Lesson 5 – Organizaing Color

[Steven]

I suppose this is not really in keeping with the assignment, as there are three colors in the picture. However, purple is complementary to yellow, and green is adjacent to it (none of which I would have appreciated before reading the material.) I took this shot at the local home center using a cheap point and shoot camera. It was a simple display of their house plants. The quality was amazing, even holding up to a 13X19 in print with little degradation. I guess I should plan to carry one of those cameras around with me everywhere.

[Duncan Rawlinson]

Hello and thank you for submitting another great assignment.

Again, you’ve achieved exactly what was asked from you for this assignment. We’ve asked that you find a way to simplify the color palette of a natural environment and you’ve done just that!

You’ve used a color palette consisting primarily of gradients of purples, yellows and greens. The purple and yellow act as complimentary colors (located on opposite sides of the color wheel) which give this composition a slightly more dramatic look than if it was just green and yellow (analogous colors). The purple provides a color “pop” making your composition dramatic and “louder” than if it was composed of only yellow and green.

My only concern with the image is with a few of your amputation points. If you’ve decided to keep an object in sharp focus you’re visually telling your audience that “this is important”. For example, look at the purple flower at the top of the frame, or the yellow flower at the top right of the frame. These flowers are in sharp focus, yet you’ve amputated them using the walls of your frame.

The environment you choose to photograph is visually “busy”. There is a lot going on there and amputation is unavoidable. However, you might want to consider changing your strategy slightly. If the flowers in the background are in soft focus, then an audience will be more forgiving of amputation since effectively you’d be saying “this object isn’t as important as my objects in sharp focus” For example look at this image

http://www.daviddanielsphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/2009-may-flower-bokeh-01.jpg

There is a lot of amputation happening of the background of that image becuase this photograph was also dealing with a visually ‘busy” environment, but in this case it’s less distracting since the photograph has used a shallow depth of field. As a side note: Also notice how the color palette is the same as yours!

So I would like to see you experiment with this a little more. What you’ve done isn’t terrible. In fact, I wouldn’t even say it’s wrong. I just want to see you focusing on these small details because I know it will help make you a much better photographer in the end.

Overall, great work!

[Author]

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