The Influence of Colour & Light;
A Photographic Study: Essay
Inspiration Board:
Introduction,
I have decided that I am going to investigate the topic of Colour and Light for my A-Level project.
Colour and Light are present in every single photograph ever taken. They are vital aspects and both can be manipulated to create a range of different photographic effects. This is something I’m really interested in and I think it will help my photography grow. Colour to me in photography is simply colour photographs and black and white photography. However a quick internet search shows that there is much more to it than that. Fashion photographers use a range of different colours gels on lights to give a distinct coloured look to their photography. The aperture, iso and shutter speed can all be adjusted to effect the colours in a photograph. The lighting used can be used to effect colours and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Lighting can be broken down into 2 categories, studio and natural lights. As I mentioned above they can be used to effect colour but they are also used to create a particular effect on a photograph. The 2 most common styles are high key and low key lighting. Lighting can also be harsh and soft depending on the type of shoot. Lighting can also be used to create shadow which also links back to colour. Black and white photography is as popular as ever.
Personally without colour i wouldn't be interested in photography, colour is the characteristic of human visual perception described through color categories, people will use colour to identify parts of the image or the style the image is taking. Secondly why i decided to include light and shadows to my topic study, Being able to fully use light is a very difficult task, you have to experiment with all different light sources, such as natural light and forced light, and will have to mess around with the composition of the shot if you want to take full advantage of light. I wanted to write about my experience with light because it has played a huge role within my images in the past and can make an image look more dramatic or calm depending on the shadow foreplay used. I really like taking an image and messing around with the lighting, it reminds me of shading with black chalk in Art & Design to create a blended shadow colour. There are many examples of photography techniques were light and shadows play a huge part, for example, portraits, silhouette’s, light trails, Natural Shadows, Personally i wanted to write about different styles of techniques rather than one main topic, under my overall topic of colour and light. Using all of these techniques inspires me to try new things and use my research to learn more in depth about a certain technique. The technique allows me to stay interested as i feel like i am able to always try something new and being able to recreate a technique keeps me engaged constantly by learning about the basic rules of how light or colour has an effect on an image.
I have decided that I am going to investigate the topic of Colour and Light for my A-Level project.
Colour and Light are present in every single photograph ever taken. They are vital aspects and both can be manipulated to create a range of different photographic effects. This is something I’m really interested in and I think it will help my photography grow. Colour to me in photography is simply colour photographs and black and white photography. However a quick internet search shows that there is much more to it than that. Fashion photographers use a range of different colours gels on lights to give a distinct coloured look to their photography. The aperture, iso and shutter speed can all be adjusted to effect the colours in a photograph. The lighting used can be used to effect colours and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Lighting can be broken down into 2 categories, studio and natural lights. As I mentioned above they can be used to effect colour but they are also used to create a particular effect on a photograph. The 2 most common styles are high key and low key lighting. Lighting can also be harsh and soft depending on the type of shoot. Lighting can also be used to create shadow which also links back to colour. Black and white photography is as popular as ever.
Personally without colour i wouldn't be interested in photography, colour is the characteristic of human visual perception described through color categories, people will use colour to identify parts of the image or the style the image is taking. Secondly why i decided to include light and shadows to my topic study, Being able to fully use light is a very difficult task, you have to experiment with all different light sources, such as natural light and forced light, and will have to mess around with the composition of the shot if you want to take full advantage of light. I wanted to write about my experience with light because it has played a huge role within my images in the past and can make an image look more dramatic or calm depending on the shadow foreplay used. I really like taking an image and messing around with the lighting, it reminds me of shading with black chalk in Art & Design to create a blended shadow colour. There are many examples of photography techniques were light and shadows play a huge part, for example, portraits, silhouette’s, light trails, Natural Shadows, Personally i wanted to write about different styles of techniques rather than one main topic, under my overall topic of colour and light. Using all of these techniques inspires me to try new things and use my research to learn more in depth about a certain technique. The technique allows me to stay interested as i feel like i am able to always try something new and being able to recreate a technique keeps me engaged constantly by learning about the basic rules of how light or colour has an effect on an image.
