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Wk 5 - Colour

Colour

Understanding how colours work is an art in itself.  We looked at the the colour wheel and how colours fit together.  Using colours to produce photos can be further enhance the mood of a photo.


The colour wheel has three primary colours (red, blue and yellow), these colours are mixed to make other colours. 

Colours can be split into temperatures. The wheel is divided through the middle from yellow/yellow green to violet/violet red with the warm colours based around the orange and the cool around the blue.
 
  • Warm colors — such as red, yellow, and orange; evoke warmth because they remind us of things like the sun or fire.
  • Cool colors — such as blue, green, and purple (violet); evoke a cool feeling because they remind us of things like water or grass.


 When warm colours and cool colours are used together they are called contrasting colours.
Another way of using colour is by matching colours which sit opposite each other on the colour wheel these are called complimentary colours. 
f/16, 1/60, ISO 100

Here is my example of contrasting colours.  Taken when the sun was setting in the Manukau Habour.  The warm colours are in the sunlight which has yellow orange and red orange.  The cool colours are reflected in the blue green of the sky and blue of the water.  To frame the shot, i chose branches from a tree.  I used lines of the hills, the branches and the reflection of the light on the water to move the eye around the photo and keep the viewers attention.


f4.5, 1/50, ISO 200

Here is my example of complimentary colours.  They are violet and yellow.  I can see that i didn't focus really well in this photo.  I can hear Ben Long from Lynda.com saying how the LCD doesn't provide an exact view of your photos.  I'm starting to realize how true this is, just over the last couple of days since we have been chasing the early morning and late afternoon light many of the photos which i thought were good have come up on photoshop nothing like i thought they would be.  I have learnt a few good lessons about this a) take more shots of the same subject in different angles b) use the tripod more c) slow down!!
f/16, 1/50, ISO 200  - Photoshop view
Camera view
 Well not entirely, i obviously photoshop'ed the second photo.  On my LCD screen the image looks a bit similar to that of the second photo.  Colours are different and also sometimes when i take a photo the photo on the screen looks like its in focus, but then when i open it up on bridge its not.

f/13, 1/30, ISO 1000
I have no idea why my ISO was sooooo high!!! eeeeh its just craziness
f/20, 1/20, ISO 3200
I just clicked why my ISO was up on that day - "confessions" i was having some trouble with my photos being underexposed so i switched the ISO onto auto while i adjusted the aperture and shutter speed obviously i didn't switch to manual settings when i took these.  

Anyway... i swear to you that when i took these photos they seemed pretty focused, but i do recall that when i was taking this the camera was having trouble focusing on it because of the colour.

Below are some colour examples -
f/5.6, 0.5, ISO 200
Complimentary colours - Red and Green
f/5.6, 1/6, ISO 200
 Complimentary colours - Orange and blue
f/5, 0.5, ISO 100
Complimentary colours - Violet and yellow

f/11, 0.3, ISO 800
Contrasting colours - yellow and blue
f/16, 1/60, ISO 100
Contrasting colours - yellowy orange and blue

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