, so from the results it's easy to see the range of exposure changes, as would be expected. Depth of field will also be effected: as the aperture increases, so the depth of field will become narrower. These are by-products of the settings, but not relevant to this exercise.

Of more importance is the fact that the overexposed images look less vibrant, and the underexposed much deeper and richer in tone.

Red is a particularly rich colour, this is more evident in the underexposed images, where its 'denseness' makes for a more powerful image. Freeman (p115) talks of reds 'advancing' and 'enhancing the sense of depth' of an image - this is most evident in the -1 stop image.

My conclusion for this exercise is that slight under exposure, which is altering the brightness of the colour photographed, has the effect of creating deeper, richer colours.

Although this example deals with a single colour filling the frame - a more complex image of different colours, tones and areas of light and shade may not be able to be enhanced quite so easily.

Underexposed by 1 stop, but most vibrant

Primary Colours

I had a little argument with my wife over the primary colours -  an unusual argument, not only because  of the subject matter, but the fact that we were both right!

My wife's understanding of the primary colours is red, blue and yellow - when these are mixed as dyes or pigments (for example in paint), they form the intermediate colours:

Red + Yellow = Orange
Red + Blue = Violet
Blue + Yellow = Green
Red + Yellow + Blue = (nearly) Black

Although I did know this, my instinct in naming the primary colours has changed from how I was taught at school, to the three transmitted light primaries, red, green and blue, and their combined colours:

RYB v RGB ( The Photographer's Eye, Freeman 2007)

Red + Green = Yellow
Green + Blue = Cyan
Blue + Red = Magenta
Red + Green + Blue = white

Hue, Saturation and Brightness are identified in the course text as being the three qualities that define 'colour'.

Hue is the quality that gives each colour its name - for example yellow, blue and green are all hues, as are all of the colours in the visible light spectrum.

Saturation is the perceived purity or intensity of the hue, with minimum saturation being a neutral grey.

Brightness determines whether the hue is light or dark.

Michael Freeman (2007, p114-115) explains that the reason for the two sets of primary colours is that "painters' primaries are those of reflected light, while the RGB familiar to photographers are those of transmitted light."

As photographers we record reflected light, we can under and over expose the image to alter the properties of that light, but are also able to manipulate the recorded image by altering the transmitted light used in colour film, digital cameras and monitors.

Tricia Guild (1992) discusses how artists can express feelings and moods by their use of colour (hue, saturation & brightness) in the rendition of their subject matter. 'Closer to our time..colour itself became the subject rather than an aspect of composition or an adjunct of naturalism.'

Although Guild's book is an inspirational work for interior designers, the use of colour is such a fundamental element of any artistic form, that the illustrations are good reference material for the upcoming exercises and assignment.

While the course text & Freeman's explanation of the terms used to describe colour makes complete sense, I know that I'm going to feel restricted in using just these terms. A useful couple of paragraphs in expanding the vocabulary of colour can be found on www.worqx.com , the web site of Janet L. Ford Shallbetter. Janet adds the following (her descriptions of hue, saturation & brightness are as above) :

Chroma: How pure a hue is in relation to grey.

Intensity: The brightness or dullness of a hue. One may lower intensity by adding white or black.

Luminance / Value: A measure of the amount of light reflected from a hue. Those hues with a high content of white have a higher luminance value.

Shade: A hue produced by the addition of black.

Tint: A hue produced by the addition of white.

I know that it'll take a while for me to stop simply thinking of a 'colour'..

I've never consciously taken a photograph to include a specific single colour, although I have consciously taken photos where complimentary colours are combined - with this in mind I'm looking forward to the exercises.



Imagine how chuffed I was to recognise a location photographed and referenced by Freeman (2007, p118) as being one I'd also photographed!

'Orange -Blue A classic and by no means uncommon photographic color (sic) combination'. Hurrah!

Sunset at Fisher Towers, Moab. 2011

Blogging Hint:

Make sure you save every now and then.....

Part Three: Colour

The introduction to 'Part Three: Colour' points out an obvious missing fundamental in early photographic technology - the ability to reproduce colour. The exercises and assignment in this section will, no doubt, be looking at various aspects of both colour and black and white photography and build upon the concepts of composition already looked at in the first two parts.

The restricted palette of early photography was undoubtedly a frustration to the photographers of the time, but it allowed them to concentrate on composition, form, light and tone in their images.

I'm sure that I'll have chance to make more observations relating to colour v. black & white throughout this section of the course, but thought I'd add a few thoughts of my own after reading the introduction.

Black & white photography is still the chosen medium of many photographers, my own tutor Andrea Norrington produces many black and white images, developed herself - in a darkroom of all places!! (http://www.andrea-norrington.com).

One modern photographer that I've been following for a while, who also shoots many images in black & white is Sasha Gusov (http://www.gusov.com).

Two of Sasha's images appear to the left. As with other good black & white images the lack of colour, far from detracting, helps to focus the viewer's attention on the subject matter and can go some way to removing distracting and cluttered backgrounds.

Although I prefer to (or just do?) take most of my images with a coloured final image in mind I have, since starting the course, taken quite a few images where at the point of composition and capture, I've decided that the final result will be a black and white / monochrome image. That said, all of my 'photographs' are taken on digital cameras, and my darkroom being a computer allows for easy manipulation between the two mediums.

I grew up in a house where photographs and cine film chronicled the early years of my older brothers and sister (as well as my own, and that of my younger brother). The interesting thing looking back at the hundreds of prints that were always kept in an old suitcase (and still are), is the transition from black & white to the colour images of the early and mid 70's. The 60's (and earlier for my brothers) being recorded in black & white, and reviewed so many times in that form over the years, almost makes the memories appear that way. Needless to say the processing and emulsions of the 1970's perfectly match my memories of that decade!

The use of monochrome still evokes a 'classic feel' to photographs and, in a way, can add credibility to the image.