dcw03 05 using colour

8/6/2019 DCW03 05 Using Colour

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t’s difficult to imagine the shimmering surface of

a tropical lagoon inspiring such serenity and

wonderment if the water were muddy brown

and not turquoise blue. And could a single rhythmic poppy

swaying amongst the harshest of hedgerows generate the

same wistful fondness if it were a murky green and not the

deepest shade of red? Colour is the musical accompaniment

to shape, form, and texture; the oft-forgotten element thatbreathes life into every scene we witness. The amateur

photographer too often undervalues its impact; the

professional thinks of little else. Fail to understand how it

informs, inspires and enthuses, and your images will never

provoke the kind of reaction that makes photography so

rewarding and worthwhile.

Choosing and composingFinding a colourful subject is your first step, but to really

make the most of whatever it is you choose you’ll have to

be prepared to stick your artistic hat on. Try to forget the

nature of the subject you’re focusing on and imagine it

simply in blocks of colour and shape. A pair of lampposts

pinned against an overcast evening sky might become analmost monochromatic illustration of lines and curves,

punctuated by golden orbs dissipating their orange glow

into the night sky. Or think of the most mundane roadsign

as a fantastic abstract pattern of uniform blues and reds,

perfectly plausible with a bit of imagination and some

careful close cropping. And nature itself offers a bounty

of ready-made extracts; a single daisy isolated against

the greenest summer grass, a field of corn offering nothing

but the warmest shades of yellow, or a layer of autumnal

leaves infusing majestic golds and browns.

Whatever your subject, making the most of colour

requires you to think carefully about composition – if

something in the scene doesn’t add anything to your image,

crop it out, either by zooming in or getting yourself closer tothe action. A painted Mediterranean house loses its impact

if you include the garden path, next door’s rubbish or a

wandering travelling salesmen. Instead go in tight and

frame a red wall against a yellow window-frame, or a blue

courtyard staircase against orange-painted brickwork – this

way you’ve got just colours and patterns and nothing else.

And don’t be so conservative as to stick with purely

horizontal or vertical compositions – if patterns and colours

work best together with your camera tilted at an angle,

then go with that and use some unusual perspectives.

Of course, there are scenes that offer the impact of colour

026 DIGITAL CAMERAMAGAZINE

COVER FEATURE

YOUR GUIDE MATT HENRYMatt Henry works as an editorial and advertising photographer, shooting people,

fashion and urban landscapes. He’s also passionate about writing and is a regularcontributor to Professional Photographer and Photography Monthly magazines

www.dcmag.co.uk/MattHenry

MAKE COLOUR WORK FOR YOU

PORTFOLIOMATT HENRY

Isn’t it time you gave colour some serious thought? Matt Henry takes you on a journey of discovery aswe step back and look at photo composition from a completely different angle…

I

Using colourUsing colourThe amateur photographer too often undervaluesits impact, the professional thinks of little else

Isn’t it time you gave colour some serious thought? Matt Henry takes you on a journey of discovery aswe step back and look at photo composition from a completely different angle…

The amateur photographer too often undervaluesits impact; the professional thinks of little elseThe amateur photographer too often undervaluesits impact; the professional thinks of little else

http://www.dcmag.co.uk/matthenry

http://www.dcmag.co.uk/matthenry



DIGITAL CAMERAMAGAZINE 027

WHY WE CHOSETHIS PICTURE

4

Eye-searing iridescentcolours and incredible detailbring the subject to life

Extremely shallowdepth of fieldmakes the subjectstand out starklyagainst anunclutteredbackground



HANDLING AWKWARD LIGHTINGWhen exposing for an awkwardly lit scene such as a stained

glass window or night-time cityscape, the reflective meter in

your camera will almost certainly overexpose the scene

because it percieves it to be too dark. To compensate for this

you need to switch your camera to manual mode, and

underexpose by between one and two stops. Erring towards

underexposure also has the added benefit of making colours

look richer and more saturated, and in the case of a stained

glass window, of turning the surrounding areas jet black.


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without the need for isolation – coastal sunsets, verdant

hillsides, boats at port, neon-shops at night, portraits

with colourful make-up and clothes, and fairground

lights. But no matter how much interesting detail and

shapes are to be had, it’s important not to get carried

away in the emotion of the subject and remember thatit’s the use of the colours at your disposal that will

make or break your image.

