Photo Tutorial: Back to Basics/Improving Our Photos

[Pea-n-Me]

Today I thought we’d look at Color as part of composition.

Bold or subtle colors invoke emotion and can influence the way others respond to our photographs.
https://www.adorama.com/alc/how-to-use-color-to-create-stunning-photographs/

How color affects mood in photography:
https://www.pexels.com/blog/resource/color-photography-mood/
https://www.picturecorrect.com/use-color-to-bring-emotion-to-your-photography/












Let’s see your examples of using color in your photographs!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

The articles touch on changing color in post-processing.
That’s not something I often do, but I thought I’d throw one in here for illustration.
Perhaps some of our resident experts will have additional examples.



Changed to black and white, for effect
Did that change the mood of the photo?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

@PrincessInOz Nice examples of perspective! Thanks for sharing! Where were those taken?

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Perspective - Looking Through



Here's a view taken from a high floor in a building.

View attachment 752710



Here's the view taken through a window.

View attachment 752709




To my eye, the second image portrays a bit depth of how the 3D view might look like.

This is a great illustration of how looking at the same scene in different ways can give it a very different feel. It also shows how much adding foreground objects can make a picture tell a richer story. Well done.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I love using color in photos. I can't "think" well in black and white, so I do virtually no B&W photography. I love to use colors to emphasize mood.

Very warm, orange sunrise.

Canon 5D Mark II, 85mm, 22s, f/16, ISO 50

Similar shot taken before sunrise with a very cool blue look. Looking back at this shot, it's too much. Not sure what I was thinking when I did it.

Canon 5D Mark III, 40mm, 6s, f/11, ISO 100

This is another look at the same scene with a different approach to color. In this one, I shifted the water to a cooler blue hue and increased the saturation of the cliffs to bring out the orange/red to contrast it with the water. Between that and the textures, I felt that it made for a fun contrast between the soft water and the hard shore. I like split toning (pushing the shadows and highlights in different color directions) to add more visual contrast and mood to some pictures.

Canon 5D Mark III, 80mm, 1.6s, f/8, ISO 50

Here's one where I gathered different objects of different colors (yes, it was staged) on the sand. I used the colors to make the objects look very different from each other.

Canon 5D Mark III, 135mm, 1/160s, f/11, ISO 400

Here's a shot that is about almost nothing but color. It's a picture of a group of kids waving glow sticks in the dark. It was a couple of days after Hurricane Ike knocked out the power in our area (which lasted 14 days!), so there was very little other light to worry about.

Canon 1D Mark II, 35mm, f/5.6, 10s, ISO 800

 

[PollyannaMom]

@MarkBarbieri, those are fabulous!

 

[PrincessInOz]

@PrincessInOz Nice examples of perspective! Thanks for sharing! Where were those taken?

Thank you.

The ones from the inside of a building were taken on Open House Melbourne day. It's the inside of the KPMG building on the top floor.

The ones looking down were taken in Sydney QVB (Queen Victoria Building). Its a 5 storey historic shopping arcade built at the turn of the last century.

The ones looking up were taken in Melbourne. There is a heritage listed shot tower that was preserved and a five level shopping mall was built around it.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I love using color in photos. I can't "think" well in black and white, so I do virtually no B&W photography.

Amazing images in colour.

I've realised that most of my recent shots have been me thinking in B&W.
Might need to revert back to colour thinking.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Colour - Mungo National Park

A couple of years ago, I managed to squeeze in a roadtrip vacay to Mungo National Park. Its a rather remote national park out in the middle of nowhere in country Australia. It's managed by three local aboriginal tribes and they like to keep it remote. Despite the Federal Government offering to build a bitumen road out there, the elders of the tribe have decided to keep it remote. So, in order to reach the park, you're driving in on about 60-70km of corrugated dirt/sand road. Inaccessible when the rains come.

Here are some colour examples taken on this trip.

Dominant Sunrise colour, taken at the old woolshed at Mungo National Park. The dominant red hue just permeated the all around and gave that woolshed a reddy cast to it.
Everything was on fire!








Complementary colours, taken at the Great Wall of China, Mungo National Park

Sunset can be a great time to get colours in your photos. But when there are no clouds in the sky, all you get is flat (but brilliant) blue. Lucky for us, the Great Wall of China reflected the sun and it was a good subject for reverse sunset shots.

Against the blue sky, the contrasting orange glow of the sand, made the Great Wall stand out even more.






Colour changes the Mood


Same location, same day at Mungo NP. The only difference is the sun set lower against the horizon. The colour in the sky changed to pastels along the horizon; and the glow on the sand muted down.
For me, the below image makes me more reserved and contemplative.






We were very lucky with the photography gods on this trip.

 

[PrincessInOz]

changing color in post-processing.

I nearly have an example.

