Colour | Photography

Formal Elements: Colour

Definition and Theory:

Colour can indicate different moods and emotions within a photograph. For example, the colour yellow can present a very happy and bright mood to the picture. However, the colour blue can be seen as a sad, almost depressing effect applied when in an image.

Sad Photography

Happy Photography

Billie Eilish Music Video (Sad Photography)

Little Mix Music Video (Happy Photography)

Definitions:

Analogous colours next to each other on the colour wheel "get along" and are referred to as being harmonious. Analogous colours are often used in visual design and have a soothing affect.
Complimentary colours exhibit more contrast when positioned adjacent to each other -for example yellow appears more intense when positioned on or beside blue or violet (see picture below).

Muted Photography

Cool Photography

Saturated Photography

Warm Photography

Vivid Photography

Intense Photographygraphy

My Mind Map on Colour:

Photographer: William Egglestone

William Egglestone was born July 1939 and is an American Photographer. He is widely credited for increasing recognition for colour photography as a legitimate artistic medium.

I like the style of his work as it presents a wide variety of certain colours within unique and different settings/objects. However, most of his work is setting quite a happy and vibrant mood within the photos. There is not many dark colours or negative emotions within many of the photographs. I would like to create a similar photo to Egglestone using a red haired girl to create a vibrant, happy photograph.

Within William Egglestone's he produces a very bright and vibrant set of photographs. He uses the colour yellow a lot which connotes happiness, joy and positive energy. Whereas, he also uses the colours orange and red in different tones, which are considered to be complimentary colours with yellow.

Photographer: Martin Parr

Martin Parr was born May 1952 and is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, stratical and anthropological look at aspects. I enjoy his sense of comedy within the photographs, but he also doesn't seem to produce many pieces of work with holding a negative mood or dark colours. Therefore, when taking my own photographs, I plan to focus on both different moods/effects that can be created.

In Martin Parr's photographs he used a wide range of bright and different colours. In each image there is a story behind it with a sense of playful behaviour. But the colours in some photos, like the woman in the top left corner, have been over exaggerated or extremely contrasted to create a sarcastic comedy behind the photographs. He has also used super saturation within the editing process.

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

My Contact Sheets:

Throughout these images I have circled my favourite images in green. Whereas, there are a couple of photographs that may need improvements that have been circled in red.

I focused on photographing younger girls modelling pieces of fashion and their features. Such as the red haired girls, following the inspiration William Egglestone.

My Best Images (Non-Edits):

In most of these images I have taken photographs of girls with orange/red hair which was inspired by the work and images I collected from the photographer William Egglestone. I believe the older girl wearing bright red lipstick also captures the same effect as created in his work. The colour red is quite complimentary to her skin tone and the colour of her hair. Whereas the bright blue scarf is analogous to the younger red haired girl.

Images that need Improvements:

In these photographs, I do not believe they are to the best of my ability. In one of the photos the focus is completely blurred as I used the wrong setting on the camera. However, the other image shows the girl on her phone and not looking at the camera which I think is not a very in depth photograph.

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

My Editing Process:

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

My Edited Images:

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

Throughout my photographs, I feel I have included a range of colours all creating different moods within the images. After editing my photos I feel I enhanced the colours or completely changed them to create the opposite moods. In this project I used my passion for fashion using young girls to model and present different colours.