To See Creatively #06 : Color

Book         : Learning To See Creatively

Author    : Bryan Peterson

Chapter   : Element of Design

COLOR

• “Color is so obvious. Where is the surprise in that? The real art in image-making lies in shooting black and white.”
• This is neither the time nor the place to begin a debate on what constitutes art in photography, whether in color or black and white.
• If people really saw color, they would be far too consumed by the need to shoot color if only for color’s sake.
• Color has many messages and meanings. You must also become aware of color’s visual weight and the subsequent impact it has on line and shape, as well as its varied hues and tones.
• I will limit my discussion to the primary (red, blue and yellow) and secondary (orange, green and violet) colors. Primary colors area called such because they cannot be created by mixing any other colors. The mixing of any two primary colors result in a secondary color.
• I often suggest to my students that wherever they choose to search for color, they begin to do so with the aid of tele-macro lens.
• It has been my experience that narrowing your search to the much smaller “macro” world will, in fact, result in a much higher success rate. Almost without fail, many of my students who do this soon discover that they’re seeing color possibilities not just with their close-up equipment, but also with their long telephotos and their wide-anlgle zoom lenses.
• Color is so obvious, and just like the air we breathe, it’s everywhere. A path toward creative image making benefits from a much higher awareness of the color that surrounds you.

Holey Section

Colorful House

Meadow of Lavender

Yellow Ball

Blue Yellow and Black Chair

To See Creatively #05 : Pattern

Book        : Learning To See Creatively

Author   : Bryan Peterson

Chapter  : Element of Design

PATTERN

• The combination of the colors, the texture, and most of all the pattern caused me to shoot more than several rolls of film.
• I later realized that this “discovery” not only lead me to more and more pattern-filled opportunities, but that it also revealed some inner psycology about myself.
• All the element of design elicit some very profound emotional responses, and for me, pattern had this uncanny ability to evoke emotions of stability, consistency, and belonging. it also felt safe, secure, and reliable because it was predictable.
• A psychologist looks for pattern as a way in helping us understand our behavior, while a parent  becomes accustomed to the pattern of the newborn. Without pattern, our world would be pure chaos.

Oil Spill

 

City Rooftops

 

Group of Flamingos

Silverwore Tabletop

Straws for Kid

To See Creatively #04 : Texture

Book       : Learning to See Creatively

Author  : Bryan Peterson

Chapter : Element of Design

TEXTURE

• Perhaps no element of design is more capable of exuding deep emotion than texture.
• In our daily language, we use texture to describe most everything.
• Although we use texture as a means of describing events in our lives, it’s not as readily apparent in photographic work.
• Texture, unlike line or shape, doesn’t shout to make it self known. Of all of the elements of design, it is the one element that is most often “hidden”.
• The challenge in seeing, as well as conveying, texture depends on one critical element : Lighting.
• A compelling image of texture is dependent on long-angled sidelight.
• Although some texture-filled compositions are obvious, like the sidelit bark of a tree, others require much closer inspection, and you may find your macro lens getting lots of use.
• Texture, its other use in creating compelling landscape imagery : as a foreground element in a vast compositional landscape, texture can arouse a heightened emotional response from viewers as their sense of touch is ignited.

Broken Oil Furnace

Since the house I was living in at the time had a broken oil furnace and the temperatures overnight had dropped to single digits. [105mm lens, 1/30 sec. at f/11]

 

 

 

 

Walkway Pattern

I headed back down the walkway and couldn’t resist the industrial pattern that lay at my feet. Such the power of texture-made even more evident when “amplified” by pattern. [70-180mm lens. 1/30 sec. at f/22]

 

 

 

One Simple Sign

Texture as a background can most often produce an exciting and emotion-filled composition. A simple road sign with a wall of texture behind it elicits a strong response, the man-made feel of the bacground texture leaves no doubt that this sign is in or a very near an industrial area. [35-70mm lens. 1/125sec. at f/8]

To See Creatively #03 : Form

Book       : Learning To See Creatively

Author  : Bryan Peterson

Chapter : Element of Design

FORM

• Form is seen in three dimensions, while a shape has only two.
• Form assures us that an object has depth and exist in the real world.
• Comunicating form depends on light and resulting shadows.
• Squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles evoke different emotional responses.
• Circular shape represent wholeness, yet when photographed sidelit, the form is revealed and the curvilinear shapes that result take on sensual meanings, reminding us the human form.
• The three dimensional forms of rectangles, squares, and triangles suggest the man-made world.

Landscape

As each cloud passed beneath the sun, a big shadow fell accross the landscape, covering portions of the scene. As the cloud moved on, this shadow also moved, alternately covering and revealling the form of defferent areas of the landscape. [80-200mm lens, 1/125 sec. at f/16]

 

 

 

 

Landscape Role Bales

Landscape photographers know the importance of form and shape. Both are often vital to the success of a landscape image. Sidelit landscapes are most often preferred since side lighting reveals form better than any other lighting condition. [17-35mm lens, 1/125 sec. at f/16]

 

 

Farther to The Bales

I then walked farther into the field, getting closer to the bales. [17-35mm lens, 1/125 sec. at f/16]