Assignment 3: Colour

The assignment for part 3 is as follows:

Take four photographs each (16 altogether) that illustrate the following colour relationships:

• Colour harmony through complimentary colours
• Colour harmony through similar colours
• Colour contrast through contrasting colours
• Colour accent using any of the above

The brief suggests that the subject matter should be varied, including both arrangements (such as a still-life) and found situations. The use of both lighting conditions and filters can be made to help create the colours, but not in every photograph.

Notes accompanying the photographs should discuss the ways in which the colour works in each image and include a sketch for each showing the balance and movement in the scene.

I'll post the pictures I'm submitting for the assignment once they've arrived safely with my tutor.....

Colours into Tones in Black & White

For this exercise I have to photograph a still life group of objects that include the colours red, yellow, blue and green. There should also be an grey card / grey element to the subject. 

The resulting image will then be converted to mono, with versions created using the mono filters of red, yellow, green and blue (I have also added orange to this list).

As mentioned in the introduction blog for the start of Part 3, most of the family photographs from my infancy are in black and white. By the time I became interested in taking photographs colour film was relatively cheap, so I didn't really use monochrome, but went straight into the use of colour film. 

Since I started using digital cameras, I have experimented a little with monochrome conversions, more so in the last couple of years. I now sometimes take images with a black and white conversion in mind, but don't yet have enough experience to visualise the tonal range and contrast of the final print - I take the shot then play about with the image in Aperture of Photoshop, until I think it looks right. 

I hope that this exercise will assist me in better understanding monochrome conversions and black & white photography.

I found the following scene of coloured place-mats in a trendy kitchenware shop in Islington. I Initially took the image as I recognised most of the colour wheel hues were present. The purpose built grey-card is a bonus!

D300s 20mm ISO320 f5.6 1/10th

The original image, no alteration to the colours.

(I wish I'd moved the dark green place mat onto the stack of light green & from under the grey ones. Not technically the best executed shot - the shutter speed is very low.)

  

Mono Conversion

A straight mono conversion using Aperture 2's 'Monochrome Mixer' presets. The image is now completely de-saturated, but the relative brightness of the tones of grey remain the same as as the coloured image.

Red filter added

The red filter has now been added. The red mats are now pale grey, almost white; where as the blue mats now appear black. Orange is blue's true complimentary, but the red is sufficiently close to orange in the colour circle to have a strong effect on the blues. The green mats (red's complimentary) were quite pale in colour so have not been altered to a great extent. Of note is the slither of dark green mat under the grey ones - this is now black.

Yellow filter added

The yellow filter has a less dramatic effect. The 'yellow' mats alter only slightly in brightness, as they were already almost white in the mono conversion. The violet mats they sit on have darkened only slightly, the blue mats have darkened slightly from the monochrome image. 

Green filter added

Red is green's complimentary colour - so adding a green filter deepens the reds to almost black, the violet, being close to red on the colour wheel is also deepened.

Blue filter added

The blue filter has a dramatic effect.  The blues are lightened, as is the violet. The Yellows are rendered nearly black and the (over light) green is also dakened. The red is also darkened notably, being found further away from blue in the colour wheel. Orange as a true colour is missing from the original, but the pale brown floorboards are sufficiently close to orange to be darkened considerably by the blue filter.

Orange filter added

The orange filter darkens the blues, although not as dramatically as the red filter did.

Ross Hoddinott (2007, p108) explains that the coloured filters placed over lenses (and mimicked by computer software) absorb the wavelengths of colour different to their own hue, this has the effect of enhancing tonal contrast. The images converted demonstrate this effect. For each of the images that were subject of a coloured filter, the grey mats remained relatively unchanged - there was a slight effect on this, but this was due to their slightly blue hue. The grey remains the same brightness due to its neutral colour and closeness to mid-tone grey.

The practical uses of the filters in black and white photography are that yellow or orange filters deepen the blue of skies, but lighten foliage and skin tones, adding greater tonal contrast to an image.

Conclusion

The technical reasons for the change in tones when the filters are used (covered above) seems pretty straight forward. Being able to visualise these possible alterations at point of capture may take a bit of practice, I suppose this was even the case using filters on film cameras - the visual effect of the filter on the eye when taking the photograph would still have to be interpreted and mentally converted to black and white. 

I'm now itching to play with a few mono conversions...

D300s 200mm ISO200 f4 1/160th Mono Conversion with yellow filter

Exercise: Colour Relationships

The aim of this exercise is to explore the colour relationships described in the project.

