Colour

Colour

• Colour -The property possessed by an object of producing different sensations on the eye as a result of the way it reflects or emits light.

• Saturation - Refers to the intensity of colour in an image.

• Muted - It means a colour having low saturation. When you take a colour tone, and you mix it with white or grey, it dulls it down to make the colour less. bright or in other words it makes it muted or mute.

• Primary - any of a group of colours from which all other colours can be obtained by mixing.

• Secondary - a colour resulting from the mixing of two primary colours.

• Vibrante - bright colours 

• Complementary colours - are pairs of colours which, when combined, cancel each other out. This means that when combined, they produce a grayscale colour like white or black. When placed next to each other, they create the strongest contrast for those particular two colours

• Analogous colours - groups of three colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel, sharing a common colour  with one being the dominant color, which tends to be a primary or secondary color, and a tertiary. An analogous color scheme creates a rich, monochromatic look. 

• Warm colours - any colour that is vivid or bold in nature. Warm colours are those that tend to advance in space and can be overwhelming.

• Cool colours - any colour that is calm or soothing in nature. Cool colours are not overpowering and tend to recede in space.

Colour and emotion

Different colours can convey different moods and emotions;

• Green - In its positive mode, green suggests nature (plant life, forests), life, stability, restfulness, naturalness. On the other hand, green in some tones or certain contexts (such as green skin) might instead suggest decay (fungus, mold), toxicity, artificial. 

• Red - Light red represents joy, passion, sensitivity, and love. Aswell as romance, love, and friendship. Dark red is associated with willpower, rage, anger, leadership and courage.

• Orange -  Orange is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation.

• Yellow - On one hand yellow stands for freshness, happiness, positivity, clarity, energy, optimism, enlightenment, remembrance, intellect, honor, loyalty, and joy, but on the other, it represents cowardice and deceit.

• Blue - The color blue can show calm and serenity. Yet as a cool color, blue can sometimes seem icy, distant, or even cold. 

Photos to support this: 

Here the oranges, blues and purples all convey serenity and peacefulness.

Whereas this photo, with the deep, dark colours it conveys a scene of anger, loneliness and sadness. 

How are colours used in Music videos?

In this Coldplay music video. it is shown that the low light and dark colours to help convey the sad, depressing theme of the song. As the photo below shows, the deep, dark blues and black colours are conveying the miserable atmosphere to the viewers.

However, in this photo you can see the contrast in the two music videos. Amy Winehouse's song is upbeat and cheerful and is backed up by a music video which contains bright, bold colours. These colours help tot convey the lively feel of the music.

Research  - (of artists and techniques)

A photographer that I chose to study for my research on colour was a man named Guy Tal. An american photographer that works in the landscape of his home, the Colorado Plateau. Guy Tal attempts to capture the importance of the subjects in which he is photographing, not just photographing the "superficial beauty of the land". 

In the photos above, you can see how although Tal has used the natural beauty of the setting he has shot the photos in, he has edited them to further express the colours that are in the images. in some cases he has chosen to darken some objects in the shot and leave one particular object, like a flower (or in the photo above a coyote gourd) to highlight the beauty of the object. In other photographs, Guy Tal has chosen to edit the contrast or the saturation of the subjects which I think makes his photos more powerful. 

Image bank

The above collection of photographs (pictures by other photographers/artists) represent some images that I felt I could capture myself by highlighting the bold colours in the natural landscape. 

My contact sheet

These contact sheets are made up of photos that I shot in my own garden. I shot most of these when I had first got my camera, so in some photos the focus is wrong or the exposure or light needs to be edited, however, some of the photos came out better than how I was expecting. Other photos were taken after I had got used to the camera. Some of these photos do not link to Guy Tal however I did consider the fact that he is a nature photographer, so when I took my camera out, it made me realise that you have to look at objects from a different perspective in order to create a successful photograph.

My best photographs

Here I have added some of my best photographs (unedited). Whilst taking these photographs I tried to do it in the style of Guy Tal, using some of his inspiration like wild flowers and plants, animals and sunsets.

Photographs that require improvement

In all the photos included below I feel that the colours need enhancing or needs to be sharpened. Some were taken with the flash, meaning that they are too bright and need darkening however others were taken whilst it was dark.

                     

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AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

The artist research was very useful during these shoots as I had some inspiration on how to tackle the subject from a range of subjects. My research of Guy Tal helped me to focus on the smaller details of the objects. I found this helpful because where I live I have a lot of opportunities to photograph. 

The research on colour was helpful to this study and I feel that I shot some good photos that had enough colour to draw the viewer's eye to the object.

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

My idea for recording colour was to photograph the finer details in nature, like Guy Tal, and to focus on isolating the boldest colour or capture multiple colours at one time. I was inspired by the work of Guy Tal's work, by his method of taking photos, and by what he captured within his photos. 

      With reference to my best images, I feel that although I could not create photographs exactly like Guy Tal's photos, I did create a set that was in the style of his work. I am happy with the overall outcome of my images and feel that they all show the many ways that colour can be captured within a photograph.

With regards to some of the images that did not come out as I expected, I struggled to adapt my camera settings as I was unfamiliar with how the camera worked.   Some images lacked focus, whilst in the case of others I struggled to use the cameras exposure meter.   I believe I can overcome these issues through more practise.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

I used a Cannon E10 1000s for all the shots taken. I tried to increase the aperture setting to as high as possible so that I can have a sharper picture with a wider depth of field, however in some cases this was not possible as the lighting was poor.

The angles in which I used to capture my images varied. Being new to using a tripod, I was experimenting with the limitations and advantages of using one so some photographs are taken as a wide shot however others are close up. Using the tripod gave the camera stability and also gave me the opportunity to change settings such as the exposure and ISO without changing the position of the object. This allowed me to observe the range of photos and compare what settings worked and what didn't. this will hopefully hop me to be more familiar with the camera for future shoots.

In reference to my best images in which i have selected, these are the camera settings that I used. 

Photo 1
Lens : TAMRON 70-300 mm F/4.5-6
Exposure : 1/60 sec
F/ : 5.6
ISO : 400

Photo 2
Lens : EF-S18-55mm F/3.5-5.6
Exposure : 1/60 sec
F/ : 7.1
ISO : 200

Photo 3
Lens : EF-S18-250mm F/3.5-5.6
Exposure : 1/120 sec
F/ : 13
ISO :1600

Photo 4
Lens : TAMRON 70-300 mm F/4.5-6
Exposure : 1/120 sec
F/ : 5.0
ISO : 1600

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.  

I believe that I have produced a strong series of images inspired by my research of colour and the artist Guy Tal. The final images were refined by developing the contrast and changing the brightness.