Assignment 3 Colour

This assignment brings together the concepts explored in Colour, in particular colour relationships.

The brief is to take about four photographs using both arrangements and found situations demonstrating the following relationships:

• colour harmony through complementary colours
• colour harmony through similar colours
• colour contrast through contrasting colours
• colour accent using any of the relationships

and to comment on the colour relationship and balance.

I used nearly all found situations although a couple of shots are arranged: I enjoyed the challenge of finding the relationships.

Most of these shots were taken while on holiday in Wisconsin and Chicago. I found when using a Romanian walking holiday as a source of subject material for Assignment 2 that the idea of using a holiday as OCA subject material source does not work as well as might be thought; it can mean doing too much to find subjects for all the required images. A student on another blog noted the same problem. This time I took a more relaxed approach - if the opportunity arose, then take it, else use images taken elsewhere for the same Assignment.

My sons' graduations provided opportunities to take shots of colour relationships in gown colours It would have been possible to use several shots on this theme but this seemed rather uninteresting, so restricted to two (one was also used in an exercise).

The challenge of fulfilling the brief was compounded by trying to take shots that were interesting and/or striking. Reviewing this Assignment on other blogs, I suspect the authors also found a similar difficulty. It is quite a prescriptive brief.

All shots were taken using Canon 450D with a variety of lenses.



Colour harmony through complementary colours

The complementary relationships are green:red;  yellow:violet; and blue:orange  

f4; 1/60; ISO 500

The home baking section of a store in Chicago shopping mall provided an opportunity to arrange a blue and orange cardboard carton together. The course notes suggest a ratio of 1:2 in favour of blue to be ideal but a more equal balance works in this image (albeit I did pull the blue carton slightly forward so it does occupy a slightly larger proportion of the image). The colours balance one another well; perhaps this is a function of having similar copy on each carton.

f13; 1/350; ISO 200

This is an arranged photograph taken of the beach towels my wife and I purchased near Algoma on Lake Michigan shoreline; we did not purposely buy violet and yellow, just noticed as we stretched them out after a swim. I cropped the image to present broadly a 3:1 violet:yellow combination, thus balancing the relative brightness of the yellow by having more violet in the image.

f11; 1/90; ISO 400

The back of a lecturer's gown taken at my son's Leicester University graduation provides a shot demonstrating the red:green relationship. I could have cropped this to give a 1:1 proportion but in so doing would lose some of the textural interest in the lower part of the image; the red point in particular needs to be in the shot.

Aside from the colour relationship, I like the textural softness provided naturally by the material in this image. No soft focus was applied, the image did not require it, and some edge clarity might have been lost. There is a sense of depth, particularly in the green hood.

f11; 1/125; ISO 200

This Lake Michigan sunset demonstrates the orange blue relationship. The reflection in the clouds on the left of the image add some depth and interest to the shot. Very little manipulation was used, just a slight saturation and clarity boost.

We get a sense of the mixing of the colours in the lower third of the image ,the orange phasing gradually into blue. The blue:orange ratio is about 1:4, higher than might be recommended but works for this image where the orange is very dominant.


Colour harmony through similar colours

Similar colours are those near each other on the colour chart, e.g. green:blue, red:orange.

f5.6; 1/60; ISO 800

This image of a motorcycle petrol tank taken at the Harley Davidson museum in Milwaukee shows the red:violet relationship. In low light, this was a challenging shot - flash could not be used because of reflection so I positioned myself so as to get the maximum use of the light from the right and focussed on the cap, thus retaining sharpness in the darker violet part of the image. The ISO noise was removed using Topaz DeNoise.

There were many colour relationships on display but not many with similar colours. The amber band between the violet and red is vital here to emphasise the border between the red and violet. The balance of red and violet is slightly towards the darker violet, about right for this image.

f11; 1/60; ISO 200

This is an early morning shot of kayaks stacked by Lake Michigan. There is an obvious orange:yellow relationship, as well as the blue:yellow contrast and blue:orange complementary relationship at the top of the image.

For me, the image is enhanced considerably by the orange kayak - it is not difficult to imagine how much less eye-catching the image would be if all the kayaks were yellow. I tried cropping the image to just the top third but that worked less well. The point comes over clearly: a dash of a different colour can make a big difference.

f4.5; 1/60; ISO 800

This shot of coral on a rock demonstrates a green:yellow relationship. It was taken at Chicago Aquarium. Generally, I avoid taking shots of subjects behind glass because of light and reflection problems but this one works for this assignment.

Despite the wide aperture, the coral is sharp and the light provides some depth and contrast. As with the kayak image, the green is vital to balance the yellow coral; the ratio of broadly 3:1 yellow:green, animal:mineral is about right.

f4.5; 1/60; ISO 800

I took this close up of candy balls in Bloomingdales. It required some surreptitious temporary arrangement to get the orange and yellow together.

The colours are balanced equally and is a good example where similar bright colours balance with each other.

