Notes from his book: The Photograph
Pure colours in isolation
- Colours have emotional impact as well as symbolic meaning
- Primary and secondary (pure) colours affect most viewers directly and similarly
Colours are loaded with emotion and meaning
- Blue - Recedes most. Symbolises: passivity, infinity, distance, peace, harmony and longing
- Yellow - Shins brightest. Symbolises: light, activity, amusement as well as (in contrast) envy and warning
- Red - Advances most. Symbolises: warmth, stability, proximity, excitement, strength, heat as well as (in contrast) rage, noise and danger
- Green - Recedes. Symbolises: freshness, nature, springtime, fertility, hope as well as (in contrast) unripened and poison.
- Violet - Is the darkest. Symbolises: transition, boundaries, imagination as well as (in contrast) authority and age
- Orange - Is luminous. Symbolises: gaudiness, cheap pleasure, as well as (in contrast) enthusiasm and danger
Categories of colours include...
- Primary (B, Y, R) and Secondary (O,V,G)
- Nature (landscapes, plants, flowers, animals, etc) and Human World
- Cool (B,G,V) and Warm (O,R,Y)
- Loud - visually and emotionally (Primaries and Secondary) and Muted (others)
Well made images usually have several types of contrasts . These contrasts can either complement or compete with each other. Some types of contrast:
- Meaning
- Design elements
- Tones
- Colours
Colour contrasts
Mante's analysis follows Johannes Itten's model of 7 colour contrasts, although he reduces them to 6 by omitting the juxtaposition of light and dark colours rendered in monochrome.
The 6 contrasts are:
- Hue - juxtaposition of different hues according to their distance across the colour wheel
- Quality - contrast of different levels of saturation of the same hue
- Complementary - placing one colour next to its opposite in the colour wheel
- Quantity - juxtaposition of colours according to their visual weights
- Temperature - contrast of warm (R,O,Y) with cool colours (B,G,V)
- Simultaneous - placing adjacently colours with boundaries that perceptually vibrate (?)
1. Contrast of Hue
What is it?
- Juxtaposition of different hues
- Primary colours, at their brightest and fully saturated, are the most direct and loudest colours - even merry (note - often used in carnivals, circuses, etc)
 |
| Red, yellow and blue - the primary colours - are the loudest in the palette, often seen in circuses |
- 3 ways to moderate the harshness of primaries (in order of their impact)
- (1) combine with secondaries (the nearer the distance across the colour wheel, the lesser the contrast and vice versa)
- (2) reduce saturation or brightness of the colours present
- (3) increase the number of colours present (especially where the contrast of hues is then overtaken by other types of contrast so that it no longer stands adequately in its own right)
 |
One way to moderate the loudness of primary colours -
place secondaries next to them
|
 |
| Two other ways to tone down primary colours - reduce saturation, increase other forms of contrast |
2. Contrast of Quality
What is it?
- Contrast of light and dark values of the same colour
- The impact of mixing white, black (or grey) to pure colours has various effects
- Adding white (also, overexposure/ increasing intensity of light source) - Reduces brightness and makes it emotionally cooler. Blue and green react sensitively to give 'light blue' and 'pale green' respectively. Red and violet undergo character shifts to 'pink' and 'lilac' respectively.
- Adding black (also, underexposure/ reducing the intensity of light source) - Blue, green and violet react sensitively to give 'dark blue', 'dark green' and 'dark violet' respectively. Yellow reduces its luminosity very quickly to become, at best, 'olive green'. Red and oranges turn into a palette of browns.
- Mixing with the complementary colour - muddies it and causes it to approach the tertiary colours of the Colour Triangle (see p 122)
- The presence of a second colour causes quality contrast to recede into the background, especially if that other colour introduces a cold: warm contrast (see Contrast of Temperature below)
 |
| Different saturation of blues |
 |
| Different saturation of browns |
What is it?
- Placing one colour next to its complement in the colour wheel or its perceptual opposite
- We like harmony and balance. The amount we seek before finding it boring is a matter of individual preferenve. However, beyond that point, our appetite is for greater tension
- Complementary colours oppose each other in the colour wheel (Red to Green, Orange to Blue, Yellow to Violet)
- These combinations, when the colours are fully saturated, provide strong contrasts
- Red: green is the most commonly found combination in the natural world, blue: orange is occasional, whilst yellow: violet is rare.
 |
| Red and green is the most common complement found in everyday life. In equal measure this creates a balanced, harmonious image |
What is it?
