Friday, 1 October 2010
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Controlling the strength of a colour
At least this is something I can do, relying on the camera to change the exposure with a constant white balance. So here are the images untouched:-
Here are the images in order of increasing exposure, with the 'correct' metered exposure in the middle. What's clear is that the last over-exposed image is somewhat 'washed out'. Taking this to the extreme will give an image which I presume would be pure white - over exposed on all three red, green and blue channels.
Logically then the under-exposed images should have denser colour, as suggested in the course text. Have they to my eyes? Don't know! All I see is the darker images are just that, dark. In the first image, I'd describe the left side body of the flute to be perhaps green, whereas in the last images I'd say it was yellow. Similarly the right side of the instrument on the last image is a pinky colour?, whereas I'd guess the first image is dark red. The point is, right or wrong, I don't seem to have the words to describe the different shades, as I know they should really be shades of the same colour.
(an aside, I guess that makes sense - if our eyes have distinct colour sensors and mine are not working equally efficiently (eg. red less sensitive than blue), then at different levels of brightness, I will see colours start to change, and its this constant variation with brightness of illumination which perhaps confuses my brain into not being able to put a name to any colour).
As for under-exposing to create a more saturated image, I just see it as darker rather than any more saturated.
Here are the images in order of increasing exposure, with the 'correct' metered exposure in the middle. What's clear is that the last over-exposed image is somewhat 'washed out'. Taking this to the extreme will give an image which I presume would be pure white - over exposed on all three red, green and blue channels.
Logically then the under-exposed images should have denser colour, as suggested in the course text. Have they to my eyes? Don't know! All I see is the darker images are just that, dark. In the first image, I'd describe the left side body of the flute to be perhaps green, whereas in the last images I'd say it was yellow. Similarly the right side of the instrument on the last image is a pinky colour?, whereas I'd guess the first image is dark red. The point is, right or wrong, I don't seem to have the words to describe the different shades, as I know they should really be shades of the same colour.
(an aside, I guess that makes sense - if our eyes have distinct colour sensors and mine are not working equally efficiently (eg. red less sensitive than blue), then at different levels of brightness, I will see colours start to change, and its this constant variation with brightness of illumination which perhaps confuses my brain into not being able to put a name to any colour).
As for under-exposing to create a more saturated image, I just see it as darker rather than any more saturated.
The green fleece
Further to my last post, I've now increased the saturation of the colour in Photoshop, and sure enough, my wife is right!
Photography part 3 - Colour
Right, this is going to be a tough one since I'm colourblind....
Its strange that although I had suspicions, I never really knew I was colourblind until I applied to join the RAF, at the age of 35+. All through life to that point, I saw a perfectly reasonable view of the world, through my eye's at least, with nothing to suspect an issue.
It was just small things which suggested a problem - I can't distinguish between red and amber traffic lights, although strangely I can when watching tv. I've learned that the red light is on top with amber below - what's the big deal? The bigger issue now is that with photography, I can't distinguish between the red and green lights on various battery chargers around the house, much to the amusement of my wife, to whom its blatantly obvious which batteries have charged and which have not!
So when I went to the RAF and was presented with an Ishihara test and saw just spots, it was a surprise to learn that I should have been seeing numbers!
Not only am I colourblind, but I'm convinced I'm colour dyslexic since even when I'm supposed to be able to see a colour, I can't give it a name... so blue, purple, mauve etc... I can see they're different, but they're all various shades of blue to me and I can't give a name to them individually....
All of which makes this project and assignment somewhat challenging, to the point where its not easy to know where to start.
I've had a go by asking my wife to put post-it notes to various objects around the house with their colour marked on. I'm then gone around photographing them at various exposures as per the project. But even this wasn't straightforward as I did it in the evening under partial artificial light, meaning that only can I not see the colours, the camera gets in a mess with its white balance making the colours vary again!
Anyway, here are some of the shot. No points for artistry whatsoever but amusing to see on screen the colour of things around me which I've never really seen in a true light.....
The last one is interesting. I'm convinced this fleece is grey in real life, though I accept that on the screen its not, but quite what, I'll have to trust my wife!
