The Hues and Use of Colour
Colour is to photography what verbs are to writing. –Daryl Benson
From the day we are born we start to see the world in colour. Just like taxes and death there is no avoiding it, or at least we should hope not.
What has developed over the years by academia is a litany of theorems best described by Encyclopaedia Britannica: “The number and variety of these theories demonstrates that no universally accepted rules apply; the perception of colour depends on individual experience.”
If a respected reference such as Britannica recognized that no universally accepted theory could be adopted, then how can a short blog entry possibly answer the question :What is Colour?” Obviously it can’t. The task, then, is to pique your interest, encourage you to explore other references, and employ photographic technique that has proven over time to work.
Before we delve into colour in a fast and furious way, let us step back and think of the great black and white imagery that captures our attention. By having a grasp of what truly makes a fine black and white print we can better understand what creates a lasting colour photograph.
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Once a decision has been made to photograph a scene, the beginning photographer would be well served by attempting to cut through the colour and get to the shades of grey between black and white. Then you can really start to see the image reveal itself and provide evidence of the highlights and shadows that will allow you to discern how to best establish a correct exposure for later manipulation in the digital darkroom.
For the landscape photographer, there is probably no better place to start than with the work of Ansel Adams. Any student of photography should be encouraged to study this incredible body of work available at bookstores, libraries or on the web.
As you review the collection, the tonal range of the prints will no doubt intrigue you. By creating a process which became universally known as “The Zone System” Adams was able to accurately pre-visualize how the final print should appear, and he exposed the negative to maximize the latitude of the medium; the blacks would be black without “blocking up” and the whites would be white without “blowing out.”
Books have been written on the zone system so, again, I would encourage a web search for greater clarification.
We can also use the zone system today with digital photography, and, indeed we should have a working knowledge of the topic. Fortunately for us the matrix metering systems in many cameras use algorithms in the same principal as that which allowed Adams to develop the Zone System, thus ensuring we automatically get a good exposure. Whereas Adams zone system generally worked with a tonal range measuring from zero to ten, the same white and black points in today’s digital photography measure from 0 to 255.
I would love to have the opportunity to view an original Adams negative. I suspect it would be very flat and boring, much like a perfectly exposed “middle zone” colour digital file. The answer behind a beautiful high-contrast black and white photograph, or a colour-dripping-off-the-paper giclee print does not completely lie with the exposure, but with the darkroom manipulation techniques after the capture that was employed to “pop” the contrast.
By learning to see and understand the tonal range of the scene in black and white, the photographer will be developing an intuitive process of pre-visualizing the final image in colour and by consequence decide whether graduated filters or multiple exposures should be made for later merging in editing software. With practise this will become an intuitive process.
As you start your creative vision process don’t let your eyes restrict you by what you see, but allow your mind to direct you by what you can create. Only then will you start to have vision true to yourself and begin developing a personal style.
In the next entry we will look at complimentary colours.
And remember, if you are having fun, you are doing it right!
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Learning to See, Part II
If you love mobile device camera filters and special effects, you need not keep reading. This post takes a look at a new photo app for iOS (sorry Android users, it’s not ported there yet) devices that got me to switch off of using Photoshop Express, my previously preferred image editing app.
While a fine, free app in its own right, what I find most lacking with Photoshop Express is the ability to control different areas of the image differently. It’s an all or nothing proposition, much unlike all of Adobe’s programs for desktop/laptop computers. I can’t bring up shadow detail or tone down highlights. I also can’t adjust the color temperature in shadows, something Adobe introduce in its latest version of Lightroom 4.0.
The icons across the top allow users to adjust shadows, midtones and highlights. There is also “play” button where a range of changes will be shown as something of a movie and users can stop the show at any point when they see a rendition they like, without having to figure out all the enhancements to get there. Also on the top panel are tools to adjust saturation and to perform crops.
Along the bottom are icons to select the whole image, edges or just the middle areas. Photographers can also paint an area they want to change with the circle tool and it’s this function that has me switching sides away from Adobe. I can paint in an area where I want to increase the brightness, but leave the rest of the image alone. 
This is a more finite way to adjust than using only the Highlight tool at the top. I really like this feature and it is what I have been waiting for from Adobe.
I haven’t had a lot of time to shoot with ColorTime, just about a week, but I certainly have a large amount of photos to edit on my phone. And that’s the joy in using this app. I have been wary of most apps as they rely heavily on filters and flat out changing the original image toward anything that is not what appeared before the camera. That’s not ColorTime.
