The mystery of color: color passports

In this article we will continue to talk about color harmony and composition. It is obvious that in photography, color is inextricably linked with the majority of the expressive elements that make up the flexible plastic level of a photograph: lines, forms, textures, tones. It is these elements that are “obedient” to the photographer. First of all he uses them to express his thoughts and feelings, arranges his composition and finally realizes his idea.

We have already learned about the physical nature of color, how to describe it quantitatively and qualitatively, and the overall structure of a color photographic image. Photography differs in many ways from the traditional visual arts, but, for example, it is related to painting and graphics by the unity of the subject language which they all speak. Lines, tones, and surface textures are obviously common expressive elements in both photography and painting. Color is no exception. That is why in our story we so often refer to the experience of painting, which emerged much earlier than photography and in many respects predetermined its development.

In our previous article we discussed in detail the psycho-physiological nature of color and the duality of its influence on the viewer. It is important to understand: however subjective the perception of color of the individual person, there are some basic laws, and in most cases the impression from color is objectively predetermined.

In the first article of the cycle, speaking of color bases, we mentioned that the set of primary colors in photography differs from what is used in painting. The fact is that the classic RGB model is used for the optical construction of color, while artists work with the reflected pigmented light. The closest thing to painting is the subtractive model, where the base colors are yellow, magenta, and turquoise. With the precision of the chromatic shift and the “pigment” definition of green and blue, it is equivalent to the color basis adopted in painting. And as soon as we are going to speak about the influence of color on the viewer, we will operate with “pictorial” three yellow, red, dark blue .

In this article we shall continue the conversation about color harmony and composition. It is quite obvious that in photography color is inseparably connected with the majority of the expressive elements that form the flexible plastic level of a picture: lines, forms, textures, tones. It is these elements that are “obedient” to the photographer. First of all he uses them to express his thoughts and feelings, arranges his composition and finally realizes his idea.

But before we proceed to discussion of these questions, let us try to define the character of each color separately and create a kind of “passport” of color. We already spoke that in perception of color there is a lot of subjective, and often years pass before the artist begins to perceive color abstractly… It is possible to tell with confidence, that for free possession of color extraction in it of objective beginning is necessary. But the real character of color is shown only in interaction of colors with each other. We repeatedly wrote about how our senses function by comparison, and the eye is no exception. He has constantly to compare not only forms, but also colors. In the article “Dialogue of Colors” we showed by examples how the impression of color can be intensified or weakened as a result of its interaction with other colors. About seven types of color contrasts we already spoke. Let’s pass now to the description of each of colors separately. The scope of this article doesn’t allow us to break down all the variety of color tones, so we’ll limit ourselves to three primary colors red, yellow and blue and three secondary colors green, orange and violet .

Red

Speaking of pure red, we mean the absence of yellowish and bluish tones in it. A deep red is almost always a symbol of powerful energy, strength, passion. Bright red is an incitement to action, invites you to cast aside thoughts of caution, but also does not relieve responsibility. It’s energetic, it stimulates, it warms. Even in a cool room, you won’t feel so cold in a red sweater under a raspberry plaid. Yet red is a color of danger, urging you to act immediately. Longer wavelengths make red rays the least likely to scatter. They reach the eye almost instantly and quickly attract attention. That is why the prohibition lights of traffic lights, fire trucks, and most danger signs are always bright red.

Red-orange is dense and opaque, but its brightness is like a flame. Not without reason, it occupies the extreme position on the warm-cold scale. Another variation of red, pink, has a more subtle effect. It also represents passion, but a gentle, deep, unconcealed passion.

On a light background yellow, orange red begins to seem dark and lifeless, but worth reducing the lightness of the background – and the red begins to warm, maximizing its activity on the black or brown. Note that red has many shades: it can be varied on the scale of warm-cold, light-dark, faint-saturated, while retaining its color base.

