Projects 32 & 33 - Primary and Secondary Colours

Ok so I have been reshooting some flower photos for my colour wheel for these 2 projects. I know that the brief isn't to produce a colour wheel by the way, but as I'm no longer submitting this for assessment I am having a bit of fun along the way!

I used a 105mm macro lens to isolate the flowers, but didn't use extension tubes as I was shooting outside and it was a bit breezy.

Yellow - daffodils are everywhere and that includes in my garden!




This was the cameras auto exposure which came in at 1/250 f4. I was happy with the yellow but still tried an alternative exposure




This was shot on manual 1/250 f5.6 and is too underexposed. So in this instance I am happy to use the camera's auto exposure.

Violet - I have clumps of these pretty flowers dotted around the garden. No idea what they are - probably turn out to be weeds! But they are a nice colour...




The camera's auto exposure gave a reading of 1/800 f7.1. I considered dropping the ISO, but as the projects are about the effect of exposure on colour, I went with it... The colour in this image is quite light, but I over exposed slightly to see what happened on the next one




Manual setting 1/800 f6.3. Still a definite colour, which surprised me as I thought it would be more bleached out, but obviously over-exposed




Manual 1/800 f8. Much truer to the colour and more detail in the petals as a result I think.




Manual 1/800 f9. Again slightly darker, as you would expect by under-exposing on the camera's auto exposure setting. I think this is the most accurate colour match to the flower.




Manual 1/800 f10. Too under-exposed.

Green - tulip leaf




Auto exposure 1/500 f6.3. This is quite an accurate representation of the leaf colour but I tried under-exposing again a couple of times




Manual 1/500 f7.1 and




Manual 1/500 f8. I think the slight under-exposure of the second shot gives the best and most accurate green. I need to refer to the colour wheel to see how accurately this and the violet match.

Blue - bluebells again. Initially I shot them from the front, but the colour of the bells is still too violet. But I noticed that the top of the bell was a definite blue, so I positioned myself behind the bluebells and shot from there.




Auto exposure of 1/500 f5.6. See what I mean about the top of the bell being blue even though the bell is violet? Never noticed that before. The blue is quite bleached out in this one so I under-exposed again




Manual 1/500 f6.3 and




Manual 1/500 f7.1. This is the one which I think gives the best blue, although it has more shadows. I think the overall impression of the shot is "blue"

So I need to look at putting together my new colour wheel to see where I now have gaps. Back shortly...

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Project 32 - Primary Colours

Ok, so I had a look though my collection of photos to see if my planned colour wheel with flowers would work.




This is the starting point. The red is ok, but I want to re-shoot yellow and blue. Yellow because there are too many variations of yellow in the photo (shadows, light etc) and blue as the bluebells are a bit violet in colour in my opinion. I do like the shallow depth of field in the blue photo though, as the out of focus background provides more of the same colour without detracting from the subject.

I do like the idea of using flowers to illustrate the colour wheel, and I think it works well. Now I need to concentrate on getting shots to illustrate the colours I am after. I need to get the exposure settings for the red photo, and also remember to record the exposures for the new photos I shoot, to compare the effect of different exposures on the colour.

Ultimately after I have got the shots I need for the primary and then secondary colours, I will put together a colour wheel comprising the 6 photos.

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Project 31 - Analysing a Colour

For this project I have to find and record individual colours.  This will be an on-going project and I will keep adding to this post continually. 

Green

This first photo was taken in Rotorua, New Zealand where the light quality is superb and colours are much more vivid.  There appears to be thousands of variations of a single colour.  I said when we lived there that there were more shades of green that I'd ever thought possible.

                       

By comparison this is a photo of the grass in my back garden in England.  Still some variation in colour, but not much !

Blue

Again taken in New Zealand at Hataitai, Wellington.  The blue sky and water in the harbour gives the image a relaxed feel.

Purple

This is detail from a Michaelmas daisy.  It shows a lighter shade of purple, more lilac with definite blue tones.

Yellow

This is a yellow chrysanthemem which shows various shades of yellow, caused both by light and shadow, and also the colouring of the petals.