Control the strength of a colour - cameras with a manual option

This was an exercise in varying exposure (aperture) to examine the affect on colour.  There are some brightly coloured funnels near my office on London Wall, so I chose these to carry out the exercise.  The objects were mostly in shade, so I used a high ISO so as to be able to get the average metered control photograph at an aperture with room for variation either side.  The funnels were shot at a zoom length of 68mm and matrix metered (maybe spot would have been better to have made more of the reflections??).

Here is the control photograph at ISO 800, 1/125s and f/5.6:

f/5.6

 At one stop higher at f/8, the colours are slightly more saturated in the red and blue, but little difference in the yellow.  The image overall is a bit duller, but there is not a huge difference.  This may have been to do with the lighting. 

f/8

I tried again at another stop higher at f/11.  There is a greater difference at this aperture in comparison to the control.  The image is darker overall, the colours are duller and less intense.  You can also see noise from the high ISO.

f/11

Working back down through the apertures, between f/8 and f/5.6, I shot f/6.7; the only real discernable difference between this and the control image is that the orange reflections from the large red funnel are a deeper orange:

f/6.7

Dropping the aperture now below the control photograph to f/4.8,  the colours are starting to look very slightly washed out and the overall image is brighter.  The red and blue colours are slightly weaker, i.e. less saturated, and the yellow is very slightly less saturated.

f/4.8

Finally, at the lowest aperture possible with the lens and settings I was using, which is almost one stop brighter, I shot at f/4.2; at this f/stop, the colours are even less saturated.

f/4.2

This exercise has shown that the differences in colour saturation are quite subtle, but if for instance I wanted to alter the saturation of a subject in shooting, I could adjust the exposure by stopping up or down the aperture.

Interestingly (and unintentionly), the shots I used to mark the start and end of the exercise on my disc illustrate this very well; at f/5.6 the pavement is washed out, but at f/22 the colour of the paving stone is deeper and richer.

f/5.6

f/22

Concerned that the differences I noted where very subtle, and possibly influenced by the shade and high ISO, I repeated the exerise using a different subject: a brighly painted telephone box celebrating the Olympics outside the BT building on Newgate Street:

The control shot was taken again using matrix metering, but at ISO 200, 1/125s and f/8.

f/8

At one stop higher at f/11, the three colours are darker, deeper and duller.  The overall image is less bright. 

f/11

At a half stop lower, in between the image above and the control, at f/9.5,the colours are very similar to the control at f/8.  I noticed also that my reading was fluctuating between f/8 and f/9.5 to get the average exposure, so the light must have been changing at the time.

I then moved dropped the aperture below the average exposure to f/6.7, which is half a stop brighter than the average metered exposure of f/8.  You can see that the colours are slightly less saturated than at f/8; the red is a little more orange and the blue is lighter - more of a royal blue than navy.  The white is starting to look a little overexposed as well.

f/6.7

At a full stop below the control exposure, at f/5.6, the effect is even more pronounced: the red is more orange i.e. less saturated, the blue is brighter, more cobalt than royal blue, and the white highlights are becoming indistinguishable.

f/5.6

Finally, at a third stop lower or brighter still, I shot at f/5, where the same effect described above is even more obvious:

f/5

From this exercise I have learnt that adjusting the aperture to brighten the exposure i.e. lowering the f/stop will make the colours less saturated and brighter, and darkening the exposure i.e. raising the f/stop will make the colours more saturated, darker and duller.  This is important to remember when white is present as if white is overexposed the reflections/highlights disappear. 

I then decided that I should try this with green; I take a lot of photos outdoors in the Lake District and it is very difficult to get the right green - particularly when the sky is very cloudy or very bright.  So I shot some weeds growing in my back garden in London (not much greenery in Feltham!) at ISO 200 and 500s (matrix metering).  The average exposure calculated was at f/8 and the results show that this was the most accurate representation of the real colours.

f/8

f/6.7

f/5.6

f/4.8

f/4.2

f/9.5

f/11

f/13

This exercise has taught me a lot about the impact of varying exposure on colour.  One solution is to use exposure bracketing, so you can decide afterwards which is the most ideal representation.  I have used this feature a bit recently, but on the whole, I found that the average metered setting was the best, except in situations where there is a lot of black or white in the photograph.  This information will be useful to remember when using a very low aperture for a particular effect, to remember that it may potentially wash the colours out if exposure is not compensated through shutter speed and/or ISO.  I also finally understood what people mean when they say "one stop lower" etc and found this very useful reference table:

http://www.scantips.com/lights/fstop.html

Colour Light & Composition by Sue Bishop

I met Sue Bishop when she came to my camera club in Kingston to give us a talk on photography.  The talk was in two halves, the first about colour, light and composition, the subject of this book, and the second was about macro photography of flowers.  Hugely inspired by Sue's images, I ordered a macro lens that same week, although I have yet to really get the hang of it.  Following Sue's talk, I bought the books and decided to re-read Colour Light & Composition ahead of getting into Part III of TAOP on colour.

