Large sized assignment images for
assessment can be found on my flickrPro account at the following address. Go to actions\view
all sizes\original to access full sized images.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davebartlett/sets/72157631584797549/
The basis of
Assignment 3 is that I should be able to identify and use colours that are
complementary (face each other across the colour circle), are similar to each
other in the circle (as in the cool or warm colours), are spaced about a third
of the way round the circle and are therefore very different to each other and
potentially clash, and finally the type of colour relationship where a small
area sits against a much larger background and may be regarded as a ‘spot’ or
‘accent’ colour. This boiled down to the
table below in terms of what I needed to shoot for assignment material, where
according to the course notes I also needed to ensure that I introduced variety
into the ways in which the colours are generated and use a mixture of found
situations, still life and possibly filters to create the colours. It is also a
requirement to make a sketch of each image to show the balance of the colours
in the image. I last sketched something
about fifty years ago, so this element should be interesting! Where I thought
it was appropriate, I have indeed made sketches of the distribution of the
colour areas of interest, although I have not done this where the zones were
obvious (as in examples where there were only two blocks of colour in the image
anyway) and I have additionally not done so for the colour accents. I did this simply by changing the image to
black and white and then using the brush tool in CS5 to roughly sketch in the
areas of colour.
Along with his
assessment for Assignment 2, my tutor offered the following guidance for
Assignment 3 .. “The next assignment is
quite straight forward and my advice is to read the assignment brief very
carefully and check you images against the colour wheel. My advice is also to avoid colours which are
on the border between a primary and a secondary colour and also colours which
are too neutral. Finally, remember that
black through all the greys to white are not strictly speaking colours or hues,
they are tones and cannot play an effective role in a colour harmony.” I have tried to do this throughout, but the
comments regarding the primary/secondary border are highly pertinent and I
found achieving this to be challenging at times as clearly the incident light
quality and angle can have a significant impact on the final colour recorded,
and it proved to be a valuable lesson in controlling exposure through the
camera to try and hit the colour I was after rather than being tempted to
manipulate it in CS5 afterwards!I also needed to consider the ratio in which the colours appear in the images as was the case in Exercise 25 (Colour Relationships) where to maximise the harmony, especially between the complementary colours, it is vital to consider the relative brightness of each; red and green have the same brightness, so a ratio of 1:1 is appropriate, whereas orange is about twice as bright as blue and a ratio of 1:2 ‘works’ and finally yellow is three times as bright as violet, so a ratio of around 1:3 would be appropriate. Freeman (2007) shows a very helpful graphic (p121) which illustrates this point. These colour ratios were first suggested by the German poet Goethe who assigned values to the colours to describe the relationship which he believed showed that colours harmonise with one another the best advantage when their areas are in relative proportion to their relative brightness, although long before that the ancient Greeks had sought to ally colour harmony with musical harmony in terms of what went pleasingly with what.
I boiled this down to a checklist of required combinations to ensure that as I set about generating and finding the images for the assignment, I would have something to work to; it also acted as encouragement as although the concept of taking pictures of anything coloured seemed appealingly simple, I found this a struggle at times as the need to capture specific images proved difficult for some reason. I needed to produce around sixteen images, about four from each ‘category’ of the following colour relationships.
Complementary : red/green, orange/blue,
yellow/violet
Similar :
yellow/orange, orange/red, green/blue,
blue/violet
Contrasting :
from blue/red, green/orange, yellow/red,
blue/yellow, green/violet, violet/orange
Spot/Accent :
any of the above
1
Complementary : Red/green. I had three original contenders for this
image, having discounted the poppies which I had used in Exercise 24 as I felt
that the bright light in which the image was taken generated too many areas of
unpleasant (at least to me) contrast.
The first selection was of two pedestrians with a green bag and a red
coat, with the colours in about the right ratio of 1:1. I liked the way that the earthy tones of the
browns from the surrounding garments really pushed the red and green to the
fore.
 |
| 1 Complementary : red/green |
 |
| 2 Complementary : red/green |
 |
| 3 Complementary : orange/blue |
4
Complementary : orange/blue.
I wanted to have a still life image where the colours were again adjacent
to one another to explore the full benefit of their complementarity, and chose this
still life option with orange/blue as it was very different to the wide angle Cape
Town street scene. I liked the added
interest of the contrasting logos as well.
This was taken under bright natural light with a diffuse cloud cover and
was exposed at -1EV to enhance the colours; colours were not further adjusted
during processing.
 |
| 4 Complementary : orange/blue |
 |
| 5 Complementary : yellow/violet |
6
Similar : yellow/orange.
This just had to be the eyeball burning orange/yellow combination that I
found in London along the Embankment.
Both coming from the warm range of similar colours in the colour wheel,
this highly saturated orange and yellow combination was eye catching and
probably a good choice given that its intended purpose is to advertise art,
music and dance tickets for sale. It’s
bright, fun and vibrant and offers the warmth that is suitable for this
intent. Whoever put the hideous clashing
pink pillars around the base was either intending to create a compelling colour
clash to draw attention or was maybe colour blind …
 |
| 6 Similar : yellow/orange |
 |
| 7 Similar : orange/red |
8
Similar : green/blue.
