Photography 1: The Art of Photography

Project: Building a library of colours.
Exercise: Primary and secondary colours.

For this exercise I looked for scenes or parts of scenes that were each dominated by a single one of the primary and secondary colours.  The primary colours are yellow, red, blue and green.  Secondary colours, such as green, violet and orange can be thought of as mixtures of the primary colours.

With each of the colours found and photographed, I varied the exposure slightly for each of photographs.  The first exposure was made as the camera's meter reading indicated, a second exposure was made half a stop darker, and a third exposure half a stop brighter.  This changed the appearance of the colours.  I selected the exposure that more closely matched the colours in the circle printed in the course book.  The three photographs of each scene are shown below:

Yellow (Primary Colour)

4981.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/11; 1/750s

4982.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/11; 1/1000s

4983.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/11; 1/500s

Image number 4982 has yellow that is closest to that in the course book.  This photograph had been underexposed by half a stop.  This underexposure also gives a brighter, more saturated colour.

Orange (Secondary Colour)

4997.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/5.6; 1/45s

4998.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/5.6; 1/60s

4999.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/5.6; 1/30s

Image number 4998 has orange that is closest to that in the course book.  This photograph had been underexposed by half a stop.  This underexposure also gives a brighter, more saturated colour.

Red (Primary Colour)

5014.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/6.7; 1/90s

5015.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/6.7; 1/125s

5016.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/6.7; 1/60s

Image number 5014 has red that is closest to that in the course book.  This photograph had been exposed using the settings recommended by the camera.

Purple (Secondary Colour)

5023.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/6.7; 1/125s

5024.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/6.7; 1/180s

5025.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/6.7; 1/90s

Image number 5023 has purple that is closest to that in the course book.  This photograph had been exposed using the settings recommended by the camera.


Blue (Primary Colour)

5041.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/5.6; 1/250s

5042.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/5.6; 1/350s

5043.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/5.6; 1/180s

Image number 5041 has blue that is closest to that in the course book.  This photograph had been exposed using the settings recommended by the camera.

Green (Secondary Colour)

5029.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/6.7; 1/45s

5030.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/6.7; 1/60s

5031.jpg; Pentax *istD; 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter; F/6.7; 1/30s

Image number 5030 has green that is closest to that in the course book.  This photograph had been underexposed by half a stop.  This underexposure also gives a brighter, more saturated colour.

What have I learned from this exercise?

Finding pure colours in the natural world is very difficult.  Secondary colours can be thought of as mixtures of the primary colours.  Green is a colour that appears in extremely varied tones.  Orange is a mixture of red and yellow, and has some of the fiery, intense qualities of red as well as some of the brightness of yellow.  Violet is between red and blue, a rich, deep and subtle colour.

The three main characteristics of colour are hue, tone and intensity.  Hue is the actual colour wavelength, such as red, green or blue.  Tone refers to the gradation of the light and shade of a colour; tone helps to give the subject form.  Intensity is the saturation of the colour, or how pure it is.

Colour has an emotional as well as a visual impact on the viewer.  By using colours consciously you can change how the perspective appears in an image.  Warm shades of red, yellow and orange advance in the picture frame, for example, while cool shades of blue, green and cyan recede.