The importance of lightingWhatever you choose to photograph, it’s imperative that

you have some knowledge of light and how it works if

you’re going to capture colours at their best – it’s the

reflection of certain wavelengths of light that gives an

object colour after all. The two most important aspects

of lighting you have to consider are directionality and

the angle of the light source, and this goes for both

natural light and artificial light such as tungsten or f lash.Directionality describes the extent to which light is

travelling in a focused, straight line towards your subject

or whether it is bouncing around and hitting your

subject from a number of angles. A cloudless sky means

Because the human eye is more sensitive to green light than it is to red or blue light,

conventional CCD and CMOS image sensors contain twice as many green pixels as they do

red or blue. Colour interpolation technology is used to calculate the in-between valuesa

Making the most of lighting and natural changes in colour temperature is by far the best way

to make sure your colourful images are up to their best, but digital manipulation has its placeas a tool for enhancement – saturation and contrast controls in-camera or via Photoshop can

be used to give colours even more zip.

Some cameras also have toning effects filters that essentially turn your image into black

and white then wash them over with another single colour – usually sepia, but other colours

are sometimes available too. The same effect can be created with the Channel Mixer in

Photoshop, and with a greater range of colours to choose from. It’s best used as a means to

accentuate the mood a subject might already convey – images of boats and water often

benefit from blue toning for example, while the warmth of sepia tends to work well with

smiling, outdoorsy portraits.

DIGITAL ENGANCEMENT2

Photographers who take the

time to carefully balance

colour with subject

composition will usually

yield the best results. In thiscase, however, simply filling

the entire frame with a

shock of colour has worked

sucessfully to create a strong

visual impact

2

The most importantaspects of light to

consider are thedirectionality andangle of the source

■ Underexposing your image by a

third of a stop makes colours go alittle deeper and darker for a more

saturated effect.

■ Inaccurate exposure can play

havoc with colour results. Take a

spot reading (or centre-weighted if

your camera’s not got a spot) from

a mid-tone such as grass and lock

the exposure before recomposing.

This will ensure accurate exposure.

■ Accentuating the bluish tinge of

a dull, overcast day can produce

moody, atmospheric images.

Increase the blueness manually in

your white balance settings, or by

selecting the sunshine option if

there’s no manual option.

■ Burning out the highlights can

actually be very flattering to skintones, killing any spots, blemishes

or other unsightly details. Try

overexposing by half, a full, one

and a half stop for best results.

EXPERT TIPS2


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COVER FEATURE MAKE COLOUR WORK FOR YOU

you’ll get a very flat, even type of lighting. The latter

is best for maximum saturation of colour, whereasthe former gives your subject much more of a

three-dimensional feel, as form and texture

become more pronounced.

If you want the best of both worlds, keep the sun at

90 degrees and fit your camera with a polarising filter. If

you’re shooting indoors with available light, avoid

directional lighting by using a north-facing window, or

shoot on a bright but overcast day if this isn’t possible.

Alternatively, diffuse the window-light with some sort of

material – fine net curtains, a white bed sheet or tracing

paper can all work well.

Colour and flashThe relationship between flash and colour is subject to

the same principles of lighting as sunlight – a highly

directional light source is going to mean low colour

saturation with dense shadows and highlights so bright

that they begin to wash out. This is why on-camera

flash tends to produce such drab, unflattering results,

and why studio photographers spend so much time

trying to diffuse their flash-heads with contraptions like

umbrellas, softboxes and reflectors.

If you’ve only got the flash that’s built into your

camera, there’s not much you can do but avoid using it

by shooting only when there’s enough light for it not to

be necessary. Those with external Speedlite-typeflashguns can fit a diffuser-hood (try the Omni-Bounce

sold by Jessops for £14.90), or better still, a miniature

softbox (Jessops sell the Lastolite Micro-Apollo for

£26.95). However, neither are as effective in reducing

directionality and maximising colour saturation as

bouncing the flash off a wall or ceiling, possible only

if you’ve got a flashgun with a tilt/swivel feature.

The flash will take on the colour of any surface; so if

there’s no white ceiling or wall close-by, bounce it

off a piece of white card.

Colour temperature andwhite balanceThings get their colour because of the specific

wavelengths of light they reflect back, but light itself can

also take on a colour cast. When all the colour

wavelengths in the visible spectrum are present in equal

amounts, you get neutral or ‘white’ light, but when

there is an unequal amount, light changes colour. So if

you’ve ever wondered why your grandma’s face came

out a rather nasty shade of blue, this is the reason.

