Mastering Light and Color in Photography

ATEC 3327:Lighting and Composition I

Class 1:Color, Camera, Action

Color, Camera, Action: • Film Examples & Discussion • Color Theory 101 • Photography basics • Assignment 1

Images: Light and Color • How do light and color affect an image? • Mood • Story • Audience Perceptions

Color Theory 101: The Color Wheel • The Challenge: • How do we describe colors?

Color Theory 101: The Color Wheel • The Kindergarten Model: Primary Colors • Red • Blue • Yellow • All other colors can be made by mixing these

Color Theory 101: The Color Wheel • The Sixth-Grade Art Class Model: Tints and Shades • Adding white makes a tint • Adding black makes a shade

Color Theory 101: The Color Wheel • The Middle-School Science Model: Light Colors • Red • Green • Blue

Color Theory 101: The Color Wheel • Subtractive Colors • Pigments, Paints, Filters • Additive Colors • Any source of light • Used to describe “print” colors • “white” is the paper color • Used to describe “projected” colors • “black” is the projector color

Color Theory 101: The Color Wheel • Hue, Saturation, Value

Color Theory 101: Tonal Range • What do these images have in common?

Color Theory 101: Tonal Range • Complimentary colors are on oppositesides of the color wheel (RGB or Pigment) • Blue-Green is the compliment of orange, where most human skin-tones appear • Complimentary colors maximize color contrast, making subjects “pop”

Color Theory 101: Tonal Range • Guess the orange and teal movie!

Color Theory 101: Other Color Schemes • Analogous Colors • Next to each-other on the color wheel

Color Theory 101: Other Color Schemes • Triads: • Usually three equidistant colors on the color wheel.

Color Theory 101: Other Color Schemes • Monochromatic: • Uses varying tones of a single color

Color Theory 101: Color As Story Tool • Changes in color can have huge story significance:

Color Theory 101: Color As Story Tool • Color can inform the story, and guide the viewer’s eye:

Color Theory 101: The Tone Scale • The Tone Scale defines a spectrum of brightness in an image • At the extreme low end:

Color Theory 101: The Tone Scale • … and at the extreme high end:

Photography Basics: • Photography has a near-200 year history • Humans are very used to looking at photographic images • A camera is a device for focusing light onto a plate (film, paper, or a digital sensor)

Photography Basics: • A modern camera:

Photography Basics: • Modern cameras control incoming light: • Shutter Speed • Focal Length • Lens Aperture • Lens Filters Exposure

Photography Basics: • Shutter Speed: How long the film (or sensor) is exposed to light • short shutter speeds freeze action • long shutter speeds cause motion blur

Photography Basics: • Focal Length: The physical distance between the focus point and the film • long lenses are referred to as “telephoto” • short lenses are called “wide angle”

Photography Basics: • wide-angle lenses tend to distort images • example of barrel distortion:

Photography Basics: • lenses have a variable opening called an aperture • The aperture determines how much light enters while the shutter is open • The aperture is sometimes called the F-Stop • The size of the opening is referred to as the F-Number • Decreasing the f-number is called “stopping up” • Increasing the f-number is called “stopping down”

Photography Basics: • The aperture and focal length both contribute to Depth of Field • shallow DOF • deep DOF

Photography Basics: • the shape of the aperture can be seen in out-of-focus areas

Photography Basics: • White Balance is the way that color film or digital sensors respond to non-white light

Fin.

Mastering Light and Color in Photography