Two sets of photographs are to be taken - the first producing one photograph for each of the colour combinations, and their proportions as listed:

• Red: Green 1:1
• Orange: Blue 1:2
• Yellow: Violet 1:3

The second part is to take four images using any colour combinations, with any number of colours that are appealing - this part is to prove that there is no 'correctness' in the use just complementary colours.

The balance of the images should be studied and commented upon.

I have used the colours as stated for the exercise, but have not matched them so closely to the 'ideal' hue of the colour wheel in each image. For this exercise I have tried to keep the colours as close to those seen at point of capture as possible. Any manipulation is included in the image captions.

Part One

Red & Green (1:1)

D200 200mm ISO100 f5.6 1/160th flash

Both the greens and reds of the leaves in this image are slightly variegated, adding interest within each colour hue, as well as complimenting each other. Red and green have the same brightness, so the proportions of each in the image are roughly equal. 

Having said this, the reds are a little deeper than perhaps they should have been to balance against the light green, but both colours command the same amount of attention. 

I think this is a good example of showing red as an advancing colour - even those leaves that fall behind the green leaves, initially appear closer to the viewer, until the true depth of the image is recognised. I like the composition of this image, but feel a slightly wider depth of field would have worked better.

When reduced to abstract blocks of colour, the main diagonal line of the green intersecting the two areas of red can be seen. This gives the image some energy as it runs across and down and across the frame, working well with the stacking effect of the leaves.

D200, 120mm ISO320 f6.3 1/500th

On reviewing the above image, I don't think it is as good an example of red & green (1:1) as I first thought. 

So I have added an image of poppies and corn - the colours are much closer in relative brightness to each other and display the aim of the exercise to a greater extent. The image was cropped slightly to better match the 1:1 ratio. I reduced the exposure by 1/3 stop to deepen the colours.

Orange & Blue (1:2)

D300s 60mm ISO250 f13 1/125. Blue darkened slightly in Aperture 2

The ratio of 1:2 isn't quite right in this image, due to the lack of blue, but I think it still works as the grey background is darker than both the orange and the blue (which is a bit bright). The Orange occupies about a third of the frame, which is the correct proportion for that colour. 

I guess the graffiti artist got his colour proportions right, my framing should have included more of the lower half of the face (perhaps portrait framing would have been better).

Yellow & Violet (1:3)

D300s 90mm ISO200 f10 1/500 (-2/3 stop)

The yellow/gold and violet on the banner most closely resemble, out of all of the images in this exercise, the colours displayed on the colour wheel. They are also closest to the ideal proportions of 1:3. 

I suppose this shouldn't be too much of a surprise, as the artist commissioned with designing the banner would have probably been working to those proportions. 

Yellow and violet as a combination has a very rich feel - the sumptuous look of violet has long been associated with wealth, and its complimentary colour yellow has obvious similarities to gold - little surprise then that colours were used together with the crown emblem.

The exposure was adjusted in-camera by 12/3 stop to deepen the violet (and blue of the sky), this also had the effect of making the yellow stand out even more.

Part Two

The images in this part do not  follow the principles of complimentary pairs, or proportions.

The Three Primaries

D300s 105mm ISO250 f5.3 1/200th

The image of the detail of a Police motorcycle uses, as its main compositional element, large blocks of bright yellow contrasting against the black saddle, the accents of the blue police logo, and the red reflective patch on the pannier - all three primary colours are present.

Freeman (2007, p121) expands on the proportion ratios to include three colours. For Yellow, Red & Blue, the ideal proportions would be 3:4:9, as represented in the diagram.

The image actually uses the inverse proportions of these colours - as a result the yellow overpowers the blue and red and demands the viewer's attention. The blue, a receding colour, seems very dense alongside so much yellow, even the advancing quality of the red is overawed by the amount , and intensity, of the yellow.

Muted Colours

D200 200mm ISO320 f16 1/80th

This image, taken a Versailles Sunday market, has a limited pallet of quite earthy tones of browns and beiges with just a hint of yellow and orange to warm up and give movement to the composition. The oranges have the most intensity and appear the most dense of colours in the image; the yellows are rather 'dirty' but still have enough vitality to also draw the eye. Knowing that the heaps of powder are spices and curries adds to the simmering feeling of warmth in what, at first glance, seems a rather muted image.

Fruity

D200 145mm ISO200 f9 1/750th

Taken at the same market, on the same day as the previous image, the vibrancy of the colours of the fruit is in contrast to the dullness of the curry powders. The colours of the fruit obviously assisted, but so too did the light falling on them and the reflective qualities of the fruit skins, as opposed to the light absorbing properties of the powders. 

