Tag: colour wheel

2020 Photo Challenge #35

August’s theme / technique: Colour Theory

Colour plays an important part in what we see. Our brains interpret colour far better than our cameras do. Anyone trying to photograph a red rose will know how often the photograph is very disappointing.

Successful colour photography means learning to use colour as a compositional tool – a form of visual communication – rather than just reproducing a scene that happens to be in colour.

Colour theory is not just knowing what colours are: primary, tertiary etc and how to make them, but understanding cool and warm colours, complementary (next to each other) and contrasting colours (opposites), neutral and bold colours and how colours can affect our emotions or perceptions of a scene.

      • Don’t overdo it. Too much colour or too many clashing colours can be confusing to the eye and create a chaotic scene.
      • Consider the time of day and the type of light which can affect how different colours appear.
      • If you are not happy with the colour in your image then try adjusting the saturation in post-processing. An image with lower saturation seems softer, dreamy and idealistic. An image with high saturation seems bright and exciting. Think about the feeling you want to convey with your image before deciding how much or how little saturation would best suit the scene.
      • Pay attention to the way you frame colour and use light to enhance it.
This month's final assignment - Experiment with using two or three Complementary colours. Try to make one or two colours the focus of the image, and use the other colour to enhance the overall image.

Continue reading 2020 Photo Challenge #35

2020 Photo Challenge #34

August’s theme / technique: Colour Theory

Colour plays an important part in what we see. Our brains interpret colour far better than our cameras do. Anyone trying to photograph a red rose will know how often the photograph is very disappointing.

Successful colour photography means learning to use colour as a compositional tool – a form of visual communication – rather than just reproducing a scene that happens to be in colour.

Colour theory is not just knowing what colours are: primary, tertiary etc and how to make them, but understanding cool and warm colours, complementary (next to each other) and contrasting colours (opposites), neutral and bold colours and how colours can affect our emotions or perceptions of a scene.

      • Don’t overdo it. Too much colour or too many clashing colours can be confusing to the eye and create a chaotic scene.
      • Consider the time of day and the type of light which can affect how different colours appear.
      • If you are not happy with the colour in your image then try adjusting the saturation in post-processing. An image with lower saturation seems softer, dreamy and idealistic. An image with high saturation seems bright and exciting. Think about the feeling you want to convey with your image before deciding how much or how little saturation would best suit the scene.
      • Pay attention to the way you frame colour and use light to enhance it.
This week's assignment - Take a photo of a subject that you like in colour and then convert to Black & White. Show both images for comparison. Which is best? Does the image rely on colour for impact.

If the colours in your photograph are tonally close the image will lack impact when converted to black and white. Colour can be essential to the success of an image in this case.

Continue reading 2020 Photo Challenge #34

2020 Photo Challenge #33

August’s theme / technique: Colour Theory

Colour plays an important part in what we see. Our brains interpret colour far better than our cameras do. Anyone trying to photograph a red rose will know how often the photograph is very disappointing.

Successful colour photography means learning to use colour as a compositional tool – a form of visual communication – rather than just reproducing a scene that happens to be in colour.

Colour theory is not just knowing what colours are: primary, tertiary etc and how to make them, but understanding cool and warm colours, complementary (next to each other) and contrasting colours (opposites), neutral and bold colours and how colours can affect our emotions or perceptions of a scene.

      • Don’t overdo it. Too much colour or too many clashing colours can be confusing to the eye and create a chaotic scene.
      • Consider the time of day and the type of light which can affect how different colours appear.
      • If you are not happy with the colour in your image then try adjusting the saturation in post-processing. An image with lower saturation seems softer, dreamy and idealistic. An image with high saturation seems bright and exciting. Think about the feeling you want to convey with your image before deciding how much or how little saturation would best suit the scene.
      • Pay attention to the way you frame colour and use light to enhance it.
This week's assignment - Choose a colour. Any colour, it could be your favourite one. Next set out to photograph anything that is largely composed of that hue. Allow only variations of the colour within your photograph. If anything else is present don't take the picture unless you can crop it out, get in closer to exclude it or change your viewpoint. When you have finished put you collection together. You may be surprised by the differences in shades.

