In the last section of the course, I focused on producing monochrome images, and my assignment submission was entirely monochrome. This was to concentrate on the various different elements of design and remove the distraction of colour.
I now aim to incorporate what I have learnt about the various considerations in designing / composing an image into colour photography, and where possible make the colours in my images the strongest influence on how the pictures are seen.
Primary Colours
Concentrating on mixing of coloured light, for releveance to photography, the three primaries for transmitted light are red, green & blue (RGB).
Colour printing uses the opposite colours: cyan, magenta & yellow (CMY), with black added for extra density (CMYK).
This is the technical way of dealing with colour, the other way being perecptual. The perceptual way of dealing with colour follows the painter's primaries of red, yellow and blue.
What makes a colour?
Hue - the colour you can categorise something.
Saturation - scale of the intensity of the colour, i.e. from 'pure, intense, saturated' to 'dull, weak, unsaturated'.
Brightness - e.g. very bright through to very dark
Colour relationships
To create a good balance from the various hues and their darkness / lightness the different brightness of each colour should be considered. The values assigned to the six colours of the circle are:
Yellow - 9
Orange - 8
Red & Green - 6
Blue - 4
Violet - 3
The ideal ratio of the colour contents for the three painter's primaries and their complementary opposites are therefore:
Red: green - 1:1
Orange: blue - 1:2
Yellow: violet - 1:3
One should not be confined to these proportions though. The tension created from an imbalance can be more appealing, as it is less predictable.
William Eggleston's image Sumner, Mississipi is heavily imbalanced and yet that is what makes it interesting. The proportion of the pinkish red hue of the chairs and lampshade is small in comparison with the vast amount of green on the walls, curtains and clothing. While the proportions of each colour in the frame suggested by J W Von Goethe would ideally be 1:1, the excess coverage of green here affords extra strength and warmth to the pink (red).
Warm and Cool Colours
Some colours appear cool and others warm, in terms of association and how they are perceived. At one end of the spectrum blue-green is coolest and orange-red is warmest. Opposites create an obvious yet well balanced contrast.
In some instances it can be rather effective for an image to appear entirely warm or cool. This is particularly notable in the work or Trevor Paglan. Keyhole 12-13 (IMPROVED CRYSTAL) Optical Reconnaisance Satelite Near Scorpio appears very warm with its predominant orange hue, while there is a clear coolness from the entirely blue image Lacrosse /Onynx II Passing Through Draco. Another of his images, They Watch The Moon, is comprised virtually only in shades of green, perceived as cool, with just a small amount of warmth emanating from the orange lights. The warmth of the orange contrasts with the cool green, and occupies such a small part of the frame that it is out of proportion. The orange provides a colour accent.
The use of warm or cool colours can also appear in contrast to the subject or story behind an image. In issue 71 of Source some images from Richard Mosse's exhibition, Pretty Manacing, demonstrate this to strong effect. Images of scenes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, that depict serious subject matter, are striking visually due to the saturation and brightness of the red hues used where one would expect greens. On the one hand the unfamiliarity created from this use of hue is appealing as it appears warm and soft. At the same time it adds weight to the subject as it seems rather incongruous, while certainly not making light of the subject.
I understand the effect was achieved using Kodak Aerochrome, which was developed for military use, reversing the colour. Particularly poignant when you consider the military and conflict related subject matter. The image General Février shows a soldier with his rifle partially hidden by his torso. With his uniform and beret appearing pink to red, as does the plant life behind him, the tone of the image itself is softened, which is somewhat surreal and out of place.
References
Eggleston, W. (2002) William Eggleston's Guide. Second edition. New York, The Museum of Modern Art.
Paglen, T. (2012) Frontier Photography. Brighton: Lighthouse.
Gidley, M. 2012) Pretty Menacing, Richard Mosse, Open Eye Gallery. Source. Summer 2012 (ISSUE 71), page 62-63.
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