SIAST Applied Photography: December 2010

Monday, December 20, 2010

PHOT 213 ~ Warm Tone Images

Warm colours advance; cool colours recede. Light colours advance; dark colours recede. Intense colours advance; neutralized colours recede. These rules are basic to understanding how colour affects space. Colours will create different spatial qualities in combination with one another. For example a light, intense colour such as yellow will seem to come further forward when it is surrounded by a cool, dark or neutralized colour than when it is surrounded by an intense orange.

Complimentary colours that set one another off most strongly can activate an area of space and provide strong spatial accents. Analogous colours do not have the same bold contrast but because they move into one another on the colour wheel, they can be arranged to imply movement in space.

Friday, December 17, 2010

PHOT 213 ~ Cool Tone Images

In general, people view a photograph and have an emotional response. The goal of a professional photographer is to draw out specific emotions. Lighting is the best tool a photographer has to control, guide and promote how his/her image will be experienced.

For most of our photographs, however, the attainment of a particular feeling or meaning is more suggestive – our ability to achieve impact may be more implied than actual. It's important to remember as well that the measure of our success is based not on our intent, but in the impact on the viewer. In the intense world of visual communications, if they don't get it, chances are it's our fault not theirs.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

PHOT 213 ~ High-key Lighting

In its simplest terms, a high-key photograph is a bright image full of light and mostly bright tones. But good high-key photography has a lot more to do with the quality of the light rather than the quantity of the light used to attain a successful image. Central to all of this is the mood the photographer is trying to achieve or communicate, often trying to create a feeling of freshness or optimism. While these techniques can be achieved with natural light, high-key photographs more commonly relate to induced mood lighting through a soft or diffused studio lighting set-up.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

PHOT 213 ~ Low-key Lighting Techniques

No matter the subject, there are choices to be made regarding the mood of a photograph. Visualization is knowing – in advance of taking a photograph – in what mood it will be received.

One of a photographer’s greatest challenges is to know the best way to light a subject and to control the light to the degree that it conveys precisely what the photographer has in mind.

Monday, December 13, 2010

PHOT 213 ~ Colour as a Subject

The endless variety of colour interacting with colour make it an exciting design element with which to work. Hue contrast, simultaneous contrast, warm/cool contrast, value contrast and contrast of intensity are aspects of colour which suggest its range. The addition of colour will affect line, shape, the principle of balance, dominance, variety and harmony in a design. The addition of a colour element to an achromatic design will immediately shift the balance. An intense yellow applied to a small secondary shape will attract attention to it.

Colour can also be used to strengthen an existing design idea. Using neutralized colour to set off the dominant element may make the dominant element stronger or the background more subtle. The best way to understand the effect of colour on other aspects of design is to experiment with it and observe the results.