I wanted to start by talking about Simple portraits and link to an artist who focuses on light and shadow for taking portraits, A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this topic i particularly decided to focus on Andy Gotts, who is a photographer from London, is mostly noted for his black and white portraits of Hollywood actors but also his incredible talent in placing actors for the use of the light. Since 1990 Gotts work has been published internationally and has appeared in many magazines, including; GQ, Empire, FHM and Total Film. I decided to use his work because he talks about every step that is taken to create such a detailed picture with light and shadows, for example, his most viewed photo is a self portrait he took in 2008, the image was taken to show his audience the use of shadows and composition of a model, he showed the blended tone of black and greys he used in his background to make him look more bright. This image inspired me to do some for my own and experiment with making them black and white and also changing the tone and levels of the brightness. Andy also talked about the use of the rule of thirds, having the first third of the picture have the most seeable colours as the light parts of the colour are on this side as it goes from left to right as dark to bright, while the other two thirds of the picture drag your attention as the model himself is more leaned towards the right side within the dark created shadow. On a more technical side, the lights he used were Butterfly Lights, which is one of the oldest techniques for lighting a subject. Named for the butterfly-shaped shadow that forms underneath the subject's nose, this setup is a proven method to ensure your subject is well-lit in a pleasing manner. He used this lighting technique because it proved the most effective with the contrast blend of shadows. Andy Gott has primarily focused his career on high key black and white portraits of people showing some form of emotion, but he has taken some images that aren't black and white and has left the natural skin colour in the image.
Example Talked About
Secondly, the use of light trails, this technique within photography is very unique and pushes the limits of a camera to create exposures by moving a hand-held light source while taking a long exposure photograph, either to illuminate a subject or to shine a point of light directly at the camera, or by moving the camera itself during exposure. This technique links in with my overall topic Light & Shadows because to create this style of image you must be in complete darkness when taking the image and able to control the light in order to get this technique to actually work. My chosen artist research for this topic is, “Michael Bosanko” who specialises in light trails and making his images stand out at a first glance, for example one of his best viewed images is this dark low key photo showing a toy action figure merging with the painted light trails by Michael Bosanko, this image is very unique and exciting to look at, there is a great level of detail in the blended grey shadows in the background of the image. There is a contrast of colours as the blue tint is blending in with the action figure, to take a successful light trail image you must have your camera to a low shutter speed so when the camera is taking the picture any light that moves will be captures and create. This image can actually be a great training ground for those wanting to get their cameras out of manual mode and to experiment with shooting in low light at longer exposures.
Example Talked About
Another area i wanted to explore is silhouettes and like to an artist who focuses on this area, A silhouette is a wonderful way to convey drama, mystery, emotion and mood in a picture. A silhouette is defined as a view of an object or a scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. For this topic i decided to put all the focus into Kara Walker, who is an African-American contemporary painter, silhouettist, print-maker, installation artist, and film-maker who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity in her work. I decided to use her work as she explains every step of detail in her work and the level of detail and patience that is needed to create an image like this. One of her best images is a black and grey image that shows a man riding on a horse with giant hands in the sky controlling him and the horse, this image is very detailed and tells a story about how we are being controlled no matter how fast we can run. She used a blended tone of black and greys in her background to make him look more bright and contrast to the background which is lighter base than the model substance which is black. She also has used people showing some form of emotion, but has taken some images that aren't black and white and has left the natural skin colour in the image. I really like her style of work and this topic particularly as it shows a great level of skill to work against light which isn't easy when operating a camera as light controls how much the picture is bright or dark.
