Assignment: COLOR
Choose ONE Color to explore this week with your images.
Choose what one color you want to explore. Write it down.
5 extra credit points - Submit the color in the extra credit portal within Canvas with the color you choose -
This must be submitted by the Thursday before the project is due.
Basics: Color (emotion of color)
Warm colors are stimulating.
- Oranges, reds, golds, and browns - these colors are associated with fire, heat and sun.
- Warm colors can make an object seem heavy and dense.
- Warm colors can make a space feel smaller and inviting.
- Warm colors jump out at the viewer.
Cool colors are calming.
- Light blues, greens, and purples - these colors are associated with cloud cover, snow, and in their darker shades, night.
- Cool colors make objects seem light and airy.
- Cool colors recede.
Different shades of a color can evoke different emotions and moods.
Red - Warm - The eye goes right to this color. This is a passionate color, the color of life. This color is used to stop us in our tracks.
- Romance, blood, violence, pain, anger, explosive, important.
Orange - Warm - An extroverted color. Orange and yellow colors catch people’s eyes and are used for warnings.
- Enthusiasm, happy, energetic, joy, calming, autumn and sunsets.
Yellow - Warm - Can be irritating if too bright. Color of the sun.
- Happy, energetic, electric, delicate, intelligent, critical, loud, fearful, turbulent.
Green - Nature’s color - Balanced.
- Calm, tranquil, restful, growth, prosperous, vibrant, uplifting, hopeful, fresh, growth, soothing, envy, greed.
White - Soft - Creates a sense of space, and is associated with weddings.
- Bright, healthy, cheerful, purity, virtuous, clean, good, cold, distant.
Pink - Soft - Creates a sense of space.
- Feminine, innocent, gentle, nurturing, romance.
Blue - Cool - Dark and medium shades are calming, lighter shades are icy.
- Sadness, fear, depression, relaxation, serenity, reflection, peace, harmony, cool, relaxed, contemporary, trustworthy, inviting.
Black - Formal, strong, powerful, sophisticated, commited, edgy, evil, death.
Brown - Unexciting, reliable, honest, earthy, sturdy, rustic.
Purple - Royalty, romantic, comfort, luxury, modern, healthy, mystical, religion, bruised, beaten.
What color associations do you have? What can you add to the list? When making images be aware that colors will resonate with your viewer. Use this knowledge to push your viewer towards your message/story/content.
•Google your color choice - What did you learn? Write it down in your notebook. Writing down what you learn helps to reinforce your memory and understanding. What is the symbolism of the color, culturally or metaphorically. How can you use that to build your images and ideas?
Basics: Color (white balance)
Color photography has been around since 1935, when Eastman Kodak introduced the first modern "integral tripack" color film and called it Kodachrome. This is your history lesson for today. Most of us love color photographs. But to make great color images you need to understand color theory and white balance.
Images are warm (yellow/red) or cool (blue). The time of day alters the color temperature (hue) of the scene. Each artificial lighting source has its own color temperature (hue). Color temperature is measured in degrees Kelvin (K) on a scale from 1,000 to 10,000.
Your camera has Auto, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Daylight, Flash, Cloudy, Shade as the preset white balance options. You can also create your own WB setting to be saved in the camera in the Manual/Preset option. Your camera may have the option for you to set the Kelvin value in addition to the WB options. All of this information is found in your camera manual.
Extra Credit - White Balance Presets
5 extra credit points:
•Photograph one scene with each of your White Balance camera presets.
•Name each file with the preset used.
•Submit the Images in the extra credit portal within Canvas - WB Preset
•These must be submitted when the project is due - No Late extra credit will be accepted.
•Images must be submitted in the extra credit portal.