In our own reality we associate northern sunsets, poppy blossoms, fire and the colors of war banners with red.

Blue

According to the definition of primary colors in painting, pure blue has no admixture of either red or yellow. i. Itten wrote that in contrast to the activity of red, blue is always passive, if you treat it materially. In the spiritual realm, blue is active on the contrary, representing faith and immortality. Blue is always cool and ‘inward looking. While red is associated with blood, blue with nerves. Blue gives strength to face fears and symbolizes tranquility. It gives rise to a sense of infinity and depth. Dark blue is symbolic of wisdom and insight. A lighter shade of blue – blue – soothes the mind and promotes sleep. It is true that too much blue and blue can cause depression.

Thanks to its spiritual essence, the blue color reveals itself best in combination with shades of yellow the color of the mind and attention . On a light yellow background it loses its power and appears dark faith gives way to intellect , against a dark yellow or yellow-brown background the blue color becomes active. On a black background, blue creates a clear and strong impression. i. Itten wrote: “Where black ignorance prevails, the blue of pure faith shines like a distant light. On red-orange, the blue looks quite mysterious, and on green it gets a reddish hue primarily because of the simultaneous contrast .

In life blue takes our memories of the stormy sea in sunny weather, deep blue to the midnight starry sky, blue to the spring bells and predawn mist on a chilly summer morning.

Yellow

Of all the primary colors, yellow is the most radiant. Dialogue of Colors . Yellow is sometimes called the “material white color,” and its maximum degree of penetration into matter is expressed by its orange modulation. In painting, the matter giving off light was pictured in yellow or gold. Since ancient times yellow has symbolized reason and illumination remember the golden halo of the saints . It stimulates brain activity and encourages rational thought. Like red, it attracts attention, but not as a warning of danger, but as a trigger for all kinds of reasoning. Having lost its purity and being diluted with gray, faded yellow is associated with envy, uncleanness, greed, and betrayal. Yellow, unlike red, allows little variation on the scale of faint – saturated, and almost none on the scale of cold – saturated

warm.”. Strong variations begin to destroy its base and often lead to a loss of luminosity.

Yellow shines more aggressively the darker the background on which it is placed. But if on a green or light blue background its glow is somewhat aloof, on black and dark brown it is sharp and uncompromising. The most powerful harmonies occur when yellow is used in conjunction with red or orange. Speaking of yellow on a red background, I. Itten draws a parallel with “the loud chord that evokes the sounds of the organ on Easter morning.”. The only color against which yellow loses its radiance is white. Only white is able to subdue yellow, but only as long as the color and the background do not swap.

In our surrounding reality, yellow is the color of the solar disk, fields of young dandelions or sunflowers, the color of autumn leaves.

Now let’s talk about colors of the second order.

Green

It is a combination of blue and yellow, and to some extent inherits the traits of both. Green is considered to be the color of youth and growth it is not without reason that they say “green still” , a symbol of fertility and renewal. Green is a kind of indicator of time, representing peace, joy and balance. This abundance of seemingly different qualities is due to the special position of green in the color space. It is almost in the middle of the spectrum and forms the boundary between warm and cold tones. Between the yellow and the blue-blue, it absorbs both the joy and the light-heartedness of the former and the wisdom and maturity of the latter. The more yellow there is in the green, the more active it is. The predominance of the blue component makes green as static and cold as possible blue-green, as opposed to red-orange, forms the other pole of the “warm-cold” scale .

In life, green makes us think of a grassy meadow on a bright summer day, the rich colors of the June woods, the cucumbers and greens in the vegetable tent.