- Combining colours according to their visual weights
- Each primary and secondary colour has different luminosity
- The eye scans scenes fast, identifying bright and dark tones, averaging them to middle grey (the neutral value), spotting any imbalance and seeking an explanation for its presence
- This relationship of relative brightness is: Y = 9, O = 8, R = 6, G = 6, B = 4, V = 3
- This drives the visual weight of each colour: harmony results from combinations that fit the inverse ratio of relative brightness, e.g. V (3x) to Y (1x), R (1x) to G (1x), O (2x) to B (x1)
 |
| Using the inverse of brightness values creates the ratio of quantities of complementary colours to create harmonious pairings |
- Relative brightness ratios apply to tertiary colours: 'red-orange' = 7, being the average of red (6) and orange (8)
- These relationships are hard to find in real life: since colours mostly appear as isolated surfaces or are distributed irregularly. Nevertheless, the model is useful for still life schemes.
- An expressive quantity contrast develops when large and small quantities produce visual tension. What 'works' depends on the subjective reactions of the viewer, so the photographer needs to be sensitive to the mainstream reaction.
 |
| The colour accent. The small amount of red within the larger quantity of green sets up a dominating point to which the eye compulsively returns. The red colour accent works more effectively than the reverse due to red being a warm, advancing colour and green a cool, receding one (see Contrast of Temperature) |
 |
| The imbalance between the orange statute, which dominates the images, and the blue sky sets up a tension which most people would find disturbing. |
What is it?
- Contrast of warm (R,O,Y) with cool colours (B,G,V)
- Warm and cool hues in the Colour Wheel exist across a dividing line running from yellow to violet.
 |
| The vertical line divides warm from cool colours (in addition to being opposite poles of the brightest and darkest colours. The horizontal line shows highest contrasts between warm (red-orange) and cool (blue-green) |
- Strength of contrast: depends on the distance apart in the colour wheel (far = strong, near = weak). Greatest contrast is between blue-green (cyan) and red-orange. Blue is cooler than green (contains yellow) and violet (contains red). Red is warmer than orange (contains yellow) and yellow.
 |
| Warm colours push forward, cool ones recede. This also adds depth to the image (provided the warm coloured object is in the foreground) |
 |
| Temperature contrast, although more subtle, can also occur on either the warm or cool side of the Colour Wheel. Here the contrast is on the warm side between yellow (cooler) and red (warmer) |
- Graphic considerations: warm colours advance, cooler ones recede (see first and second image below). This can add depth to an image. The eye expects warm colours in the foreground and cool ones in the background. Yet if this relationship is reversed (cool in foreground/ warm in background), the mind struggles with the tension created. How this dissonance is resolved, depends on whether other clues (such as perception of the natural order of the image elements) exist to interpreting what elements are in the foreground, what in the background.
 |
| The expectation is that the drain pipe is in the foreground and the wall in the background. However, the green of the drain pipe recedes towards the background, whilst the red of the wall advances to the foreground, establishing a tension that is never resolved |
- Emotional impact: 'cool' and 'warm' can be exchanged for other polar contrasts, such as 'near' and 'far', 'shady' and 'sunny', 'reassuring' and 'exciting', 'easy' and 'hard', 'aerial' and 'earthly', 'transparent' and 'opaque'. Temperature contrast can create a strength of emotion beyond the subject matter of the image
- Choice in composition: in view of the power of temperature contrast, the photographer must decide if this should be the image's main contrast or whether it should play a secondary role. (Secondary: i.e. used with restraint or weakened by the presence of other types of colour contrast, such as brightness, hue, etc).
What is it?
- Juxtaposition of colours with boundaries that perceptually vibrate
- The character of a colour (its brilliance and apparent hue) changes according to its surroundings.
- Adjacent black, white or grey affects the perception of the colour's brilliance, whilst the presence of another colour alters the appearance of its hue.
- Brilliance also affects the figure: ground relationship. At one end of the scale, a white shape on a black background will radiate outwards and so give an impression of being larger than at the other end of the scale, the same shape in black against a white background where the latter advances to appear to reduce the former.
- The 3 primary colours change differently against white and black backgrounds: yellow: 'quiet warmth' (white) ® 'cold aggressiveness' (black); red: 'dull obscurity' (white) ® 'radiant brilliance' (black); blue: 'dark obscurity' (white) ® 'luminous depth' (black).
- The change in apparent brightness occurs most noticeably with neutral grey. The presence of adjacent black makes it seem brighter, and of white darker. Next to a colour the effect is to push the appearance of the grey towards the adjoining colour's complement
 |
| Impact on neutral grey of white (darker), black (brighter) and red (subtle push to green as complement) and green (push to red) |
- Simultaneous contrast not only occurs with grey but also between colours, although not between complements themselves. When near complements are adjacent to each other (e.g. red and blue-green), human perception (after the eye has settled on the image for any length of time) will tend to create the complements of each of the colours actually present (i.e. green and red-orange). This phenomenon has been likened to visual vibration.
 |
| Human perception adds an intensity to images with complementary colours in pastel tones (orange and blue here), as one colour reinforces its opponent. |
No comments:
Post a Comment