On a clear, sunny day at around lunchtime light is

usually white but if the weather’s dull with lots of cloud

present everything appears to take on a bluish tinge.

the light from the sun is very directional, whereas a

large portion of cloud cover diffuses the light, making it

less directional and producing a much softer and more

even effect. This is important because directional light

tends to cause glare, with very dense shadows and

harsh highlights, making colour saturation quite poor.On the other hand, the dense cloud cover of a dull

day doesn’t do much for colour saturation either, even

though the lighting’s very even. The ideal scenario is a

bright day with just a portion of cloud covering the sun’s

orb and a few bits of cloud scattered around for added

diffusion elsewhere.

The angle of the light source obviously refers to

where the light is t ravelling from in relation to the

subject and your camera viewpoint. If the sun is at 90

degrees to your shooting position, it will be raking across

your subject and shadows will be apparent. If the sun’s

behind your shoulder the shadows will be hidden, and

Blue tone isn’t good for skintone or landscape but mightbenefit a fashion shoot



Early in the morning and late in the evening, especially

at sunrise or sunset, this tinge can go very orange,

unless of course it’s neutralised by heavy cloud cover.

The eye adjusts to this colour change automatically

so that it’s barely discernible, but a camera’s image

sensor can’t, so the changes in this colour cast, or colour

‘temperature’ can be dramatic enough to spoil or

enhance an image, depending on your intention. A

landscape with a blue tone isn’t going to be too

attractive, but a cutting-edge fashion shot might benefit

from a blue cast rather than orange. For most purposes

blue tends to be considered negative and avoided (it’sparticularly bad for skin tone), and orange positive and

very much sought after.

Artificial light can also have a non-white colour

temperature – flash is generally fairly neutral, but the

tungsten lighting found in household bulbs tends to

be very orange. Fluorescent lighting gives off a greeny

tinge, though other colours are possible too as there

are many makes and types of bulbs.

All but the very cheapest digital cameras come with

an automatic white-balance setting that adjusts to

differing colour temperatures. Most also have a number

of pre-sets so you can override the automatic setting, incase it misjudges a situation or in case you want to

introduce a cast to enhance your image. Some cameras

let you set your white point by taking a reading

manually, though even more versatile are those that let

you go through the range in increments with a slider

scale. White-balance settings can be used to enhance

your images, by giving a landscape a very warm,

orange tone, for example, but this is never a substitute

for the real thing – wait for a bright, clear day and get

up for sunrise or wait till early evening if you want truly

professional-looking warm-tone results.

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If you’re interested in taking a more in-depth, scientific look at light, colour and

photography then the following website is worth investigating:www.ted.photographer.

org.uk/photoscience_colour.htmg

There are few contemporary professional photographers

that stick only with black and white as a matter of

principle – check out the photography section in the big

book shops like Waterstones and

Borders for some full colour

coffee-table tomes that offer

breath-taking images of all sorts

of subjects.

Fans of nature photographyshould hunt out a chap called

Frans Lanting; his latest

rainforest book is full of the

most amazingly vivid shots of

the finest specimens the natural

world has to offer.

Landscape addicts should

look out for the work of Tom

Mackie and Charlie Waite –

two of the UK’s most

talented outdoor photographers. Charlie has a

very instructive book about landscape photographycalled ‘Seeing Landscapes’ which explores the artistic

ideas behind this genre of photography – colour plays a

big part so its certainly worth a look if landscapes are

your favoured pastime.

If the great outdoors doesn’t float your boat but the

fantastically surreal does, look no further than David

LaChapelle, the current experimental darling of the

fashion world whose images are the very definition of

vivid and ultra-saturated. His latest work, David

LaChapelle Photographs, is truly inspirational if tongue-

in-cheek people shots are your thing.

RECOMMENDED 1

There are a number of filters that can be used to maximise the effects of colour in your shots,and these don’t include those rather dated and naff experimental special effects things like

Starburst, Prism, or Rainbow. The best ones are actually the most subtle, and there’s probably

only six or seven that are really of any use for digital users – the rest can either be too easily

replicated in Photoshop, or look so bad that you really wouldn’t bother.

Top of the list is the polariser. This is unrivalled for its ability to maximise colour saturation

way beyond the call of duty, and should never be off your lens if you’re serious about vivid

colours in your outdoor work. Others of use include the neutral density graduate, warm-up,

sunset, and various types of coloured graduates. Take a look at the mini-lab test on page 44

for the low-down on the best filters money can buy.

COLOUR FILTERS2

http://www.ted.photographer.org/

http://www.ted.photographer.org.uk/photoscience_colour.htm

http://www.ted.photographer.org.uk/photoscience_colour.htm

http://www.ted.photographer.org/

dcw03 05 using colour

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