Assignment 3: Colour

On to the third assignment, colour. A change in employment has meant this section of the course has taken a lot longer to complete than I had wished for and the stop-starting of the projects has been quite disruptive. Here we are though!

As a reference I have included my small image of the colour circle here which may be useful as there is mention of the relationships between colours in the following descriptions..



For this assignment I am drawing on everything I have learnt about colour to produce sixteen images.The images are split into four groups which are:

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

Colour harmony through complementary colours

As we learnt in the previous exercises, complimentary colours face each other across the colour circle. We are therefore looking for combinations such as green & red, yellow & violet and orange & blue. Some of these colours are relatively easy to find in nature. In particular the green & red. It is fairly straightforward to find a red plant or flower to set against a green lawn or shrub. Others are not so easy such as violet & yellow together.

Image 1 - Fat Lava Pottery

A friend collects Fat Lava pottery. The intense colours and the combination of these colours really appealed and several of the pots were in orange & blue schemes. I went along to photograph some of these pots specifically for this project and worked with what I considered to be the best examples. The shot above represents the complementary colours of orange and blue. To further push the point I photographed the pots against a blue background. There was a need to carry out a little post processing using the colour hue & saturation sliders in Photoshop. I did white balance in my software but the blue needed a little tweak to appear on the screen as it did in real life

The balance between the colours is shown in the small image. Technically I have broken the rule of 1 part orange to 2 parts blue. In this case it appears to be about a third blue, two thirds orange. I don't think there is any confusion about which colour is the background and the vibration to the colours adds impact to this shot. It is very 'graphic' as opposed to a record shot.

Image 2 - Sunset

I suspect this isn't the only sunset picture that has been presented for this complimentary colour combination. I wasn't going to use a sunset but when I saw this I couldn't resist! This is another orange/blue shot although I admit the orange is verging on pink. The colours here have been 'filtered' by increasing the saturation. Although the blue feels stronger, the movement in this shot seems to flow from blue to orange.

Image 3 - Red Shoes

Bold and colourful complimentary colours for the next two photographs. The red shoes really stand out against the green carpet. No image manipulation was carried out on this image.

Movement is provided by the direction the shoes are pointing.

Image 4 - Bananas

Another pair of complimentary colours. There is a marked difference in the 'feel' this set of colours induces.The image is a lot more subtle and the feel a lot warmer.

Again the movement is provided by the shape and direction of the subject

Colour harmony through similar colours

For similar colours we are looking at colours that sit near each other on the colour wheel. These may be cooler, such as blue/green or warmer such as orange/red.

Image 1 - Tulips

For this image I have colours that sit next to each other on the colour wheel. The yellow and green combination is fairly warm and pleasant. In this shot I have used a very shallow depth of field in an attempt to blur the green background but I don't think I have been totally successful. Even so, there is a good degree of separation between the colours. Movement is indicated in several different ways in this photo. There is the direction the plants are leaning in, the transition from dark green through yellow to lighter green and the movement of yellow up the shot going from paler to more intense.

Image 2 - Clock

Wow,wow, wow... orange and yellow. To say these are warm colours is an understatement! I was unable to decide the movement of this combination. Perhaps my eye is moving from yellow to orange and then straight back again.

Image 3 - Field & sky

A blue and green combination we are all accustomed to seeing. The colours on this photo were bought out at the time of shooting by using a polarizing filter. This has saturated the blue and green to a much greater level.

The camera was hand held and positioned at 90 degrees to the sun to make full use of the polarizor.

Image 4 - Violet Shoes

Ouch! This effect is even more vibrant than the orange and yellow. These two colours together form a hot combination. The red is visually a lot more aggressive than the violet though. The violet almost seems over-powered by the red.

Colour contrast through contrasting colours

Contrasting colours sit about a third of the way around the colour wheel. Here we are looking at combinations such as yellow & red or yellow & blue, green & orange or green & violet etc.

Image 1 - boat and plant

This shot of an upturned boat and green foliage is made up of secondary colours. They are also contrasting, sitting a third of the way round the colour wheel from each other. The orange is the warmer of the two colours. From my small image we can see that the green occupies about a third of the image.

Even though the orange is a warmer colour and occupies more of the image than the green, this picture still has a fairly cool feel about it. The warmth of the orange does not manage to warm up the coolness of the green.

Image 2 - Old painted boat

This worn and tatty painted boat boasts another two contrasting colours. In this instance the colours appear less saturated,mainly due to the weathering, which has rendered the colours fairly cool. The two primary colours blue & red are split about one fifth blue to four fifths red. All in all this forms a reasonably pleasant combination.

Image 3 - Man in yellow jacket

This is a very aggressive colour combination! The yellow stands out well against the blue and dominates the image. This does cause a certain movement from the yellow to the much more 'passive' blue. The red cuffs add a loud accent to the shot and do draw the eye to a certain degree. As mentioned in the book, these colours certainly are eye catching!

No post processing was carried out on this image and the colours are pretty true to how they were at the time the shot was taken.

Image 4 - Violet Flowers

The final image in this set is violet vs green. There is a strong contrast between these colours but I don't necessarily agree with the text that the colours clash. As soon as spring started this colour combination erupted everywhere.

Colour accent 

The colour accent is a small area of colour against a much larger area of a different colour.The colour combinations may be of any of the above relationships.

Image 1 - Bouy

My first colour accent image uses the complimentary colours of blue and orange. Even though the orange is just an accent, it really stands out in the shot. It is easy to see in this example how the orange draws the eye. Interesting to note how this differs from the next accent of violet and green. Also note how the orange accent is a fraction of the size of the white boat to its left. The orange still draws the eye more than the white.

Image 2 - Plant and greenery

Colour accent two, this time spaced at third intervals on the circle. We are here in the cooler range of colours. When comparing this to the image above it is apparent how different the accent colours are working against their back grounds. In the case of this image it is actually difficult to see the accent 

When looking at the circle and the combination of colours on thirds, this seems to be the weakest contrast.

Image 3 - on the pier

In this image the colour pallet is more difficult to define. The accent is clearly visible as the red hoody. The rest of the tones fall mainly in very pale orange range. The red of the man's jacket draws the eye from every direction. From a photographic point of view it is interesting to note that the old couple are the initial point of interest due the the depth of field of this photo - they are the only thing in sharp focus. The eye then wanders to the red jacket even though it is not the plane of focus. 

Image 4 - Cool Green

The final image in this series has a red accent over a predominantly green scene. The red accent in this shot is quite large and if we refer back to the text, one question that was raised was how large an accent could be before it is no longer an accent. I feel in this case the red box still qualifies.

Conclusion
This has been an interesting chapter. The colour theory is reasonably easy to understand but I found it surprisingly difficult to find the shots I was looking for (without using too many flowers). I must admit to being glad I reached this point in the spring rather than the winter though!

Understanding the relationship between colours provides us with yet more means to plan and create photographs which  deliver the message we are trying to get across.