Photography 1: The Art of Photography

Project: What makes a colour
Exercise: Control the strength of a colour

For this exercise I chose a brightly coloured shirt and photographed it outside.  The photographs were taken in bright morning sunlight.  A polarizing filter would have helped to increase the colour saturation.

The first photograph, (7558) was taken using the settings suggested by the camera.  Two photographs were taken either side of this setting, changing the exposure by one F-stop each time.  The sequence of exposures was as follows:

1/125 sec at f10, f11, f13, f14, f16.

The images produced are shown below:

7560; Nikon D300; 18-105mm lens; 1/125s; F10

 

7559; Nikon D300; 18-105mm lens; 1/125s; F11

7558; Nikon D300; 18-105mm lens; 1/125s; F13

7561; Nikon D300; 18-105mm lens; 1/125s; F14

7562; Nikon D300; 18-105mm lens; 1/125s; F16

What have I learned from this exercise?

The photograph taken using the settings recommended by the camera gives a reasonable rendition of the colour of the shirt.  Using a polarizing filter would help to eliminate some of the reflection of the sun from the cloth.  This would very likely have produced a more saturated colour in the photograph.

Increasing the amount of light entering the camera, by reducing the F-number has resulted in a certain "bleaching out" or the colours in the photograph being less saturated.  Conversely, reducing the amount of light entering the camera by increasing the F-number has resulted in the colours in the photograph appearing to be richer and stronger or more saturated.

Colour can define form, set a mood and evoke emotion.  Colour in the landscape can tell us the time of year and the time of day.  It has the ability to make us feel cold, warm, happy or sad.  Yellows and oranges evoke feelings of warmth and well-being, blues chill and reds blaze.  Colours can pick-up (or bring-down) the mood of a photograph.