Art of Photography: Project 32 and 33

Projects 32 and 33 were to find and photograph primary and secondary colours, trying to get as close to the 'pure' colour as possible.

It was a rainy day so I was forced to try and find the colours at home, and also to make interesting pictures out of boring household items!

The primary colours are Red, Yellow and Blue.

The secondary colours are Orange, Violet and Green, and are created as follows:-

Orange is a mixture of Red and Yellow
Violet is a mixture of Red and Blue
Green is a mixture of Blue and Yellow.

Art of Photography: Project 31

Project 31 is an ongoing study in colour, to build a library of photographs capturing colour. The reason for doing this is to start to analyze and recognize colours, to learn about colours and develop a 'colour sense'.

As such I will post the pictures I have captured now, and continue to add more at later dates.









I liked looking for the many different types of green.


Here I was looking at the relationship between these two colours.




These three pinks are all the same colour with different exposures!

Art of Photography: Project 30

This project is the first of section 4, which looks at colour. The first project is to learn about how exposure can be used to change, or how it can effect, the brightness of colours. The images below were taken all taken at f/8 ISO200 at 100mm, and the shutter speed was changed for each to change exposure. The shutter speeds used were 1/90 sec, 1/125 sec, 1/180 sec, 1/250 sec and 1/350 sec and are displayed below in that order.







Looking at the variation in colour above, you can clearly see the huge difference in colour from varying exposures! I can honestly say I was not aware of just how much difference it could make before this project!

Of course this means that if you want to capture a colour accurately, the exposure will have to be correct to best represent the true colour you see. As will any brightness and contrast adjustments etc. Of course this makes total sense and seems obvious, but before now I might not have given this the consideration it deserves. For example I can remember having captured scenes where I had exposed for the best levels across the whole scene, and later wondered why the colours were duller than I had remembered. Now I can see that perhaps the exposure wasn't as good for those colours and didn't represent them accurately. This then brings in to question things such as, if the colour is of high importance maybe the exposure should be set for that, and the rest of the scene lit to match/correct for that exposure. All these things I have not considered before, and I am very glad that I have learnt and can now understand better.

Art of Photography: Project 29

This project was a summary and practice of all the projects about shapes, points and lines, based around a theme. I chose 'farmland' for my theme.


Single point dominating the composition


2 Points


Several points


A combination of horizontal and vertical lines


Diagonals


Curves


Distinct even if irregular shapes


Implied triangle 1


Implied triangle 2


Rhythm


Pattern

Art of Photography: Project 28

This project covered 'Patterns' and 'Rhythms'. In a photograph a pattern can be said to be a repeating theme or subject where the content is quite static. Where as a rhythm is similar to a pattern but may include curves, diagonals, or something which makes the elements of the photograph more dynamic and causes the viewer to follow the 'rhythm', and can be imagined to be similar to a musical rhythm.

I found it hard to find good examples of this due to time constraints, but I did understand the project and what it was trying to convey.


A pattern repeats throughout the frame of the photograph but is quite static.


A rhythm has a pattern or shape which is dynamic and causes the viewer to follow the rhythm. This isn't a great example but I felt the slight wave to the wooden logs helped to convey movement and a 'rhythm'.

Art of Photography: Project 27

After rectangles and triangles, this project focused on circles. I learnt that circle can be harder to find, and when used in photography they are the tightest and most compact and enclosing of all the shapes, imposing more structure on the image than triangles or rectangles. An example was provided and it was clear to see that the circular plate in the example drew the viewers eye towards it and away from any surrounding detail.

For the project I produced four pictures showing real and implied circles.


I found a circular shape created by surrounding foliage. The shape together with the focus and depth of field draws the eye to the lake in the background.


Although I didn't manage to get a sharp image of this bumblebee, it still provided an example of an implied circle.


An example of a real circle.


This final image falls somewhere between real and implied circles, but provides a good example of how circles draw the eye, with the smaller circles in the centre of the flower also drawing attention.

Art of Photography: Project 26

This project focused on triangles. Triangles occur much more frequently than rectangles and are not as restricting. During the project I learnt that triangles are more dynamic than rectangles as they are usually made up from diagonals, which similar to diagonal lines, have associations with movement.

Of particular interest to me was reading how triangles can be formed from just two sides, or sometimes even one, with the edge of the frame making up the other sides. In this way impressions of triangles can be formed easily and used effectively in composition and the potential is there for a lot of creativity. This also ensures triangles appear quite frequently.

Another reason triangles appear a lot is due to perspective. As I have already learnt linear perspective causes many lines in photographs to converge on a point in the distance, which naturally causes triangles. Examples of this are a road heading into the distance, looking up at tall buildings or trees, and looking down from above at converging lines. With this knowledge it is easy to enhance effects and perspectives and create triangles and interesting compositions.

Triangles can also be implied as with other shapes and lines, and any three points in any position (as long as they are not touching) will form a triangle. This is another reason that triangles are easy to find in photography. I enjoyed the examples of this, using groups of people to form triangular shapes, and I can begin to see the creative potential of triangles.

The project required six photographs to show examples of triangles.


The first photograph is of a real triangle.


The second photograph is a triangle formed using perspective and converging lines at the top of the frame.


The third photograph is an inverted triangle formed using converging lines and perspective.


Here a triangle is formed using a still-life arrangement of 5 objects (as points).


Another still life but forming an inverted triangle.


The final task was to form an implied triangle using a group image of three people. I only had two and not much time or space to do it, but I tried to create a silhouette of a triangular shape.