The Art of Photography – Exercise 24 – Exercise Primary and secondary colours

The following is a direct copy and has been Pasted in for future reference from the Art of Photography coursework PDF Doc. (pasted in Maroon)

6 photographs, or 18 if your camera allows you to adjust the exposure

For this exercise you are going to find scenes or parts of scenes that are each dominated by a single one of the primary and secondary colours. To produce images that match the six colours closely, you may find that you have to make a number of attempts. Don’t feel frustrated at the difficulty of making an exact match with each example – you will be refining your own ability to judge these colours. And don’t discard the images you take that are not quite right; you can use these in a later project.

With each colour that you find, vary the exposure slightly if your camera allows. To do this, make one exposure as the meter reading indicates, a second exposure half a stop brighter, and a third exposure half a stop darker. As you already discovered this will change the appearance of the colours. One of the three will more closely match the colours in the circle above, and for this exercise, select whichever is the closest match.

Take your time and don’t rush. There are two reasons for this. One is practical. If you set out to hunt quickly for all the colours for this exercise, you are likely to be reduced to photographing paint. By this, I mean that the easy, too-obvious option in shooting colour for colour’s sake is to photograph man-made decorative surfaces. This is not intended as total discouragement – most of the strong colours in most people’s daily lives are indeed artificial, and none the worse for that – but if you are photographing simple colours and choose to do this principally by choosing close-ups of, say, front doors of houses, then in essence you are really doing little more than photographing a paint manufacturer’s catalogue. So limit these types of choices as much as possible. It is much more satisfying to find colours that are less arbitrary. Spend time examining the natural colours of material – grey stone, for example, or the wealth of greens in vegetation, and the colours of flowers.

The second reason is that much of its value for you is in developing and refining your colour sense. In the course of looking for particular colours, you should find that not only is there an incredible diversity, but that some basic colours can vary much more than others. Green is notorious for this. And the next time you visit a department store, go to the cosmetic section and look at the size of the range of reds available in lipstick and nail polish.

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Equipment

Nikon D4

24/70  f2.8 lens

Tripod

Lightmeter

Method

With relevance to this exercise it’s an almost identical test I carried out when I first bought this camera and lens configuration one year ago. In order to really get to know a new camera and lens configuration quickly, I have always carried out and held it as a crucial learning curve to take a series of pictures as early as possible where you set up the camera on a tripod and take the same picture several times utilising different apertures and to track my process I write down the location, the camera settings and my initial thoughts and reasons for taking this picture. I also perform this test doing the same for both speed and ISO and finally after some familiarisation with the camera (more likely on another days shoot) I introduce other camera setting combinations, such as in camera effects and various other aids that might help towards capturing a better picture. To perform these tests I go to a location that is familiar to me which  allows more camera time opportunity rather than thinking about the way around the new venue. I end up with a large collection of the same subject but it does provide a very quick way of understanding what the camera can and cant do.

Please see pictures and captions below.

Note – all pictures have been compressed hence there will be a quality reduction when enlarging.

Primary Colour – Blue

Picture 1a                                     Picture 1b                                   Picture 1c

• Picture 1a – Under exposed by 2/3^rd of a stop – Speed 160^th second.
• Picture 1b – Correct Exposure – Speed 250^th second.
• Picture 1c – Over Exposed by 2/3^rd of a stop – Speed 400^th second.

Pictures 1a, b & c

The above pictures were taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f2.8, focal length 70mm, ISO 640.

The original image has also been cropped by approx. 50%

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Secondary Colour – Violet

Picture 2a                                     Picture 2b                                   Picture 2c

• Picture 2a – Under exposed by 2/3^rd of a stop – Speed 320^th second.
• Picture 2b – Correct Exposure – Speed 500^th second.
• Picture 2c – Over Exposed by 2/3^rd of a stop – Speed 800^th second.

Pictures 2a, b & c

The above pictures were taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f5.6, focal length 70mm, ISO 100.

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Secondary Colour – Green

Picture 3a                                     Picture 3b                                  Picture 3c

• Picture 3a – Under exposed by 2/3^rd of a stop – Speed 80^th second.
• Picture 3b – Correct Exposure – Speed 125^th second.
• Picture 3c – Over Exposed by 2/3^rd of a stop – Speed 200^th second.

Pictures 3a, b & c

The above pictures were taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f11, focal length 70mm, ISO 125.

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Secondary Colour – Orange

Picture 4a                                     Picture 4b                                 Picture 4c

• Picture 4a – Under exposed by 2/3^rd of a stop – Speed 250^th second.
• Picture 4b – Correct Exposure – Speed 400^th second.
• Picture 4c – Over Exposed by 2/3^rd of a stop – Speed 640^th second.

Pictures 4a, b & c

The above pictures were taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f18, focal length 70mm, ISO 1000.

The original image has also been cropped by approx. 50%

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Primary Colour – Red

Picture 5a                                    Picture 5b                                 Picture 5c

• Picture 5a – Under exposed by 2/3^rd of a stop – Speed 50^th second.
• Picture 5b – Correct Exposure – Speed 80^th second.
• Picture 5c – Over Exposed by 2/3^rd of a stop – Speed 125^th second.

Pictures 5a, b & c

The above pictures were taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f16, focal length 56mm, ISO 250.

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Primary Colour – Yellow

Picture 6a                                    Picture 6b                                 Picture 6c

• Picture 6a – Under exposed by 2/3^rd of a stop – Speed 2500^th second.
• Picture 6b – Correct Exposure – Speed 4000^th second.
• Picture 6c – Over Exposed by 2/3^rd of a stop – Speed 6400^th second.

Pictures 6a, b & c

The above pictures were taken with a 24/70mm lens, aperture of f4.5, focal length 58mm, ISO 250.

The original image has also been cropped by approx. 50%

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What have I learnt from this exercise

As in exercise twenty three, I have learnt that the metered exposures are not always the most pleasing as they can sometimes prove harder on the eye than pictures leaning more towards the underexposed side.

Thoughts and Reflection

I know white balance plays a big part in this matter it can make some colours appear hard whilst others soft and don’t forget the white balance trait of warm versus cold. I also know that some digital camera brands have a tendency to deliver some colours better than others. As for the pictures above several are very passable but my own opinion favours the slightly under exposed rather than the harder hitting brightness bordering overexposure.

Below I have listed my regular approach when outside the house taking pictures in day light.

• I always have my lightmeter to hand which is my main source of metering exposure, it has also been accurately calibrated to my cameras performance.
• Some colours are harder to capture and are easily overexposed more so than others, and upon picture review in Adobe RAW they enter the 255 saturation point, thus somewhat spoiling the captured image (Reds in particular with my current camera).
• Darker colours need more exposure than lighter colours.
• Take caution when photographing a subject containing both shaded and direct sun light.
• If it’s a crucial picture of importance plan the time of day when you visit.
• Some colours are better emphasised in hard light using a polarised filter.