Colour

Colour

Definition & Theory

• Colour is the property possessed by an object of producing different sensations on the eye as a result of the way it reflects or emits light.
• Colour theory is used In the visual arts, it's a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the visual effects of a specific colorcombination. There are also definitions (or categories) of colorsbased on the colour wheel: primary color, secondary color and tertiary colour.

• Saturated colour is the intensity of the colour
• Mute colour is where the colour is less bright, softened or dull
• Complementary colour is where a colour is opposite another on the colour wheel
• Analogous colours are groups of three colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel, sharing a common colour. One being the dominant colour which tends to be a primary or secondary and a tertiary.
• Hue is the attribute of a odour by virtue of which it is discernible as red, green, etc and which is dependent on its dominate wavelength and independent of intensity or lightness.

Colour & Emotion / Mood

Colour affects the human nervous system, evoking different emotions with different colour. There has been a lot of psychological research suggesting that the different genders may respond differently.

Colour Theory and Research

There is science behind colour, is that light is white and white light is made up of every colour. The way we see colours are due to objects reflecting and absorbing different colours. 

Colour is taken for granted in our everyday world, even though it plays a integral part on our emotions and perception of something. Photographers in digital photography learn how to mix colours and use them to create contrast to help them show others how they themselves see the world around them. Manipulation has been at the heart of photography since it first began. This is because film can not 'see' light so as soon as the shutter is pressed you manipulate reality, black and white being the greatest manipulation of all. Needing to spot the potential colours includes how you see the world, how nature uses colour to attract and deter creatures and how it creates an emotional reaction.

Colour has power. It has the power to create moods and invoke emotion. To show a world that is other wise invisible to us, lost in our day to day lives. You can give a picture meaning that's upfront or hidden by adjusting or manipulating the colours presented. Colours have different meanings for example:

Emotional - 

RED passion, love, strength and anger
ORANGE happy, energetic, pleasant and social
YELLOW warm, cheerful solitary and irritable
GREEN friendly calming neutral and balanced
BLUE isolated peaceful cool / cold and distant
PURPLE spiritual enlightened creative and artistic.

Physical -
RED raises blood pressure, raise heart rate, stimulates appetite
ORANGE encourages, movement, provides energy, vigour
YELLOW poor skin, reflection, bright, reflective
GREEN concentration, focus, attention
BLUE lowers blood, pressure, decreases appetite
PURPLE calming, relaxing, helps, insomnia

Behavioural - 
RED hot, aggressive, danger, stop
ORANGE movement, fast food
YELLOW lively, secure, caution, slow
GREEN jealously, envy, money, avarice
BLUE calm, conservative, loyal, trusting
PURPLE surprise, magic, regal, royal, rare

David LaChapelle 

The image of Britney Spears uses vibrant colours to create a visual narrative of a summers day and what people are doing. The colours used are highly saturated showing happiness and celebration. 

Kander

This image shows how we need to look at our self and see how nature plays a role in our identity. The use of blue and muted colour creates a cold and unpleasant tone. Making the viewer see that there could be a story to this person that has made them terrified, though staying strong enough to stay beautiful. 

Both images show to different stories through there use of colour and saturation, giving of different emotions allowing the viewer to see the beauty in each story. The first one shows the beauty and happiness in summer, using the high contrast and saturation to make the picture as vibrant as possible. This shows the fun and enjoyment that people are having. However in the second image the story is very different, it makes the view see the physiological nature of identity. The colours show a sadder story, the colours being muted  however show me that this person has not let her passed be part of her identity but instead is using it to make her more beautiful in her own way. The one major thing the colours in these images bring to light are that in the first image it show everyone together, where as in the second it shows isolation.

Martin Parr is a British documentary photographer and photojournalist, known for his everyday images that otherwise go unnoticed. He focus on on sets and not individual images, so he looks at the background and the things around him not just the things he wants to take and image of. This has allowed him to find the extrodanary in the ordinary.

He uses high saturated and high contrast colours to bring out the inner child with in the viewer. This makes the images funny and interesting as they show society in a different light. The way he does this is by representing his own opinions and thoughts with in the photograph, challenging how the viewer sees the world. 

Image Bank 

These photos above show the types of images I want to try and capture in Harlow or around my home town. The easiest pictures I think to take are going to be the ones of flowers but the down fall is I will have to wait till next year to take those photos again as most are dying off.

