Back to Photography After a Weather Delay
Another side effect of all the snowy weather was a cancellation of my weekly photography class a week ago. So we resumed this week with a class that focused on light and color.
This is my effort to create a hard light source photo!
There are two types of light: hard and soft. Hard light occurs when the light source is smaller than the subject being photographed and results in an image with shadows and texture. Soft light is indirect and is larger than the subject – for instance the light you would get outdoors on a cloudy day. Portraits are optimally taken using soft lighting conditions and Will discussed some common objects (like foam board or a windshield protector) that could be used to assist in creating soft lighting without having to buy expensive professional reflectors.
We spent time learning about the white balance button that is present on every camera, but which most of us had never touched. Colors can be cool or warm and our eyes can make adjustments that the digital camera cannot. The proper white balance will insure that your photo renders a more realistic color of the conditions you are photographing. I admit I am one of those photographers who relies on my editing software to correct color problems. The “correct” way to do this, however, is at the point of taking the image. My D90 has a wide choice of settings, and Will recommended that we try out all of them by photographing the same image using the different settings to get a better idea of which will give you a warm or cool tone. He also recommended Ken Rockwell’s site for a reference.
Color Wheel
Finally, we talked about color. Even though I’ve studied color at various times through my life, it is always good to hear a refresher and to learn about how it can influence your photographs. In digital photography, you are dealing with the RGB color model (CMYK has to do with printing) We looked at images that employed complementary colors (opposite hues on the color wheel) that result in making both colors appear more vivid or intense.
My effort at complementary colors
Then we discussed analogous colors – those that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. Using one color as the dominant one with one or two others can provide a very harmonious composition because they blend well together.
Analogous colors in my lava lamp.
It was helpful to learn that if you are photographing something that you want to convert to a black and white shot that you should steer clear of an analogous composition as there won’t be sufficient contrast.
The final color scheme we talked about was monochromatic, which are all the colors (tints, tones and shades) of a single hue. I think monochromatic photos can be very interesting because you can focus on creating a diversity of design in your composition, and use color symbolism to create a particular mood.
A monochromatic detail from Will Garin’s “Link”
I’ve managed to complete most of our assignments for this week and have shown them here: 5 photos: 1 hard light source, 1 soft light source (still TTD), 1 analogous colors, 1 complmentary colors & 1 monochromatic image.