Sue begins by describing the colour wheel, the cool and warm components and how colours behave next to each other (e.g. red and green); I am now quite familiar with this having previously studied art and read the course materials and supplement.  An interesting feature of Sue's photography is the use of colour to achieve focal point; for instance in the photo on page 18 of a yellow kayak boat in a cool blue waterscape setting, although the boat is tiny, there is no doubt that it is the focal point of the photograph because of its warm dominant colour.  I also like Sue's use of a limited pallette to achieve a calming effect demonstrated by the image of the blue boat on page 23. 

Sue also describes how colour can be used to create abstract images, where colour is the subject of the photograph; this works particularly well with harmonised colours but can also work well with contrasting colours.  She also explains how to cope with dominant and receeding colours and how distracting elements can be toned down to avoid competition with the important elements in the photograph.  In addition, she refers to saturated and pastel hues, and how to use both to an advantage, and to be observant to reflected colours that might become the subject of a photograph.  She also makes the point about photographing small elements of subjects where the detail of the colour is interesting to create almost abstract pictures.

Finally she mentions white balance and polarizing filters (to enhance saturation and reduce glare), both of which I am already familiar with, although interestingly, I didn't realise that the camera adjusts for polarization automatically resulting in a slower shutter speed - which might explain a few mishaps!

In the light section of the book, Sue mentions describes the qualities of light and how to make the most of evening light and that side lighting generally makes the best conditions, but front lighting can be useful for flat but graphic images.

The section dealing with composition is informative; mostly in line with other reading on the matter, but interesting that Sue seems to use central composition more than other authors I've read.  I really like her simplistic approach to composition: her images have a pure quality, they are uncluttered and exhibit a striking use of colour and light.

Colour by Michael Freeman

My first reaction to reading this book is that I need to read it again!  But before I do that I need to know more about my software (I use Nikon Capture) so that I can make the most of enhancing colours.

I was interested in the names of the colours Freeman used; having studied painting I am used to the naming convention for paints, but the names used here were not familiar.  Many aspects of photography colour are however similar to the theory of paint colour, for instance the perception of colour changes relating to the adjacent colours; this is explained well on page 95.

Freeman also touches and expands on the subjects in the course work; I am yet unconvinced that the ratios proposed for contrasting colours are ideal.  I enjoy a range of colours in a variety of proportions and have seen many successful images of contrasting colours with the ratios reversed to the ones proposed by Freeman and the course materials. 

On my second read, I felt the same and also realised that I don't deliberately seek out particular colours when taking a photograph.  I react to colours that are pleasing at the time, and may therefore wish to capture something on the basis of the colours, but in general I accept the colours presented to me and look to enhance them in processing (if required - I usually bump up the saturation). 

I will come back to this book as I progress further with learning to use my digital software.

Basic Colour Theory

Course supplement for Part 3 - Colour

http://oca-student.com/sites/default/files/key_resources/Basic_colour_theory_photog.pdf

The additional reading supports the information in the course folder. Having already read The Essential Colour Manual for Photographers by Chris Rutter the content was largely familiar; however additional points I noted are:

• Colour works on three levels: visual, expressive (emotional), and symbolic (cultural)
• Yellow is strong against violet and blue
• Blue has a transparency that contrasts against Red's opacity
• Blue suggests a withdrawn and reflective mood (visually it recedes)
• Red advances in the frame - it is dense and solid
• Orange radiates: but has neutral warmth when lighter (beige) or darker (brown)
• Violet is difficult to capture accurately (I know this from experience!) and creates an impression of mystery and immensity
• Green is the most visible colour to the human eye
• Interference colours - e.g. oil slicks, soap bubbles, pearl
• Complete colour balance requires appropriate proportions (see course materials pg 113)
• Red: Green - 1:1 (red and green have the same luminosity)
• Blue: Orange - 2:1 (orange is twice as luminous as blue)
• Yellow: Violet - 1:3 (brightest and darkest of hues)
• Pure hues fight for attention - use 3 together - 4 would be unbalanced
• Groups of pure colours make easy grabbing shots
• Coolness/Warmth; Wetness/Dryness; e.g. blue-green/orange-red

The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott by David M Wilson

An astonishing collection of photographs taken by Captain Robert Falcon Scott during his Antarctic Expedition.  Anyone familiar with the story will understand that not only was it incredible that these photographs were taken, but also that they survived and made it back to England.  I find it amazing that he was able to operate the camera, which lets face it in 1911 was nothing like what we have today, in the harsh conditions, and that he was also committed enough to carry it, when weight was so crucial.  I am fascinated by polar regions and hope one day to go on an Antartic voyage myself, so for me these photos are simply incredible without needing to understand the equipment, techniques, composition and so on.  But adding all those elements in, make the images even more amazing.  The discovery of the photos enabled the crucial periods of the journey to be pieced together, and this is the value of photography: it creates a permanent record of an event through somebody's eyes.  The image on pages 76-77 of Mount Erebus from the Ramp shot by Scott in October 1911 exmplifies the beauty Scott captured.

