Chris Fedderson — MacroFine Musings Kathy Lawler, Guest Blogger [This post is an elaboration on the fourth point I made in my post of November 10, 2015 Five ways to raise your photo IQ (Interest Quotient)] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Color is a complicated subject — I’ve touched on it before — and is one of the five biggies in a photograph — along with focus, composition, lighting, and your hook. There are countless articles you can read on Color Theory; it seems you can spend a lifetime studying color interplay. But it is very helpful to know what colors work well together and why. As we saw recently with the blue/black or white/gold dress fiasco, color is powerful and varied — given how the image is photographed, and on how you, the viewer, interpret the colors. The original dress photo was overexposed and the white balance was off. While this phenomenon was interesting for a few minutes, you don’t want your images to be this misunderstood. Here the basic color wheel shows the relationship between colors. You will find that knowing and considering even the basics of color and color wheels can help make your photos dynamic. Let’s discuss how to use this understanding to your advantage. The language surrounding color can be a mystery so let’s take a look at a few terms that will help you.
How these characteristics work together is what you want to consider to help you to create a dramatic image. The color wheel will help you think about color in an organized way and will explain how colors can be combined for a variety of effects. If you are a nature photographer, the good news is that nature does at lot of this stuff for you, your job is to capture it. For studio work you will need to put a little more consideration into your backgrounds and set-ups. Here is a basic color wheel that shows the relationship between colors. You will find that knowing and considering even the basics of color and color wheels can help make your photos dynamic. Let’s discuss how to use this understanding to your advantage. Here are few types of dynamic color combinations to experiment with: Complimentary colors — these are opposite each other on the color wheel and can create striking color combinations. For example, a red flower against green leaves produces a beautiful contrast. Analogous colors are next to each other on the color wheel and are pleasing combinations and often occur in nature. Think of fall leaves: red, orange, and yellow. Now pair that with a blue sky and you have used complimentary with analogous colors. Stunning! Just look here! Warm colors vs. cool colors. These can make an object recede or move forward in the image. Imagine how powerful that could be in your image! You may think you don’t have control over the color in your images as you shoot images in nature or how you set up a photo shoot. This is where some color knowledge, and what you consider when shooting, comes into play.
Are you shooting a red flower and your angle has you shooting against dirt? If so, consider adjusting your angle to put a better color combination or a more dynamic one into the background. If you looked at the flower from a different angle — from the right or left or higher or lower — perhaps there is a better background color with which you can compliment the red flower. Are there green leaves in the background on one side if you bend down and shoot from the side rather than from the top? Warm colors, red and yellow for example, will advance in a scene (look to be more in the foreground) vs. cool colors, blues and greens, will recede (appear more in the background). You can see how important considering color combinations is and how they will influence the outcome of your images. These are just a few basic color combination examples, but you will learn as you study color which combinations give you the look you are striving for; the look that is unique to your work. And, as always, breaking the rules after you learn them is what leads to your unique look and feel. And it’s fun. Happy coloring! Thank You for visiting, — Kathy Lawler, guest blogger P.s. Experiment with unusual combinations and tell us how these worked out. What are your favorite color combinations? What do they “do” for you? Have you noticed the occurrence of the use of any color-play in life? [… think Denny’s color scheme] What affect did these uses produce?
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Chris Fedderson — MacroFine Musings [This post is an elaboration on the third point I made in my post of November 10, 2015, Five ways to raise your photo IQ (Interest Quotient)] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ But not just any light . . . Is it sunlight? Fluorescent light? Candle light? Side light? Back light? Bright light? Diffused light? Colored light? Mottled light? Half-shadowed light? It gets worse… what temperature is the light? I don’t mean is it a hot day or a freezing day, but rather, what is the Kelvin Color Temperature? From Wikipedia: The color temperature of a light source is the temperature of an ideal black-body radiator that radiates light of comparable hue to that of the light source. What does that mean?! Yeah, I don’t know either. At least not in all its Technicolor Glory. In general terms, though, the Color Temperature that White Balance refers to is where a particular light falls on a scale from warm to cool, and covering this fully would be a book in itself. Your camera manual will likely have a chart showing this relationship — at least with regard to how it meshes with your camera’s setting choices. I’ve shown a simple chart here, but if you really want to read in-depth, you might start with Wikipedia or these guys or maybe these other guys. Since I do most of my shooting outside in daylight, and since daylight white balance is probably the easiest color temperature for the camera to determine, I often delegate this chore to the camera’s computer. I use Auto-WB a vast majority of the time. But, I do look at the different WB settings available to see what differences it might make. These shots show the camera overlaying the menu control on the monitor image to give you an indication of what the specific WB setting will produce. It is only an indication, though, so experiment to see how this might enhance your imagery.