Its strange that although I had suspicions, I never really knew I was colourblind until I applied to join the RAF, at the age of 35+. All through life to that point, I saw a perfectly reasonable view of the world, through my eye's at least, with nothing to suspect an issue.
It was just small things which suggested a problem - I can't distinguish between red and amber traffic lights, although strangely I can when watching tv. I've learned that the red light is on top with amber below - what's the big deal? The bigger issue now is that with photography, I can't distinguish between the red and green lights on various battery chargers around the house, much to the amusement of my wife, to whom its blatantly obvious which batteries have charged and which have not!
So when I went to the RAF and was presented with an Ishihara test and saw just spots, it was a surprise to learn that I should have been seeing numbers!
Not only am I colourblind, but I'm convinced I'm colour dyslexic since even when I'm supposed to be able to see a colour, I can't give it a name... so blue, purple, mauve etc... I can see they're different, but they're all various shades of blue to me and I can't give a name to them individually....
All of which makes this project and assignment somewhat challenging, to the point where its not easy to know where to start.
I've had a go by asking my wife to put post-it notes to various objects around the house with their colour marked on. I'm then gone around photographing them at various exposures as per the project. But even this wasn't straightforward as I did it in the evening under partial artificial light, meaning that only can I not see the colours, the camera gets in a mess with its white balance making the colours vary again!
Anyway, here are some of the shot. No points for artistry whatsoever but amusing to see on screen the colour of things around me which I've never really seen in a true light.....
The last one is interesting. I'm convinced this fleece is grey in real life, though I accept that on the screen its not, but quite what, I'll have to trust my wife!
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
July 2010
After a long delay over the summer, I've finally got round to publishing a new blog. In the intervening time, I've built a new computer, switched from Photoshop CS to the GIMP, broke a camera, suffered a family loss and tried and tried unsucessfully to combine photography and my other love, cycling.
Bottom line is, the number and quality of images I've been producing has been in decline. Nevertheless, I'm getting back into the groove now and hope to publish some more interesting shots in the coming weeks.
For now though, here are a number of shots which I've taken over the last few weeks, more or less loosely according to the brief in Chapter 2. Here goes:-
Converging lines
Converging lines #2
Implied triangle
Pattern
Rectangles
Pattern
Pattern
Triangles
Not clear, perhaps vertical lines and triangles
Implied lines
Bottom line is, the number and quality of images I've been producing has been in decline. Nevertheless, I'm getting back into the groove now and hope to publish some more interesting shots in the coming weeks.
For now though, here are a number of shots which I've taken over the last few weeks, more or less loosely according to the brief in Chapter 2. Here goes:-
Converging lines
Converging lines #2
Implied triangle
Pattern
Rectangles
Pattern
Pattern
Triangles
Not clear, perhaps vertical lines and triangles
Implied lines
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Rythm and pattern
Pattern of the clothes pegs on the line.
Pattern in the clothes basket
Patterns in the strawberry netting
Pattern in the tiles, with the addition of the cracked tile and white stain symmetrically placed on either side of the image.
Pattern in the back of the chair.
Project Shapes, p66-74
A long period since my last blog, not altogether quiet on the photography front, but not as much as I'd have liked to have done.
The majority of the shots here were taken digitally in the back garden. I've generally managed to find inspiration wherever I'd shot and I believe the discipline of shooting with fixed geographic boundaries forces me to spend more time concentrating on the shots and less time believing that the grass is always greener around the next corner.
Firstly, triangles, real and implied:-
A triangle formed in the shadow of the stones
Another picture of triangles, all leading to the circle at the 1/3rd.
Another picture of triangles
Next, squares and rectangles:-
A collection of squares formed by the (rotten) bottom of the garage doors.
Rectangle formed by the sunlight portion of the trees, bound by the telegraph pole, cable and horizontal shadow.
Two rectangles, light and shadow.
Next, circles and curves:-
Cut tree branch stump
Multiple circles, could have been a study on colour or perhaps implied triangles.
Beyond this, I tried to combine a number of shapes in a single image. Not sure if this is entirely successful though - fun to do but perhaps it dilutes the impact of the shot:-
Dominant rectangle of the entrance. I like the jaunty angle of the garden chair with its legs crossed - somehow almost looks human. In the shadows, there's the circle formed by the lawnmower
Lots of triangles in the silouette of the greenhouse, or is it a diamond?