Contact Sheets

My Best Photos

Images that need improvement

These images have been selected as they had mistakes or didn't turn out how I wanted them to. In the first image I had to hold the flower straight so the wind would stop blowing it but as a result of this my hand is in the image. As well as this I needed to try and get more of the flowers in the image. So if I did take this image again I would try and get my hand out of the picture and I wouldn't zoom in as much as I did so to be able to get more of the flowers. This would help get more colour into the picture as well as different colours from the different flowers. In the second image I was trying to get an image of the clock on my local church but the sun was reflecting off the surface of it making it extremely difficult. Even when I tried a different day where the sun wasn't as bright (DSC1190.JPG) there is still a reflection. As well as this I noticed that I couldn't get a clear picture as the numbers where so weather damaged that they had been worn making them really light. If I was going to take this image again I would take a tripod as it will allow me to keep the camera still so I could try a lower aperture setting. By doing that I can make less light hit the film so it makes the pictures darker, hopefully removing the glare from the sun. The last image was inspired by Kander's work, where he is able to put a story behind the picture. So I got one of my friends to sit in the dark, what I tried to do with the light was to show a distinct outline of there face. This was to try and make the colours in the picture have a low saturation level making the picture darker. I used a old light to try and do this but the line of the face wasn't as defined as it could have been even though I got the effect I wanted with the colour levels. I believe that I got idea of a story being behind the picture as I see in the picture that it looks like the person is in deep thought about something in the passed. As a result if I wanted to take this image again I would need to possibly do this in a studio. This is so I can use better equipment, a better light and darker / flatter background. I would also use a tripod again as it stopped me from shaking as I had to have a higher exposer time because of how dark it was in the room. In the image of the cupcakes I was playing around with the aperture and I must have let to much light on to the film because the image is way to light. I opened the aperture to +3.5 on my camera but when I lowered the aperture to  - 3.0 I got the colour in the image ( DSC1414.JPG) but it was still out of focus. So I then tried on -5.0 and focusing on just one, blurring the background (DSC1415). As a result it came out a lot better. The muted colours are shown well on the icing and the light shows the glitter I added to the top. 

( AO:3 ) - Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress

I had a difficult time with ideas for colour as I knew I didn't want them all to be the same, example flowers and nature. As a result of this I was really inspired by my artist research

With reference to my Best photos...

The picture of the rose is linked to my image bank as i really liked the idea of taking picture of flowers because nature is the best way of taking pictures. The only problem with taking images of nature is after and few weeks the flowers and things can die or change therefore you may have to wait till next year to take those types of pictures. I love this image as i have used the focus of my camera to blur the background and get the inside of the rose in as much detail as possible. The detail of each petal and the way that the darker components of the rose really makes the colour pop out. This photo was taken on an aperture of +1.8 this allowed more light to enter the image and make the colour have a higher saturation.

The next image is of a tree that is in my back garden. To take the picture i had to lie underneath the tree and take the photo. Every year the tree has red leaves, this is because its a Japanese maple but they don't stay red for very long after about a week there satiation starts to lower quickly. To capture this image i had to lay under the tree almost everyday to try and get the picture i wanted. I really liked the colours with in the picture and i like where the leaves over lap because it makes the leaves a darker red and this is complemented by the blue sky and white clouds.

I last picture of the cupcake, I used my camera on an aperture of -5.0 to make the background darker and make the muted colours of the icing stand out. I like that i got as close the cupcake as i did, its an improvement to line as i kept the image in focus. Not only that i got the shine off the icing in the picture and this makes the muted colours of the icing stand out. The case of the cupcake was actually a highly saturated orange but because of the change in aperture its not as vibrant and actually complements the muted icing well. This image was inspired by Martin Parr, i loved his use of bright colours with in cakes and sweets. I didn't want to copy his work so instead of making really bright colourful i decided to make the colours muted instead.

( AO:2 ) - Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops

To take my photos I used my Nikon D3100, set to automatic. For the lines of light I used the college studio and a high expose time. The aperture setting was mainly set to f+1.3 but when taking photos of the flowers the camera aperture was set to aperture priority auto, with a high shutter speed. As a result I think I need to play around with the aperture settings and shutter speeds more on my camera. By doing this I think I can take better photos. 

To improve my photos I imported my best images into Photoshop and used it to make contrast and certain colours stand out more than what they did or dull up others. The information on what I did is shown in the example below. All the photos that show what I did was obtained by using screen grab (Ctrl, Shift, 4).

I used different applications in photoshop to create more interesting images. I used things like colour balance and black and white to create contrasting images. I also looked at some of my images and decided to try and create a completely different feeling to them. I used the colour balance but it didn't make a big difference to the colours, it only made the white light change. However with the cupcake i made the background darker and really intensified the colours in the icing to make it more like Martin Parr, i love the difference with the image. With the ballon i have made the whole image darker and really pulled down the satiation to make it a lot colder compared to the original picture. The tree i have made the red leaves stand out more by intensifying the red using the colour balance. I other thing i did was make the image warmer by pulling the magenta colours out more, making the blue in the sky change into more of a faded purple. For the rose i changed the image so it just had the pop of colour in the rose to make it stand out compared to the back ground. I changed the background to black and white to create a contrast in the picture, i made anything green a lot darker so the background wasn't just almost completely white.

( AO:1 ) - Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical undrstanding

My research on colour theory was really helpful because it allowed me to look at images in a different way and understand that colour doesn't always have to be bright and vibrant. My research also allowed me to learn how different colours can complement or work against one another. Martin Parr was the most helpful because by looking into his bright pictures it helped me come up with the idea of cupcakes and then paired with the knowledge about muted colours and saturation i got some of my favourite images. I really feel like i have done a lot better on this that colour as i have started using my camera and playing with the aperture which i believe has made a big difference in my photos. 

I think that the least helpful part of my research was about the colour wheel as i didn't refer to it or look at it at any point during the time of taking photos. As well as this i also knew a bit about the colour wheel before i started so i knew about the primary, secondary and tertiary colours. 


( AO:4 ) - Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements

My final images where adjusted by increasing the satiation and hue. In my last image i changed the background into black and white to make the rose the centre of focus.