Colour

Definition & Theory:

• Colour is the element of art that is produced when light, striking an object, is reflected back to the eye.
• There are three 3 properties to colour. 

1. Hue, which is the name given to the colour (blue, yellow, red etc).
2. Intensity, which refers to the strength and vividness of the colour (rich, bright, vibrant).
3. Value - its lightness or darkness. The term shade and tint refer to when value changes in colours

There are names for different styles of colour.

muted -  a colour that has a lack of vibrancy or saturation.


The theory of colour has a very close link to psychology.This links to how there as been lots of research on how colour affects human beings and some of the research suggests that gender may influence a different respond to colours. Colour affects us emotionally with different colours evoking, different emotions. In biological terms, colour has the capacity to affect the human nervous system.

To me colour in photography represents different feelings and emotions, which can vary for each individual depending on their own personal experiences.

Below are some visual examples of the theory described above.

Research (Artists & Techniques)
The photographer I have chosen to research is Ansel Adams 1902 – April 22, 1984 was an American photographer and an environmentalist. He was well recognised  for his black-and-white photos of the American west.However, Ansel Adams began to photograph in colour after Kodachrome film was invented in the 1930's. He made nearly 3,500 colour photographs, many of them landscape photos based around nature. I noticed that many of his colour photos had specific tones to them, for example pink and purple.

Ansel Adams travelled the world to try and capture the astounding colours of nature using the newly invented Kodachrome film. The first image is named as 'Sunrise is death valley' and shows the beautiful colours that our worlds sky can produce, just due to the reflection of light. The other two images are pictures that Ansel Adams took on his trip to Hawaii. in 1939. He explored landscapes and showed the amazing colours that the environment shares with us.I specifically chose these two images as they mainly focus on the colour purple. I chose the colour purple as I believe it does an amazing job in illustrating creativity, luxury, peace, tranquillity, magic, calm and spirituality which I feel best represents my feelings and connotations of nature and the environment.

I am to recreate the purple theme shown in the images above by using photoshop and changing the hues of my photos to purple.

Image Bank
The following images were added as part of my visual research

The above images by other photographers, illustrate some of the photos I can capture around Hertfordshire, as there is lots of woodland, green-land, and country views in the area. They show many different colours, all to do with nature,which can represent many different moods and feelings.

Contact sheet 

AO1: You must ensure that several of the visual ideas/inspirations within the image bank are pursued

The images circled in red are the photographs I need to improve.

My Best Images 

Photos to Improve

These photographs were selected as I believe they need the following improvements:

I selected my image of the spider in its web because I unfortunately failed to get enough focus on the spiders, this makes the image subvert the eye from the intriguing colours of the spider, making it look bland. I can improve this by changing the aperture to a higher setting so the edges become more blurred and the quality of the spider becomes much sharper .

The photo of the pink house on the corner of the street really showed vibrancy. However, the angle of the photo ruined my intentions of showing the huge contrast in colours between the buildings along the street and the pink one on the corner. I am certain I could improve this by the use of a tripod to test out the best height and angles to achieve my intentions.

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

I feel as though my images did come out as I expected to a certain extent. This is because I think it would have been great if by expanding the location of my shots, I could have captured a better variety of colours.

My idea for recording colour was to photograph the different colours you see in nature and the environment. I explored a range of colours, as seen on my contact sheet, but my best images show mainly, greens,reds,whites,browns,greys and orange. These colours were chosen as when taking my photos of nature, they were the predominant colours that I constantly saw. These are inspired by Ansel Adams as he was an environmentalist and many of his pictures illustrate to me the calming and soothing feelings that nature brings to us as individuals. I will then proceed to change the hues of my selected images to purple achieving the connotations that this colour brings.