This proved to be more difficult than I thought! Mostly because I have been limited to where I have been able to go these past few months so the sea and sky have had to be featured more than I anticipated. And so many other blues have other colours or writing which has been difficult to omit. Anyway here’s my attempt.

Interesting to see how many blues are azure which is a bright, cyan-blue colour named after the rock lapis lazuli. It is often described as the colour of the sky on a clear day and obviously the only time I photograph the sky!

If you would like to join in with the 2020 photo challenge then please take a look at my 2020 Photo Challenge page. No complicated rules, just a camera required 🙂

    • Create your own post with some information about how you composed the shot.
    • Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
    • Add the tag #2020PhotoChallenge so everyone can find your entry easily in the WP Reader
    • Get your post(s) in by the end of the month, as the new theme comes out on the first Sunday in September.

2020 Photo Challenge #32

August’s theme / technique: Colour Theory

Colour plays an important part in what we see. Our brains interpret colour far better than our cameras do. Anyone trying to photograph a red rose will know how often the photograph is very disappointing.

Successful colour photography means learning to use colour as a compositional tool – a form of visual communication – rather than just reproducing a scene that happens to be in colour.

Colour theory is not just knowing what colours are: primary, tertiary etc and how to make them, but understanding cool and warm colours, complementary (next to each other) and contrasting colours (opposites), neutral and bold colours and how colours can affect our emotions or perceptions of a scene.

      • Don’t overdo it. Too much colour or too many clashing colours can be confusing to the eye and create a chaotic scene.
      • Consider the time of day and the type of light which can affect how different colours appear.
      • If you are not happy with the colour in your image then try adjusting the saturation in post-processing. An image with lower saturation seems softer, dreamy and idealistic. An image with high saturation seems bright and exciting. Think about the feeling you want to convey with your image before deciding how much or how little saturation would best suit the scene.
      • Pay attention to the way you frame colour and use light to enhance it.
This week's assignment - Find a monochromatic scene consisting of varying shades of a single colour.
    • The key to a successful monochromatic image is to find scenes with good contrast throughout the image – you want the photo to have a dark version of the colour, a light one and a good range of tones in between.
    • Use Duotone or sepia-toned effects in your post-processing software to create a highly monochromatic scene
    • Views of the sea and sky contain a range of different blues
    • Sunsets can comprise of mainly oranges and reds
    • Flower close-ups often have very narrow, subtle shifts in colour.

Continue reading 2020 Photo Challenge #32

2020 Photo Challenge #31

August’s theme / technique: Colour Theory

If you want to see what this month’s assignments are in advance then please click here. All the assignments are available from the menu on the left under the 2020 Photo Challenge / Assignments.

Colour plays an important part in what we see. Our brains interpret colour far better than our cameras do. Anyone trying to photograph a red rose will know how often the photograph is very disappointing.

Successful colour photography means learning to use colour as a compositional tool – a form of visual communication – rather than just reproducing a scene that happens to be in colour.

Colour theory is not just knowing what colours are: primary, tertiary etc and how to make them, but understanding cool and warm colours, complementary (next to each other) and contrasting colours (opposites), neutral and bold colours and how colours can affect our emotions or perceptions of a scene.

      • Don’t overdo it. Too much colour or too many clashing colours can be confusing to the eye and create a chaotic scene.
      • Consider the time of day and the type of light which can affect how different colours appear.
      • If you are not happy with the colour in your image then try adjusting the saturation in post-processing. An image with lower saturation seems softer, dreamy and idealistic. An image with high saturation seems bright and exciting. Think about the feeling you want to convey with your image before deciding how much or how little saturation would best suit the scene.
      • Pay attention to the way you frame colour and use light to enhance it.
This week's assignment - Capture a scene with strong contrasting colours. Try using a simple composition so they are most effective, often some type of pattern arrangement works best.

Continue reading 2020 Photo Challenge #31