The Basics About Color Photography

The Basics About Color Photography

The Basics About Color Photography

While black and white photography has long been the photo class standard, there comes a time when every photographer wants to experiment with representing the world in the exact way that we see it in color. Adding color to images brings its own set of complications and requires the photographer to have a firm understanding of the basic elements of photography, but can still be broken down into a few easy to understand elements.

Contrast

In black and white photography, contrast refers to the difference between the lightest and darkest elements of a photograph. In essence, you can think of contrast as "how white is white?" Basically, black and white photography only has high, medium, or low contrast. In color photography, contrast gets a little more interesting.. Color photography has color contrast compared to the tonal contrast of black and white.

Color contrast is determined by the way each of the colors interacts with the colors surrounding it. So, although you can still adjust the contrast and push bright colors darker, the colors will look different in the picture depending upon the colors around it. For instance, think of a baseball sitting in bright green grass that image has high color contrast because the bright white of the baseball will stand out against the cool green of the grass.

Color Temperature

Whenever you take photographs in color you will have to keep an eye on their color temperature. One thing that will affect the color temperature of your picture is the different types of lights that you use. While there are a lot of technical measurements for color temperature and the way it interacts with actual temperature, we can think of it in terms of tint.

Tint and color temperature are actually referred to as "white balance" in photography. Film and sensors are developed with a certain kind of light in mind, and any time photos are shot in different lighting circumstances it will affect whether or not white looks truly "white." For example, if you take a picture underneath a fluorescent light is always has a green tint to it because that's the color temperature of those lights

How to Use Temperature

When shooting in color, it is important to understand which color temperature or tint is best for the image you're trying to create. Warm, reddish tints, like those at sunset, are flattering to most skin tones while buish tints are better for neutral product pictures.

Color temperature can be modified in-camera by adjusting your white balance or by using filters, or you can attempt to edit the image after the fact with darkroom work or in editing software like Adobe Photoshop. Similar to aperture and shutter speed, it's usually a good idea to take a photograph several times with different white balance settings to give yourself the most flexibility after the shoot is over.

Learning how to master colors is a skill that takes lots of practice. The theory behind the use of different colors is a controversial and complex topic as photographers often use different colors to help achieve certain emotions in their photographs.

If you're just getting started with color, the best first goal is to accurately capture the environment the way that you saw it. Once you can do this reliably with color photography, you can start working to manipulate these colors to add to the narrative of your photographs. And as usual, find what works works best for you and have fun doing it.

POST COMMENT

ARS NOVA IMAGES Teach you how a digital camera exposure Use Customized Badge Cases to Encourage Stability and the Organization Image Video Production - how to perform better on camera London CCTV security cameras help police in MI6 death case Chicano Park, a picturesque park with a tumultuous past Hair Colors Pictures | Hair colors ideas Get a hold of Saw VII 3D Complete Movie picture In Hd/dvd Quality | Observe and watch Saw VII 3D Rapidly Acquire Saw VII 3D Motion picture In Hd/dvd Level of quality | View and watch Saw VII 3D Rapidly View and Enjoy Saw VII 3D Rapidly | Acquire Saw VII 3D Entire Motion picture In Hd/dvd Level of quality View and watch Saw VII Rapidly | Acquire Saw VII Motion picture In Hd/dvd Level of quality Observe and watch Saw 7 - 3D Rapidly | Get a hold of Saw 7 - 3D Complete Motion picture In Hd/dvd Quality Get the most from your pictures with an acrylic picture frame