The first photograph was shot using the close-up setting on my camera, to really get the details of the flower to be of greater quality. I made sure I shot it from an angle in which the green leaf was visible to show contrast next to the red flower. I did this because it highlights the red, giving it a stronger and more powerful stance. This links to Ansel Adams photography as he loved taking photos of the nature and I believe the red colour in this flower illustrates the idea love and passion which you can see through many of his images.

The image of the squirrel is my favourite image as although the mute colours of grey and brown do not connote positive energies, it shows the autumn colours which I think is the most beautiful season for capturing nature. This images shows some of the wildlife that we see in nature, which play a very important role in keeping the balance of nature from being disrupted. This would have been very important to Ansel Adams as an environmentalist. Before changing the hue, I will create a vignette effect to really focus on the squirrel at the centre of the image.

My third photo of the leaves of the autumn trees illustrate the orange and yellow colours that show the happiness and warmth that I feel nature can bring to people on a spiritual level. This was inspired by Ansel Adams colour images as he mainly took landscape photographs, which aimed to capture the variety of colours shared within one scenery. Although to achieve my message of the feelings that purple illustrates I will change the hue.

Fortunately, the flowers in this photograph were purple which already achieve my intentions of illustrating the powerful message that purple tells to us about nature, so I will not need as bright a hue. It was influenced by the leaves captured by Ansel Adams in Hawaii, but has been recreated in my own way by just making sure I achieve the colour purple. I chose to take this photo from a distance to capture the friendly colour green which connotes nature, alongside the colour purple, as I believe these colours go hand in hand

This picture of the sunset was influenced by Ansel Adams image 'sunrise in death valley'. I walked round the countryside in my village, to capture this image with the skyline of trees to create shadows and really highlight the colours that we experience due to the reflection of light. The yellow/orange portrays warmth and a positive feeling. The light red colours connote the power of the environment, linking to the old folks tale 'red skies at night shepherds delight, red skies in the morning shepherds warning'. However, to stick to my theme I shall change the hue to purple to strengthen the feelings of peace that the environment brings.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops. 

I used a Canon EOS 1300D camera for all of the shots taken.

The images were photographed at an aperture of f5.6. I did not increase the aperture setting as I thought that the images looked very sharp. However, with shots that included a range of colours even when increasing aperture, the lighting was so poor It meant I had to increase the exposure too. For example my shot of a graffiti wall.

If I were to re-shoot this image I would take it at a better time of day, for example just after sunrise to increase the brightness without having to edit my image after. I would also try out different angles to find the best lighting that compliments the colours of the image. If this does not work then I will turn on flash to see the effects it could bring to the colours. 

The screenshots below show how I changed my images using Photoshop, to achieve my intentions.Firstly, to give it a purple tone I added a layer of the colour 9d1f81 covering the image with purple, reduced the opacity of the colour to the percentage which I felt was just enough to change the hue, without it being too dramatic.

For my image of the squirrel, I focused on the animal by changing the curves and using the dodge tool to lighten the area where the squirrel is.

The images above show how I used Photoshop to change the hue of my images and how I achieved the focus on the squirrel in my photograph.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

My research on Ansel Adams was extremely helpful in influencing the stance I took on colour. He inspired me to focus on the colours of nature , using a range of skills such as landscape photography to highlight contrasting colours. This was very good for me as in Hertfordshire there is lots of green land and areas where nature can be captured easily, also helping me focus on the colours of autumn. My research on other photographers was very influential on the idea of changing hues as, it showed me that the tone of an image can completely change or enhance what it connotes, which is what I am aiming to do using the colour purple.

AO4:  Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.  

I have definitely achieved my intentions of illustrating the way purple makes me feel. The following images have been changed to a purple hue, with some increased exposure and vignette effect, the colour is faint but still noticeable so my images maintain clarity.

My originial intentions were supposed to illustrate the meaningful message of the creativity, luxury, peace, tranquillity, magic, calm and spirituality that the colour purple brings to me. However, within this I feel I have also shown a summer into autumn transition from the use of bright colours to more duller colours.