Example Talked About
My Use Of Shadow & Light
How I used Light & Shadows to strengthen my work, Light & Shadows are a very unique powerful use of tool of photography to create meaning, I gained a great detail of experience when taking these images and used Andy Gotts Technique to help improve my work. Firstly, I started by taking moody portraits of my friend in a dark room and used a DSLR camera on manual setting to take the images, I also had a powerful LED light as a lighting source to bring the models facial features up, I took a gallery of these images having the model looking different ways and portraying different emotions, such as anger or sad. I then used Andy Gotts technique of turning the image black and white and raising the contrast to create a black, grey and white style from right to left, this makes the image more powerful and unique, also more personal as the emotion from the models face is telling a story how ever you take it, you could think about why the model is portraying the emotion they are. I then lowered the brightness of the image to give the background wall a bit more in depth detail, this worked well and gave the image more a darker blend.
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My Use Of Light TrailsHow I applied Michael Bosanko’s technique to strengthen my work of light trails, Firstly before researching Michael Bosanko I had never seen or experienced light trails, but after researching more in depth about the topic I think light trails are a very powerful technique that can be used in photography and understand that they are very difficult to create and replicate what Michael Bosanko has done. I decided to go and try to take my own images. Firstly, I had to research specifically what setting the camera has to be on to create this image style, I found that the camera's shutter speed had to be lowered also the light settings had to be lowered or the image would just be plain white with no substance. After figuring out the settings I then went to take some images, i had my model stand in another empty room with no natural light and photographed in different positions. For a first time trying this camera setting i tried experimenting more with the color rather than the location. I think these images turned out really detailed and well and would like to look more into light trails in the future using a more mobile set up, more than likely going into busy streets and having the model stand completely still while the people move past the camera lens as the they are the trails.
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My Use Of SilhouettesUsing silhouettes to strengthen my work, firstly after researching this topic i decided i wanted to explore taking pictures and messing with selective colouring with in the photo, weather that be by adding or removing all or parts of the image i think this works really well and can send a powerful message. My first attempt at this was not as successful there was no natural bright source of light so i had to use a bright LED light and mess with composition in the shot, revisiting this topic i chose a sunny day take my images, the first image on the right was a friend on the floor with a pathed light way leading into him, i really liked this picture before editing it and think it was very powerful but wanted to explore selective colouring so i added a dark blue tint over the image and darken parts to make the eye focus on the light source as well as the model, i also messed with the saturation of his skin colour to blend in more with this blue tint, the image is very powerful and well constructed of how it is placed and how i used the light to create meaning. I also decided to use this topic in bright sources behind the model and making hand gestures with a blurred out model being darkened. If i was to revisit this topic i would explore having multiple people in the image and having a clear story be told rather than a mystery.
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Bibliography
Phaidon. The Photo Book. 1997. Pgs 436, 438, 442, 448.
Robert Patterson. Website. Black & White Photography.
https://learn.corel.com/tutorials/black-and-white-photography
Chris Smith. Website. 5 Advanced Tips For Light Trails.
https://digital-photography-school.com/5-advanced-tips-light-trail-photography
Jennie Harless. Website. Using Silhouettes
https://improvephotography.com/33518/14-tips-shooting-stunning-silhouettes
Kara Walker. Wikipedia. Photography Background.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Walker
Andy Gotts. Wikipedia. Photography Background.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Gotts
Wayne Turner. Website. Understanding Colour Photography.
https://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/understanding-color-in-photography
Robert Patterson. Website. Black & White Photography.
https://learn.corel.com/tutorials/black-and-white-photography
Chris Smith. Website. 5 Advanced Tips For Light Trails.
https://digital-photography-school.com/5-advanced-tips-light-trail-photography
Jennie Harless. Website. Using Silhouettes
https://improvephotography.com/33518/14-tips-shooting-stunning-silhouettes
Kara Walker. Wikipedia. Photography Background.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Walker
Andy Gotts. Wikipedia. Photography Background.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Gotts
Wayne Turner. Website. Understanding Colour Photography.
https://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/understanding-color-in-photography