Orange

Of all the secondary colors, it is the warmest, brightest, and most active. The reason is that it is formed by a combination of yellow and red, which, in turn, have the following qualities. Yellow-orange always reminds us of sunshine, red-orange reminds us of the warmth of home. Any shades of orange can cheer you up and bring back your cheerfulness. That is why in today’s stressful urban world this color is used more and more. Artists consider orange as a color of inspiration, fashion designers and designers see in it a mood of optimism and vivacity, and psychologists think that this color symbolizes prosperity and happiness. But if you add white or gray to orange, it will quickly lose its active character, and if you add black, it will turn into a lifeless brown tone. Unlike its progenitors, red and yellow, orange in a strong modulation instantly loses its character. In this sense orange is an extremely specific color.

In our reality orange is associated with the color of orange and mandarin, carrot juice, fireplace fire and the color of a southern sea sunset.

Purple

This is the most mysterious and perhaps the most problematic of colors. Suffice it to say that many are not able to distinguish its tonal modulations at all, preferring to classify purple through the shades of its constituents – red and blue. As a complementary color to yellow, it symbolizes the unconscious, the obscure and the undefined. Its blue-purple hue evokes a feeling of detachment and superstition red-purple is considered by many to be the color of spiritual grandeur it is not without reason that the robes of many priests had a red-purple tone . The most positive effect of violet occurs when it is dominated by a red component, with the tone itself noticeably brightened a pink tint . Characteristically, in the spectrum of visible radiation, purple is on one end, and red on the other. Violet is the most dispersed in the atmosphere and the hardest to reach the eye. Its primary constituents, red and blue, are just as far apart in the color spectrum and also belong to different temperature zones. That’s why purple is also called the color of contradictions. Mystery is added by the fact that one of the modulations of purple – magenta – is not present in the Newtonian spectrum at all.

In life we encounter purple when we look at the flowers of lilacs, violets, the glow of lightning during a thunderstorm, the spots of dark red wine or blueberry jam on a white tablecloth…

To summarize

At first we have acquainted our reader with physical objective nature of color and ways of its quantitative and qualitative description. Then we defined what we would mean by the psycho-physiological reality of color and its perception. We have considered in detail the structure of the human eye, as well as additive and subtractive models of color image formation. We spoke about interaction of colors with each other and in detail we have broken down all seven types of color contrasts. Finally, described the nature of each color separately within the theory of color impressions. In the next part of our story we are going to touch upon the relationship between color and form, and finally we are going to talk about the most important thing: colorism and the principles of color composition.

And now for a little surprise. Starting with this article, we are going to talk about the practical aspects of modern color photography. We have already mentioned that thanks to digital technology, the photographer has the freedom to create at each stage of the photographic process: shooting, processing and printing. Color management is also under its control. Today we’re going to show you how to work with color in your photography.

White balance

According to the majority of photographers, the adjustment of the color balance is one of the main advantages of digital photography.

Consider the spectrum of white color. Depending on the conditions of light its color components will have different intensity. On a sunny day the white light is dominated by the blue and yellow component, on a cloudy day by the blue and gray component, and at sunset by the red and yellow component. The laws of physics tell us that in order to get all the colors right you have to accurately reproduce the white color first. That’s white balance. Managing color balance in film photography comes down to replacing one film with another. It’s not very convenient, and there’s not much choice: 99% of commercially available films are balanced for only two types of light – daylight color temperature 5300-5500 K and artificial color temperature 3200-3700 K . If you take a picture of a daytime landscape on a low-temperature film the color balance breaks down and everything becomes greenish blue. On the contrary, if you take a picture indoors on daylight film, your eye will be assaulted by yellow-red tones. So white balance adjustment is not a simple thing for “digital” opponents. With digital cameras, even though the sensor is the same and cannot be replaced, the photographer can adjust the sensitivity of its cells. Each of them is sensitive to one of three colors: red, green or blue remember RGB model ! . Depending on the shooting conditions the photoprocessor adjusts the contribution of each spectral component to the total luminous flux. With digital cameras, adjusting the white balance not only ensures correct color reproduction, but also makes it possible to achieve a variety of artistic effects.

In today’s digital cameras there are three basic modes for controlling color balance.

