Work, Rest & Play
Colours in Harmony and Dischord
Colours in Harmony & Dischord
I read recently that photography isn't about taking picture of objects, scenes or people, but more about taking a picture of the light. I knew that in order to get great colour prints I had to make the use of the best lighting conditions wherever possible, unless aiming for a particular effect such as the long exposures in low light conditions to create movement, or the artificial lighting effects that flash can produce. Thankfully I have a selection of images which demonstrate both "night" and "day" but what is most significant for me is the vibrancy of the colours contained within both sets of images.Printing on gloss paper certainly helped to bring out the colours - I learnt how to distinguish between hue, saturation and luminescence in the photos as they were enlarged and at times seemed to lose quality when enlarged. This I found to be as a result of poor printing and managed to find a quality printer with whom I could practically guarantee better results every time. The more vibrant a picture, the better in my opinion, and the printing process of colour images was certainly one I hadn't thought about in terms of being able to manage how bright or dark, saturated or de-saturated, or how red, blue or green an image could turn out, much in the same way I learnt how to use the Brightness and Contrast in the black and white developing process.
When taking the photographs I found myself thinking more and more about the composition, and the final result in terms of sharpness and depth of field. When photographing movement it's easy enough to select a fast shutter speed to freeze frame the movement itself but when considering the size of the aperture to obtain the most appropriate depth of field, I found myself longing for a Depth of Field preview function on my camera to see the final effect. In the workbook you'll see a number of images that I rejected due to a narrow depth of field.
Perhaps the real lesson I learnt with this project was how to use the camera's exposure meters to meter for the specific effect I had in mind. Metering from two different points within the image, one in highlight and one in shadow, creates dramatically different effects, each of which have their pros and cons. By understanding these, I feel I've become more aware of how to photograph light, not the object in the viewfinder.
Finally, I learnt just how much fun colour can be after spending a significant amount of time looking through a "black and white viewfinder". You can still capture mood in a colour photograph, albeit different to black and white, my real favourite. But with the careful management of colours in a scene you can convey warmth, safety, peacefulness, strength and playfulness to name but a few emotions exhibited by my final selection of photographs.
Click on the image below to view the details:-
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