Colour contrast through contrasting colours

Contrasting colours are those that are spaced a third way round from each other, e.g blue:red, green:orange.

f13; 1/60; ISO 200

This is an arranged image of cocktail umbrellas. I got some strange looks when setting up and taking this shot in late evening sunshine at a cocktail party. I made comment in my learning log about how taking shots for OCA complemented the USA holiday portfolio; this is a good example of something I would not dream of taking normally, where the course has opened up my eyes to other possibilities - what is in front of you.

The colours work well in the image. Balance is obtained by proportioining the darker blue against lighter red at about 2:1. The light helps by emphasising the relief in the paper and providing some differential brightness. The green pattern does add some interest without affecting the essential red:blue balance. A simple subject that works well.

F13; 1/350; ISO 200

Two girls escaping the coldness of the water on Chicago Beach provided material for green:violet contrast shot. Technically, it is a shame that I just missed the top of the green bikini, although that meant the wave is in just the right place.

Although the action is in a way the main aim of the shot, I used this image because it emphasises how important colour is in the round. The colour of the sea is unattractive so we would have a flat image without the vibrance and contrast of the bikini bottoms (imagine in black and white). The bright  green and violet contrast works very well with the dull background.

f13; 1/180; ISO 200

A ceramic creation of a butterfly caught my eye as a green:violet comparison. This image could also have been used as an accent image given the small proportion of the space taken up by the green head but I chose it here as I think the bright green balances the violet well, evidently in the mind of the creator too.

f4.5; 1/90; ISO 800

I took this shot in Door County, Wisconsin. Door County is on the west of Lake Michigan and therefore affords few sunset opportunities, one of the few exceptions being this location near Ephraim. There are probably few occasions when one can see orange and violet together naturally; this was one.

I had no tripod so had to rely on hand holding the camera. I boosted the ISO and used a wide aperture so as to use an appropriate shutter speed. The ISO noise was removed using Topaz DeNoise and the vibrance boosted, else the image is as taken.

The image is very much about the colours, the reason it is used here. The orange and violet make for a good contrast; the image was taken very close to the sunset in complementary colours but on a different night after some rain, and at a later time. This results in a completely different colour relationship.The balance of orange and violet is about equal, but importantly orange is not bright (cf. the third image above) so an equal balance is fine - the image would be too dark otherwise.

f8; 1/60; ISO 200

 I used another of the gown images as a fifth photograph demonstrating colour contrast - this time green:orange.  Here we can see that the orange needs only to be a small part of the whole (the image could also be used as a colour accent example) because the green is dull and the orange bright; emphasises again that colour relationships are not formualic but very bespoke depending on the colours' relative brightness and tonality



Colour accent using any of the relationships

The last section is somewhat different - to photograph a small area of colour against a larger background. It is not dissimilar to photographing points in the Elements of Design, and has the same challenge to find interesting subjects.

f13; 1/90; ISO 200

Door County is a large cherry growing area of USA so I used the opportunity to find an example where I could photograph a single cheery in the forefground of a tree. The light was good - managed to get a catchlight effect on the cherry to add depth and tonality range. The green:red colours harmonise well.

f5.6; 1/125; ISO 200

Violet occurs less frequently than the oher colours so I was on the lookout especially for violet subjects. This was seen near home and apart from the colour, the detailed texture of the rope caught my eye.

The image was enhanced using Topaz Detail to bring out the texture and the vibrance increased to bring out the colour against the background.

f9.5; 1/20 ISO 200

I sourced an orange accented photograph in late evening downown Chicago. The camera was set up on a ledge and AEB used so as to take three shots merged into a HDR image, processed in Photomatix.

This image shows an accent where there is a limited contrast between the smaller orange area of the light and the background.

f1.8; 1/90; ISO 200

 A yellow light provided a third subject for accent. Taken of an almost unlit hotel reception area, I used the Canon 50mm fixed lens with a very wide aperture. This is a sound lens for low light work, and enabled a hand held shot even at low ISO.

There is a pleasing simplicity to this image  - the light on its own would not be sufficient subject but in conjunction with the reflected area of the desk, the shot works well. It is very different from the image directly above in that the contrast between the small colour area and the background is as extreme as one could envisage.

f11; 1/350; ISO 200

I include a photograph of an abandoned Chevrolet truck here to demonstrate the importance of a small area of colour. The subject focus is the radiato grille, particularly the textures and detail thereon, but the small orange area of bonnet and cab does help to balance the image.

Conclusion

Overall, I am satisfied with the range of subject material included in this Assignment. My main aim in doing this course was to widen my perspective - look for and see subjects that might not have done before, and this assignment has achieved this.
 
I understand the colour relationships, in particular the general concepts of complementarity, contrast and similarity. As important is that I understand these relationships can operate very differently for subjects with different tonality and brightness. Colour relationships are not discrete, and must be seen in conjunction with other aspects of an image, particularly light.