The band of red apples is the dominant colour, supported by the green - the relative brightness of the two colours is pretty close. 

The yellows in the scene are tinged with green (in the bananas) or muted (in the apples to the rear), so although they are out of 'ideal' proportion, they do not dominate the image.

Jumble

D300s 32mm ISO200 f5.6 1/1600

British markets just don't have the same flair as the French! 

This image from Brick Lane Market is included as it demonstrates that a bold colour will catch the eye before a profusion of individual details. 

The deep pink of the sheet appears to move closer than most of the objects that are sat on it, with the exception of the red and yellow objects, whereas the blues, especially the darker hues ,recede - they should be in a much higher proportion to balance with the pink and yellow. The exposure was reduced by a third of a stop in post editing to deepen the colours.

I could have used a wider aperture, but didn't change from the previous shot taken at a lower angle, where I was restricting the depth of field.

Conclusion

I enjoyed this exercise - using colour as a subject and compositional element had never really been a conscious thought before - now I can't help dissecting groups of colour where ever I see them! The Goethe colour proportion theory was not something I was aware of, but I will put this into practice whenever I can. Many of the images I took during this exercise were from markets - both in France and London. I was surprised how many people were actually taking pictures, and how receptive the vendors were - discussing camera bodies and lenses with a Brittany potato seller wasn't something I was expecting!

Project: Colour Relationships

D200 12mm ISO100 f8 1/80th

As I said in the last post, photographing a single colour as the main compositional element of an image was not something that I had done before; using two or more colours as either the 'subject', or to support the composition of an image, is more familiar to me. 

Although I have never studied the relationships of colours to each other, I think, like most photographers, I am drawn to certain combinations of colours, that in one way or another 'go' with each other. The image to the right was taken a few years ago in New York. The 'yellow cab shot' was on my list of images, and I realised that yellow 'goes' with blue, so included both cabs and sky as colour elements of the image. 

Lee Frost (2007, p59), explains why the colour combination I selected works:  

When used creatively colour can lend great aesthetic power to your compositions simply because of the way people respond to it. If you fill the frame with bold, contrasting colours such as blue and yellow, or red and green, you'll immediately produce a picture that's exciting and dynamic to look at.

When I composed the shot, I knew that the wide angled lens would dramatically converge the verticals of the buildings, this would be a dynamic element. I wasn't so much aware of the way the colours would add even more power to the image.

When I read the course text and began to research the subject of colour relationships, it was apparent from the outset that the principles discussed were common to all forms of visual art - painting, photography, fashion, advertising, interior design. Some of the colour combinations are also found in nature.

Even clashing colours, ones that may be described as bad taste (to the viewer), have an influence on how that subject is viewed - possibly as harmonious, or maybe they are placed together to cause tension.

The colour circle can be used as an aid to identifying  complementary colours - those that, as a pair, balance each other. The complementary colours sit opposite each other on the colour wheel, e.g:

Red & Green

Blue & Orange

Yellow & Violet

Each set of complimentary colours contains a primary colour, then a secondary colour mixed from the two remaining primaries.

Another way of using colours together is referred to as harmony of similarity; again the colour wheel can assist - hues are selected from the same sector of the wheel. The similar colours go well together because they cause no conflict with each other (Freeman 2007, p120). 

Colour Proportions
The harmony found by using two complementary colours can be enhanced in a couple of ways. Webb (2010, p62) points out that the effect of using two such colours can be 'dulled or lost by introducing further colours or shapes to the composition'. Things get too busy.

A colour 'accent' can be used against a drab background - this can be particularly effective if red is used - as discussed earlier it is an 'advancing' colour and will stand out against a background, as a 'point'. The two images below have such 'points' of colour accent as integral parts of their composition, although I was not conscious of the reason behind their significance when they were taken:

D300s 22mm ISO200 f5 1/3rd

D200 135mm ISO100 f10 1/60th

The relative brightness of these accents is what makes them work.

The German poet J.W. von Goethe studied the harmony of colours and assigned values to the different hues, dependant on their relative brightness (Freeman 2007, p120):

Yellow   9

Orange  8

Red & Green   6

Blue      4

Violet    3

Using Goethe's scale for each of the complementary pairs, it can be seen that orange is twice as bright as blue, so the ideal proportions for their use in a single image would be 1:2

Red and green have the same brightness, so they can be assigned equal proportions - 1:1

Yellow is three times brighter than violet, so their proportions should be 1:3

This all seems to make sense..