The harmonious relationship between the cooler green and blue is
exemplified by these two lovers on the beach .. well, a pair of bins anyway, I
just liked the way they tilted slightly towards one another!
 |
| 8 Similar : green/blue |
 |
| 9 Similar : yellow/orange |
10
Contrasting : blue/red.
The first of my contrasting colour images, blue and red are placed a third
of the way round the colour circle from one another and are therefore one step
away from being complementary. These
colour combinations can be considered to be clashing and not very harmonious,
but they certainly attracted attention in what I felt was quite a discordant
way. The image shows some drinks set out
for a barbecue event and the red table cover and blue cooler box provide the
most dominant blocks of colour in the image.
The colours are repeated to a more limited extent further back in the
photograph with the plastic glasses and the other table corner as exemplified
in the sketch.
 |
| 10 Contrasting : blue/red |
11
Contrasting : red/yellow.
The red and yellow decoration on the sides of the Golden Hinde reconstruction in London are certainly eye catching
and demand attention, especially when they are set against a black background
as they are in the case of the ship.
Red/yellow is often used to draw attention to warning signs and I think
is the most potent and clashing of all the contrasting colour options. Whether Sir Francis Drake’s ship was ever
adorned with such lurid colours is open to speculation, but you certainly can’t
miss it!
 |
| 11 Contrasting : red/yellow |
12
Contrasting : orange/violet.
There are many examples of contrasting orange and violet in the floral
world and it is a colour signature that is often used to attract attention to
flower borders, as indeed was the case here with an image taken from Kew
Gardens in London. Several hundred
metres of border were planted with this combination and acted to almost
underline the stature of the Palm House where they were placed right across its
front elevation. I opted to go for a
close up view and set the frame so as to place the junction between the two
colours on a diagonal which I felt conferred more energy to the image in
addition to the clash of two such vibrant and contrasting colours.
 |
| 12 Contrasting : orange/violet |
13
Contrasting : orange/green.
This shot of Kew Palace was shot for the contrasting orange/green, but
it works in other ways as well I think.
Firstly, I needed to wait for the morning light to hit the front
elevation of the building and make the brickwork turn orange, which set it off
well against the complementary blue of the sky.
Secondly, the similar green/blue of the grass and sky were also
prominent. So complementary, contrasting
and similar all in the same shot.
 |
| 13 Contrasting : orange/green |
14
Colour accent : red.
This image was taken near The
Scoop on the London Embankment, and shows someone who was sketching the
area around. Much of The Scoop is granite and is a fairly
flat and monotonous grey, so the red jacket of the artist really made him stand
out from his environment – even the drink and his trousers blend into the
background to make the red accent of the jacket really catch the eye of the
viewer.
 |
| 14 Colour accent : red |
15 Colour accent : orange. This shot of the
London Eye was quite bland in colour with the clear exception of the one
capsule that was bright orange which was very prominent as a colour accent. I think the orange capsule set against the
blue of the sky makes a really harmonious combination from these two
complementary colours from opposite sides of the colour wheel.
 |
| 15 Colour accent : orange |
16
Colour accent : red.
This was shot from the cactus collection at Kew Gardens and shows one
single red flower as a colour accent. It
was one of the only flowers visible in a large carpet of cacti and as such
really stood out as an eye catching feature of the scene.
 |
| 16 Colour accent : red |
A moment for reflection ..
The Colour assignment has been harder work than
I was expecting it to be. It is indeed
straightforward, as my tutor had suggested at the outset, as there were few
exercises and a fairly clear assignment brief.
However, although I would not offer lack of focus over the summer of the
Olympics and a number of work commitments as an excuse, both certainly impacted
upon the continuity and flow of the work.
In Elements of Design in Assignment
2 I kept a steady pace with only minor breaks and I felt that this really
helped me to maintain the flow; Colour
was a rather fragmented affair and I think that is reflected in the output.
The most
significant issue I found with Colour
was that I ended up generating an eclectic mixture of images to capture the
colours I required which took me away from the focus I had intended to develop;
this had been one of the major successes of Elements
of Design and the London Embankment theme kept me on the straight and
narrow. My original intent with Colour was to develop a set of images
based on aspects of the natural world, but this was quickly usurped by the difficulty
found in capturing all the relevant colours.
Much of the world is green, certainly in the countryside at this time of
year, and that had a significant impact in pushing me towards a wider selection
of images. In future assignments I must retain
focus on my plan, and if circumstances push me outside its definition, then I
need to rethink the plan rather than expand its intent!
As far as the
actual colours go I learnt a lot from this section of the course, especially
through the research I did into the role of colour in emotion and its
significance in creating certain ‘feelings’.
The colour wheel and the way that colours complement or contrast with
one another was a revelation as I had not to this point really given that a
great deal of consideration in my photography, and I now feel that I am able to
add this to the thought processes behind my work generally and build on what I
have gleaned from this section of the course as I progress onwards to Light and beyond.
This is very thorough Dave (and colourful!). I hope you enjoy Light and also look forward to seeing you at the next Study Visit.
ReplyDelete