Rectangles in the wall, and triangles in the pipework.
Dominant circle of course, but then there's the rectangle of the old sandpit leaning against the wall, the dark entrance again and the circles formed by both the water butt and the old tyre. The three circles form a diagonal bottom left to top right, which perhaps balances against the square top left.
Saw something in this image, though clearly its not strong. There's the implied triangle of the water trough, vertical line formed by the edge of the hedge on the right perhaps balanced by the canes top left, and the brick parts form an inverted triangle.
The exercise has been useful on a number of counts. First, it got me really looking for strong shapes in images to give them impact. It significantly broadened the subject matter I would normally take. Shooting early evening with the rapidly changing, I learned a lot about exposure, shooting manually with spot metering which I think has helped me to shoot images which are stronger in composition and less dull than some of my previous work.
The majority of the shots here were taken digitally in the back garden. I've generally managed to find inspiration wherever I'd shot and I believe the discipline of shooting with fixed geographic boundaries forces me to spend more time concentrating on the shots and less time believing that the grass is always greener around the next corner.
Firstly, triangles, real and implied:-
A triangle formed in the shadow of the stones
Another picture of triangles, all leading to the circle at the 1/3rd.
Another picture of trianglesNext, squares and rectangles:-
A collection of squares formed by the (rotten) bottom of the garage doors.
Rectangle formed by the sunlight portion of the trees, bound by the telegraph pole, cable and horizontal shadow.
Two rectangles, light and shadow.
Next, circles and curves:-
Cut tree branch stump
Multiple circles, could have been a study on colour or perhaps implied triangles.
Beyond this, I tried to combine a number of shapes in a single image. Not sure if this is entirely successful though - fun to do but perhaps it dilutes the impact of the shot:-
Dominant rectangle of the entrance. I like the jaunty angle of the garden chair with its legs crossed - somehow almost looks human. In the shadows, there's the circle formed by the lawnmower
Lots of triangles in the silouette of the greenhouse, or is it a diamond?
Rectangles in the wall, and triangles in the pipework.
Dominant circle of course, but then there's the rectangle of the old sandpit leaning against the wall, the dark entrance again and the circles formed by both the water butt and the old tyre. The three circles form a diagonal bottom left to top right, which perhaps balances against the square top left.
Saw something in this image, though clearly its not strong. There's the implied triangle of the water trough, vertical line formed by the edge of the hedge on the right perhaps balanced by the canes top left, and the brick parts form an inverted triangle.The exercise has been useful on a number of counts. First, it got me really looking for strong shapes in images to give them impact. It significantly broadened the subject matter I would normally take. Shooting early evening with the rapidly changing, I learned a lot about exposure, shooting manually with spot metering which I think has helped me to shoot images which are stronger in composition and less dull than some of my previous work.
Sunday, 2 May 2010
Part two - elements of design
A short posting here. I took some household items and created a couple of still life shots to explore some of the elements of design in the coursework, principally implied lines and triangles.
The use of black and white, and the texture of the worksurface adds some tonal interest to what is a strong image, but one lacking in real meaning.
For the first, I simply took a mug of tea and a torch, using the light from the torch to lead the eye in the direction of the mug. Its basic, and there's no real relationship between the use of a torch and the mug - if they had been related in some way, perhaps to use a spoon for example, there might just be some meaning in this image.
The use of black and white, and the texture of the worksurface adds some tonal interest to what is a strong image, but one lacking in real meaning.For the next image, I simply took some papers and a pen. The papers and the notepad form a clear triangle formed by the pen and the outline of the notepad, almost mirrored by the triangle formed by the typed letter.
However, its the directionality of the pen, leading the eye to the logo of the European Union which is the main issue. The letter was discussing compensation and what to do to claim it. Thus the pen becomes the instrument of the claim and the European Union is the implied provider. Perhaps the claim was sent on the torn off piece of paper, a scrap indicating the opinion of the writer regarding the EU?
Photographically, the strong lines attract the eye, though the right side of the type letter does weaken the composition by leading the eye away from the EU logo. However, this is partly compensated for by the strong colour of the EU paperwork which attracts the eye.
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