You can also set a custom WB. Probably most applicable to strict studio work where you don’t have pure daylight but maybe a mix of daylight from a window (a very, variable light source) mixed with artificial light from incandescent or fluorescent lights of who-knows-what temperature, and possibly your flash added in. You’ll find the instructions to do this in your camera manual. So after all that, you decided to just use Auto White Balance? OK, but you’re not out of the woods, yet! There are still potential issues related to an over abundance of — or lack of — light on and around your subject, i.e., the quantity of light.
These problems can all be addressed by one, or both, of two solutions. You need to either add light or you need to reduce light at a given spot. I’m not going to cover flash here — that, too, could be a book in itself — but rather some techniques for rearranging the available light; for bringing light to a subject and for reducing the light falling on your subject. Of course you can buy all sorts of reflectors, shades, umbrellas, diffusers, and don’t even start talking about light sources! But you can also do a very serviceable job with little-to-no expense.
When you want to expand on these light-altering techniques, there are more things you can try: metering tricks, exposure compensation, and of course, flash and other external light sources. So try everything you can think of, and have fun experimenting! This image, Lily Grace, shows use of metering to achieve unique lighting. I’ll cover use of metering in a future post . . . So Don’t Touch That Dial!
Thank You for visiting, — Chris P.s. What really Outside-the-Box things did you try? What worked? What didn’t? What gave you great — unexpected — results? What are you going to try next? Chris Fedderson — MacroFine Musings Kathy Lawler, Guest Blogger ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Art should be dynamic… in more ways than just one. I grew up the mountains of Southern California and my mother had a picture of the ocean over our mantle. My mom was questioned about this image a lot; no one could understand why she wouldn’t have a mountain scene in our home. My mother patiently explained to visitors that she could look out the window and see trees and mountains anytime she wanted. But she couldn’t see the ocean. Growing up with a rule-breaker gave me a different slant on life — to say the least — and it is no wonder that I am now always mixing up our Art in our home. We are avid collectors of Art. We have been doing Art Fairs for over 30 years and have amazing work that we enjoy, not only because we know the artist, but also because we appreciate all the love, hours, and creativity that went into each and every piece. It is not surprising that we have more work than we can display at one time. So we came up with a simple solution . . . We change out our art as the seasons change, or sometimes just to make a room feel new again, or to make room for a new piece we have just purchased. And it’s getting to be that time again in our household. This time around we are working with the upcoming change in seasons and are choosing to create a feeling of warmth with our art, since we are moving into the cooler months of the year. We took photos of the before and after so you can see how very small changes have created a whole new feeling in the same space and made the room feel ready for a long winter’s night. This is the current summer version of the space where we wanted to escape the summer heat and to feel cool and calm. The image, Reptile Ice, cools the viewer right down. Reptile Ice is a macro shot of Ice on Glass. We added a blue pillow on the sofa and a few pieces of artwork on the end table, including a ceramic vase and a beautiful blue blown glass piece, also adding to the cool and comfortable feeling. This next image shows the same space with a few different pieces. We traded out our cool feel to create a cozy space to relax and feel warm on a cool fall/winter night. As you can see, we removed the blue pillow and added another beige pillow to accent the fabulous image shown, Nature’s Fireworks, and the two additional pieces titled Traces. We traded out the ceramic piece and glass vase for a ceramic dish with pine cones and a crazy arrangement of fabric flowers, both of which compliment the images we choose to hang here. When the crazy cold starts, I will add a cozy throw to the mix for cuddling up on the sofa with a good book.
It is amazing how a few elements can change everything and make your home feel fresh and new. Wait until you see what we have planned for spring! Of course, that will be after Christmas and all the magic that season brings! Thank You for visiting, — Kathy Lawler, guest blogger P.s. Do you change up your home from time to time? Rearrange the furniture? Do you rotate your decor pieces? Do you have summer things and winter things that you switch out? Maybe sofa throws or throw pillows? Tell us all about it and we'll compare strategies! |
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About Chris
I am a Virginia-based photographer and gather my images while hiking in parks and natural areas here at home and in the locations I travel to. I also love to visit arboretums and botanic gardens to find unusual and exotic subjects. Archives
March 2017
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