Composing with light and color

Chiaroscuro

• Chiaroscuro-attributed to the Italian painter Caravaggio– Literally means light/dark– Refers to the dramatic modeling of subjects in

painting by shafts of light illuminating dark scenes– It controls the sense of modeling in an image and

so it controls the 3d quality of the work

Chiaroscuro

• Chiaroscuro is a high contrast type of lighting

• Generally you are exposing for the highlights and allowing the shadows to go comparatively dark

Key

• Brightness can dictate the mood of the photo• When the image is dark, favoring shadow

tones, it is considered low key• When the image is brighter, it is considered

high key• It is difficult to show high key in color images• High key black and white can be luminous

and graphic, but high key color often looks washed out and underexposed

Original

High and Low key

Original scene

High and Low key

Ambiguity

Caustics

Reinforcing pattern

Color in Composition

• Hue, saturation, and brightness make up a color– Hue is the name of the color (blue, red…)– Saturation is the intensity of the hue– Brightness is determines how dark or light

the hue is

Color

• Primary colors are red, blue, and yellow– But this doesn’t correspond with our RGB for film

and digital images

• Red, blue and yellow refer to light reflecting off of paint from paper or canvas

• Our RGB refers to transmitted light• For our purposes we will use the painting

primaries

Primary Colors

RED

• Red is considered the strongest color

• It tends to advance toward the viewer

• It can be seen as vital, earthy, hot, passion, aggression, danger

Red

YELLOW

• Yellow is the brightest color

• It can be seen as vigorous, sharp, insistent, aggressive, cheerful

• It has obvious association with the sun and light sources

• Against a dark background it can seem to radiate light

BLUE

• Blue recedes more than yellow

• Seems to be relatively dark, quiet, and cool, wet, airy

• Refers strongly to sky and water

Secondary Colors

GREEN

• The color of nature

• Suggest growth and progress

• Yellow-green is associated with spring and youth

• Green can also show decomposition and sickness

VIOLET

• The illusive color

• Has connotations of mystery

• The similar color of purple has connotations of religion and regality

Violet

ORANGE

• Warm, strong, brilliant, powerful

• It is the color of sunset and fire

• Associated with celebration and heat

Color Relationships

• Colors need to be treated in relationship to each other

• These relationships can evoke emotional reactions

• How colors ought to be paired is a question of the ages

• Harmony is a pleasing, acceptable relationship

HARMONY

• Complementary harmony – Hues from across each other on the color

wheel

• Harmony of Similarity– Hues from the same section of the color

wheel

Orange-blue

Pink-green

Warm-cool

Green-orange

Red-green

Color accent

Color accent

Muted Colors

• Strong colors are relatively rare in the natural world– They occur in isolated areas (flowers…)

• With digital photography we can manage saturation of our colors very easily

Orientalist palette

Muted color

Mossy greens

Metallics

Interference colors

Texture and form