Colour Management

Colours deeply effect our emotions.  Different colours and combinations of colours, produce a different emotional response from us, or in us.   As a photographer, it's important to use this knowledge in your work!  Ultimately, the style of a photographer working in colour develops and becomes individually recognisable because of his/her own responses to colour. 

We know that cool colours (blues, greens) can have a calming effect of highly strung people while at the same time having  a depressing effect of people of a depressive nature.  Hot colours (reds, yellows, oranges) have a stimulating, positive effect on laid-back people, but can sometimes prove too stimulating and heighten tension in more highly strung or even violent people. 

The contrast and density of the colours in your images will be considerably affected by exposure.  Underexposure produces saturated colours and high contrast, while Overexposure produces washed-out colours and soft contrast. 

Steve McCurrry is a famous photographer who's images are recognisable by his use of warm & bright but muted colours. Here are a few examples:

When you are setting up a portrait or still-life pictures, it's important to be aware that every colour you introduce will influence the mood of your photograph.  

The only way to learn what your end results could be, is to experiment with background and colour combinations to see what moods you can create! 

Colours can be used to convey a feeling almost regardless of your subject matter. 

Photographs and how they communicate with us

Photographs have been used for many years in Documentaries and Photojournalism, to tell a story and communicate emotions to the audience.  If you were working in these fields, you would likely be expected to produce a single or small number of photographs that capture the whole story.

For example, if you were covering a story regarding a recent natural disaster, photographs of people looking fearful, desperate, in despair, birds-eye-view photos of the hurricane destructed or flooded areas, would all stand for themselves in helping your audience compute the full story with no words needed. These images would communicate the emotion felt by these people and the photos of the destruction would evoke emotion in your audience. 

 Fig.1

This image is a close-up of a soldier. His face is dirty as though he is engaged in battle, perhaps he has been unable to wash for a long period of time, void of the comforts that we take for granted.  His weapon standing next to him shows the stark reality of war, he has his head in his hands and a ‘distant’ expression on his face, as though he is in his own world. He looks as though he cannot fully digest what’s happening around him.  This image gives the viewer something to think about, questions to be answered but ultimately, it would draw emotions from the viewer such as empathy, bravery, commendation or fear for the soldier.  

 Fig.2

This photograph of a baby elephant conveys a positive, fun, happy message.  The photographer has captured the elephant walking, perhaps ‘trotting’, with his tail in the air and the smile on his face, the obvious emotion an audience would feel when viewing this image, is one of happiness!

Photographs play such an important part in conveying a message, emotion, mood, story or narrative to an audience.  It is possible to tell a whole story in a single or series of images, or to draw in the viewer and let them question the ‘space’ you've left in the image, or leave them wondering about what they are seeing.  The things that aren't included in a photo are often as important as what is included.

For a simple example, you could capture a photograph of two people sat at a table having a catch-up over coffee.  This photo would convey the full story.  Or, you could capture just one person in the photograph, conversation mid-flow, or with a smiling/laughing expression on his/her face.  The absence of the second person in the shot would leave the audience wondering who the other person was, what they looked like, what was so funny, and so on. 

Composition & Colour

Composition

It is easy to view a photograph and believe you are being emotionally moved by only the subject matter of the image, and to an extent, you are.  A person can be made to feel sad by an image of a starving child, or happy and joyful by an image of children playing and laughing, for example.  But, the composition of the photograph also has a powerful influence on how it is interpreted.

In simple terms, composition is to do with space in the camera’s viewfinder.  It’s about placing your subject in the viewfinder in such a way that it tells your story as effectively as possible.

It is important to know the ‘rule of thirds’.  Divide your photograph into 9 squares and there will be 4 points at where the lines cross. These are the best points for placing your subject when considering composition. Your image will not look the same with the subject placed in all 4 crossing-points – you need to look and decide for yourself, where your subject would be best placed – this is your focal point.  The focal point is where you want your audience to look first.  Of course, these rules won’t work for every picture, but it’s a good place to start.

Format is important – decide whether you want your image to be in a landscape or portrait format.  The name is in the title – traditionally, for shooting portraits, you’d hold the camera vertically, and for shooting landscapes you’d hold it horizontally.  There are exceptions to these rules though such as filling the entire frame with a model’s face, adding some foreground interest and shooting your model in landscape format, or still life photography.  

My advice is to choose whichever format you think suits your subject best and if in doubt, experiment!

Colour

You should recognise the importance of changing White Balance to suit the type of photography you are shooting.  Different light sources produce different coloured light.  Some produce cool blue light while others are much warmer looking.  If you are photographing in a studio setting with tungsten light sources, switch the white balance on your camera to ‘Tungsten’ for the best matched colour tones. If you are shooting a sunset, change the white balance on your camera to ‘Sunset’ for warmer tones.

White Balance options typically include Incandescent (for shooting interiors/indoor light bulbs), Fluorescent (for strip lights and similar), Direct Sunlight (for shooting outdoors in sunlight), and Cloudy (for shooting outdoors in cloudy conditions).

Exposure also has an effect on the result of the colours in your photographs. Underexposure produces saturated colours and high contrast, whereas underexposure produces washed-out colours and less contrast.

When you are preparing for a still life or portrait shoot, it’s wise to be aware that every colour you introduce will influence the mood of your image.   Experimenting with backgrounds, lighting and colour combinations is a good way to learn what your end results will be!