Part 3 Colour
Project: What makes a colour
Exercise 1
Aim: Show how changing exposure affects colour.
This project focuses on colour, and how we can control it with manual camera's. For this exercise, the subject I have chosen is part of the bright red post box in my village. The camera's automatic setting's were 1/200, f7.1 and ISO100. I took 3 pictures each a stop brighter than the average (f8, f9, f10) and 3 pictures a stop lower (f6.3, f5.6, f5). The shutter speed and ISO remained the same throughout the exercise.
1.
1/200 f10
2.
1/200 f9
3.
1/200 f8 (closest to subject in real life)
4.
1/200 f7.1 (metered exposure)
5.
1/200 f6.3
6.
1/200 f5.6
7.
1/200 f5
The most prominent change between the photo's is the brightness. Image 1 is slightly under exposed, making the colour darker and deeper. The red is noticeably more vivid than the other pictures. As the pictures become more over-exposed they have started to lose detail and contrast. The brightness value has gone up and they are slightly less saturated than the darker ones. The hue has changed slightly to a more pinkish colour than red and would have moved to the orange part of the spectrum had I continued to take higher metered pictures.
In Photoshop I took an example of the main colour from the same place in both the first and last pictures. Below, you can clearly see the difference in brightness, saturation and hue. #1 is taken from the first photo (f10) and #2 is from the last (f5):
1. H= 2
S= 83%
B= 78%
2. H= 6
S= 67%
B= 99%
This has been a very interesting exercise that has helped me understand the relationships and differences between HSB and how they can be affected. I found this article very helpful as is explains clearly and in detail how colour works in photography: http://www.framedreality.com/color-in-photography-color-theory