Original shot





Changing this in Lightroom; and using the LR B&W Selenium Tone preset.

It was a cold (-6C) and foggy morning. I feel the blue selenium tone best conveys how the morning felt to me.







ps @goopysolelady If you are lurking, I'm pretty sure this was taken on the morning you were in London; when it was super foggy.

 

[goopysolelady]

I nearly have an example.

Original shot

View attachment 752981



Changing this in Lightroom; and using the LR B&W Selenium Tone preset.

It was a cold (-6C) and foggy morning. I feel the blue selenium tone best conveys how the morning felt to me.



View attachment 752983



ps @goopysolelady If you are lurking, I'm pretty sure this was taken on the morning you were in London; when it was super foggy.

"Alerts" brought me to this page and I must say that picture gets a "thumbs up" from me ...TOTALLY how that morning felt like to me too! Just a couple examples of photos I took that cold, foggy morning...

 

[kimmar067]

I loved the colors, when played against the water [or beneath it]:

 

[kimmar067]

Three different shots of the Tree of Life at DAK:

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I really enjoyed your color examples! Thanks to everyone who participated!

Color is one of my favorite things about photos.

Some more of my own:

I think we all know where these next two are from





I find it fun to photograph flowers





And food







And nature





So many things around us in everyday life with beautiful colors and textures that capture my eye!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Here are a couple more fun uses of color at Epcot.

The many colors of Imagination

Canon 7D, 24mm, f/8, 20s, ISO 100

Different colored fireworks at Illuminations.

Canon 1D Mark II, 24mm, f8 to f/11, 1.4s to 2.9s, ISO 200

 

[Pea-n-Me]

More on Perspective

Perspective in photography is defined as the sense of depth or spatial relationship between objects within an image. Effective perspective photography can take a two-dimensional perspective picture and make it feel like a three-dimensional scene and add greater depth to your images.

https://www.adorama.com/alc/perspective-in-photography/

“Perspective in photography is like what prose and poetry are in language,” says Rose. “You can read a sentence that’s technically correct and gets the point across, but it doesn’t really captivate you. You can take a serviceable picture of something, but if you can capture an interesting perspective of it, you can really draw the viewer in.”

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/discover/perspective-photography.html

This is one concept I’m still working on.

My little Toto here has the cutest darn walk and I’m often trying to capture it.
He’s quick, though, so it can be a challenge!



This little bugger joined us at the pool at FW! (PC DD)



Let’s see what you’ve got for perspective!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Original shot

View attachment 752981

My DH and I both really loved this shot, au naturale! It really captures the charm and essence of a foggy day in the UK! I especially love the ducks down on the left, and the tree hanging overhead, along with the meandering walkway and the homes, etc. Really nice photo!

 

[PollyannaMom]

Here is the same Lego castle from two different perspectives:





(To take the second one, I reversed my camera to the front, held it flat, facing up, and got as close to the base as allowed.)



And here's one where interesting perspective was built into the subject, and not at all from my snapshot of it. - Lego artist Nathan Sawaya built the main character forward in space from the rest of the "painting" - the background is flat (viewing the side of the Lego bricks) and the 3D figure sits on a platform in front.

(I wish I'd taken one from the side as well to show the spacing better, but I wasn't thinking about this category at the time.)



These were all taken 4/7/23 on an iPhone at the Art of the Brick exhibit in Boston: https://artofthebrickexhibit.com/

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Some of these photos, like the one just above, got ahead of me a little bit, as Mood was going to be one of the next categories!

That’s ok, though, it’ll be nice to use @PrincessInOz’s beautiful London photo as an example when we think about it.



What Is Mood in photography?

Mood essentially relates to the lighting in a shot. Giving something mood usually means we are trying to make it dark and brooding – making it moody. But mood can relate to any lighting situation, to give your photo any mood/feeling.

For landscape photography, mood usually relates to the weather.

https://www.picturecorrect.com/creating-mood-in-photography/









Let’s see some of your pictures that convey a mood!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Here is the same Lego castle from two different perspectives:

View attachment 753070

View attachment 753071

(To take the second one, I reversed my camera to the front, held it flat, facing up, and got as close to the base as allowed.)



And here's one where interesting perspective was built into the subject, and not at all from my snapshot of it. - Lego artist Nathan Sawaya built the main character forward in space from the rest of the "painting" - the background is flat (viewing the side of the Lego bricks) and the 3D figure sits on a platform in front.

(I wish I'd taken one from the side as well to show the spacing better, but I wasn't thinking about this category at the time.)

View attachment 753067

These were all taken 4/7/23 on an iPhone at the Art of the Brick exhibit in Boston: https://artofthebrickexhibit.com/

I love these, @PollyannaMom! Nice shot looking up at the Lego castle - it looks like a whole different structure! Nice example!