Exercise - Colour Relationships 2

The other half of this exercise is to look at images which show appealing colour combinations and think about why they work and whether they are balanced or imbalanced.

Example 1.

Poppies. ISO 200, f/10, 272mm efl, 1/200 sec

This image uses 2 primary colours (red and blue), small touches of the third (yellow) and a secondary colour (green). The warm colour red is at the front and comes even further forward perceptually while the cold colour (blue) recedes. This is  gives great apparent depth to the picture. Although there is less red than either blue or green the intensity of the colour makes it stand out. It is not totally balanced but your eye is drawn to the poppies.

Example 2.

Iris. ISO100, f/4, 90mm efl, 1/800 sec

 Here the violet colour stands out against the yellow, partly because it is the foreground and partly because the yellow is a less saturated colour. This gives a reverse of the balanced effect of a small amount of yellow against a large amount of violet, however still gives a satisfying image.


Example 3.

Poppies by the Sea. ISO 100, f/5, 90mm efl,1/320 sec.

The colours here are the 3 secondary colours, orange,violet and green, backed by a relatively unsaturated blue. The actual amount of all the colours is fairly equal, but the poppies stand out because of the extreme saturation and and brightness of the orange. The image, however, remains slightly unbalanced and could possibly have done with more blue at the top.

Example 4.

Boat for Sale!  ISO250, f/9, 316mm efl, 1/200

A very simple combination of blue background (receding) and a vibrant red boat. This was a far distance out from the shore and the boat still caught the eye. The saturation of the red helps balance the larger amount of the blue.

Lessons learned.

1. Red (and orange) even in fairly small amounts catch the eye and draw it to the object that id that colour.
2. An even balance in the colours can be satisfying but doesn't always give an tension to the picture and is therefore less interesting.
3. Many of the photographs I take do not have any 'pure' colours in them, they are often less saturated or blends.

Exercise - Colour Relationships

This exercise is based on Von Goethe's colour relationships which suggest that a balance between colours depends not only on the colour but also on the hue, and therefore, to make the most of a balance between colours you need to vary the amount of the colour.

The ideal proportions suggested are:

• red:green 1:1
• orange to blue 1:2
• yellow:violet 1:3

Red: green. Watermelon. ISO 400, f/11, 90mm efl, 1/60 sec

Orange:blue. Pittencrieff House. ISO 100, f/5, 28mm efl, 1/1000 sec

Yellow:violet. Flowers and leaves. ISO 400, f/10, 90mm efl, 1/40 sec

These are near (as possible) to colour balance, and while soothing are also rather boring with little tension in the image, and, therefore, little need to look intensely at the picture for any length of time.

Exercise - Balance

The object of this exercise is to look at the balance within images. This may be given by specific items within the image or by masses of colour or dark and light. I deliberately picked a random selection of pictures to avoid also selecting ones with obvious shapes.

Example 1

 

The balance here is fairly easy to see and is partly given by the shapes and partly by the contrast between light/dark. The eye is drawn diagonally across the image from bottom left to top right. The image is rather ‘top-heavy’ but it still makes for an interesting picture.

Example 2

 

In this case the balance can be looked at from left to right as shown in this diagram and  also as a vertical balance around the horizontal centre line. The vertical halves are evenly balanced while the horizontal halves are shifted to the right and the heavy weight of the buildings is contrasted by the curve of the bridge giving a degree of tension to the image.

Example 3

There is a simple balance here between the dark lower half and the bright upper half, but here is also a more complex balance betwwn the V-shape of the bridge platform and the division in the water against the curve of the upper part of the  bridge and the taut diagonal support lines

Example 4.

The balance in this image is between the dark and heavy wight of the houses against the larger but lighter and brighter sky. Although the sizes of the two parts are very different they balance well because of the differing mass of the light and dark areas.

Example 5

          

This is a very simple example of balance as all the weight of the picture is central and forms a V shape  directing attention at the snowy boots.