Scott had not always been a photographer; he was taught by Herbert Ponting, who was the expedition photographer and cameraman.  There are many beautiful images where the sky and horizon merge into one; so essentially the composition relies on the placement of the objects within the frame.  This image of the expedition ponies on the march on pages 132-133 is a great example of this and you can see the ponies disappearing into the blizzard taken on 2 December 1911.  You can see by the anchoring of the ponies, that there is some ground, but you can't see the boundary between horizon and sky.  Sadly, the ponies did not survive many days after this photo was taken.

I have seen some of Scott's photographs first-hand, and indeed Ponting's camera, at the Natural History Museum, running from 20 January - 2 September 2012.  The exhibition explores the Terra Nova expedition focussing on the everyday stories and activities of the people who took part, their scientific work and unforgettable human endurance.  It is an amazing collection of equipment and images, and really brings home that this was not just a trip, for a long period of time, it was a way of life for the men that took part.

Some of Scott's images are shown on the Scott Polar Research Institute website http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/library/pictures/acquisitions/lostscott/

London Street Photography 1860-2010 by Mike Seaborne and Anna Sparham

This book contains a selection of images from an exhibition I went to at the Museum of London, which ran from February to September 2011, prior to my starting TAOP.  The introduction investigates the definition of Street Photography, to include elements such as: 

• unposed scenes
• hurmour, fascination, ambiguous, surreal
• decisive moments
• spontaneity

which all concur with the previous book I read on the subject: Street Photography Now.  However, what is interesting about this exhibition and associated publication is that it examines the evolution of the subject and the fact that what we find interesting in photos taken in the 1800s, for example, may not have been what the photographer originally saw.  The introduction continues to describe the techniques and eminent photographers through the decades, the role street photography played in social documentary, and the changes that the Second World War brought about: spurring people on to capture scenes before they disappeared for ever during reconstruction and reshaping, and of course modernisation.  And of course, in the early 21st century, street photography continues to provide an accurate record of life as it is.

I love the older photos; working in London, I find it fascinating to look at buildings that are so familiar to see what they were like 150-odd years ago.  The image on page 12 by Gorge Washington Wilson of the Royal Exchange c. 1875 is a great example of this.  The picture is also interesting because of the ghostly images of the people walking past (must have been shot on a very slow shutter speed?).

People really come to life in the following section 1890-1929; the image on page 27 of children playing in a water trough in Barnet High Street, c. 1900 by an anonymous photographer is interesting - I grew up in Barnet and I remember a water trough (1970s) but not the one in the photo.  Barnet has changed a lot over the years and I'm not able to pinpoint exactly where this image was shot.

Looking through the images of the City, it is interesting to note that the views are indeed still familiar, and also crowded!  The type of vehicles and clothing have obviously changed, but the droves are very reminscient of today.  For instance, the image of London Bridge South Side, c. 1900 on page 29 will seem very real to anyone who has ever tried to walk across the bridge against the masses of people.

Moving into the 1930s, I found the image on page 44 shot in 1936 by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy of a street seller with his barrow in Central London, surprising.  My father (born 1939) told me that he had eaten his first banana after the war, so I was surprised to see them in this pre-war image.  In searching for an image to upload, I found out alot about Moholy-Nagy, includng the fact that his artwork is featured in the current Bauhaus exhibition at the Barbican which closes on 12th August.  I have also seen work by this photographer before at an exhibition I attend at the Royal Academy called "Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century", which ran from June-October 2011.  What I also like in this image is the fact that that the four people with faces look as if they have seen the photographer, and have either been deliberately grouped, or they are standing themselves in such a way as to be included in the shot.

As the book takes you further through the decades, I find I have greater affinity with the images naturally, as they start to contain scenery that I can link to my own experiences.  In addition, as the photographers modernise, the elements of humour and absurdity that typify contemporary street photography creep in.  This image on page 106 of Big Ben by Stephen McLaren shot in 2007 is a fantastic record of decisiveness and humour.  I really like the fact that the photographer has not attempted to straighten the image.  In comparison with earlier images, it really illustrates the evolution of street photography.

Some of the images displayed at the exhibition can be viewed at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/photography/8318158/London-street-photography-through-the-ages.html