Go explore the Presets. Take a shot of your chosen scene with each of the presets selected. How many images did you make? What did you see and learn? Try this with a few different lighting conditions - Indoor: Fluorescent - Tungsten - - Outdoor: Sunny - Cloudy
At times we want to neutralize the color cast in an image, at other times we want to push the color further. We do not want to neutralize the color of a sunset. We would lose the mood and emotion of the scene. If we were shooting for CocaCola, we would want to make the CocaCola red be as accurate a representation of the color as possible. If you were shooting a portrait in someone’s home, a warmer WB might be desirable. Outside at mid-day you would have a cooler/bluer look to your image.
Shooting in RAW gives you the greatest control over the WB in post production. With a RAW file all of the information your camera can gather with today’s technology is recorded and available to you to use when post processing the image on your computer. Shooting in .JPG gives you less control over the image because the .JPG image is processed and compressed in the camera.
There is no one correct way to approach white balance in camera or in post production. What is correct is that your image looks good!
White Balance explained:
https://photographypro.com/white-balance/
•How are you going to represent the color in your images?
•Is the color a dominant element in the image? How can you make the color a dominant element in the image?
•Tint the image with your color. Can you use your camera’s White Balance to tint the image? Can you use Lightroom Mobile to tint the image? Could you photograph through a transparent color? Lace? Saran Wrap? Plastic tinted with the color? What else? How else might you tint an image?
•Photograph during the Blue Hour.
The blue hour is the period of twilight when the sun is at a significant depth below the horizon and residual, indirect sunlight takes on a predominantly blue shade, which differs from the one visible during most of a clear day, which is caused by Rayleigh scattering.
•Photograph during the Golden Hour.
In photography, the golden hour is the period of daytime shortly after sunrise or before sunset, during which daylight is redder and softer than when the sun is higher in the sky. The period of time right before sunrise and shortly after sunset is called the "magic hour,”
•Make a list of what and how you might photograph.
What objects/subject? What is your content/meaning of the images you want to make? What do you want your viewer to feel or see? Could motion in the image evoke the color, the idea of the color? How could exposure help emphasize your color?
•If the image is about color that is the first thing we should see.
•Shoot a minimum of 100 images to select your 10.
-The focus of this project is Color. As you look for your color of choice, take note of how the color is impacting your image and content.
•All images must be shot and conceived for this project. No old images will be accepted.
•You will choose 10 images to edit in Adobe LRMobile.
-All images must be edited.
-All images must be properly exposed and in focus.
-All images must have a strong composition, cropped or straightened if needed.
-Cloning or healing if needed.
-Use a profile, color or black and white. Use a preset if desired.
•Create an album for those 10 edited images and submit the URL through Canvas.
-In Share and Invite, turn on Anyone Can View.
-In the Link Settings, turn on, Show Metadata - Show Location - Allow JPG Downloads.
•In the comments:
-Tell me how many images you made for this project.
-Tell me the one color you chose.
-Any thought about the work including any questions you might have.
-Tell me how you used color in the image. Be specific as to how the color affects the content/meaning of the image.
-Tell me the specific edits made for each image.
-The album must stay live for one week past the semester’s end. Any deleted album will delete your grade for the project.
Links:
Creating a Custom White Balance in Camera.
These concepts are the same for all cameras.
Pull out your manual or google your specific device for a How To:
-Using the LRM Camera, you can even set up a custom WB.
https://camerajabber.com/how-to-set-white-balance-manually-camera/
Inspired:
Angélica Dass
Website:
https://angelicadass.com/
Article: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/4000-skin-colors-in-pantone-squares-1254683
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/angelicadass/
TED Talk – The beauty of human skin in every color
https://angelicadass.com/public-speaking/ted-the-beauty-of-human-skin-in-every-color-vancouver-canada/
Arthur Meyerson:
https://www.arthurmeyerson.com/
The Color of Japan - 2018
https://www.arthurmeyerson.com/work/portfolio/color-japan-2018/
Mexico - Land of Color
https://www.arthurmeyerson.com/work/portfolio/mexico-land-color/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arthurmeyerson/
Book:The Journey
http://www.arthurmeyerson.com/shop/book/the-journey/
Steve McCurry
https://www.stevemccurry.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/stevemccurryofficial/?hl=en