Auto

99.9% of digital cameras have it – from the simplest up to the most powerful professional cameras. Just press the shutter release button and your camera’s processor will think of the rest. Keep in mind however, that in cheap cameras the color temperature value is obtained by analyzing the correlation between the red and blue signals generated at the matrix output simplified matrix method . This system works accurately only in a limited range of color temperatures, but saves time. However, in recent years the matrix method has improved noticeably, and today the automatic mode, especially in expensive cameras, provides excellent results.

Preset modes

In this case, the photographer chooses one of several color balance programs. In expensive models their number usually does not exceed 10, but there are 4-5 “classic” modes, present in the vast majority of cameras. Their names speak for themselves: “Sunny”, “overcast”, “tungsten lamp”, “fluorescent lighting”, “shadow. It is enough to estimate lighting conditions with your eye and select the appropriate option.

Manual mode

Let’s look at an example. A white wall will look reddish rather than white in the light of a setting sun. But you know it’s actually white. Point your camera at a wall and “tell” the processor that this is the true white. The photo system will correct the color balance for that type of light. This mode is called “white point” or “white on white”. It’s present in more than half of compact digital cameras and all professional models.

Some cameras have the ability to directly indicate the color temperature value in degrees Kelvin see. insert . This method is especially useful if you have a color meter – a device for determining color temperature.

Many readers might wonder why we need all these color intricacies when there is the almighty Photoshop? It can adjust all the colors as you wish. No doubt, a modern computer can work wonders, but there are two subtleties. First, you may want to print a digital photo before you get to your computer. Secondly, if there is little color information in the image, no processing program will add it to you, but will only provoke the appearance of additional “noise. An exception to this is when working with RAW-format. But even those who use this professional format can save time at the computer by setting the right color balance while you are still shooting.

Some practical tips

Color balance is especially useful for landscapes or portraits. Don’t rely on auto mode in this case. But if you are too lazy to make the necessary adjustments, then you should choose an expensive camera with a good color temperature sensor.

In mixed lighting conditions, even good automatics can make mistakes. White balance bracketing, when you shoot a few frames at different color temperatures, and then choose the best one, will help.

Remember that the local colors of your subjects are strongly influenced by the lighting. Its spectral composition influences the color tone, and its intensity and direction affect the saturation and strength of their contrast. For maximum saturation it is necessary to leave the light source e.g. sun behind when taking pictures. Side lighting or sometimes counter-side lighting can help smooth out harsh color contrast and lessen saturation.

Use “Cloudy” for a healthier-looking skin on a clear sunny day. In landscape or architectural photography this trick will help fill the frame with a nice golden glow. It is especially useful to use the “cloudy” setting when shooting sunsets. If you use the “tungsten” setting for daylight photography you can get a moonlit or pre-dawn effect.

On a clear day with little cloud cover the contrast between sky and clouds can be increased with polarizing filters. They make the color of the sky much deeper, contributing to better render the clouds on its background.

The higher quality of camera’s LCD monitor, the easier it is to control the adequacy of color rendering.

Those who still shoot on slide film can be advised to slightly under-hold the picture by 1 minute to make it more saturated in color&frasl 2-1&frasl 3 exposure steps.

Photo: EkaterinaKuleshova

Photo: Irina Scherbina

Yellow, red, and blue are considered the primary colors in painting. Because of the nature of pigment colors, they cannot be created by mixing any other shades. But if you mix any two of them, you get a secondary color. Mixing red and blue produces purple, mixing red and yellow produces orange, and mixing yellow and blue produces green. With further blending we get third-order colors.

Photo: Vadim Spirin

Photo: Irina Shcherbina

Photo: Ekaterina Kuleshova

Photo: Ekaterina Kuleshova

To make the sunset more saturated and warm, the white balance was set to cloudy.

Photo: Sergey Marchenko

Using the “tungsten” option in the white balance setting gave the image a cooler tint, which better suits the image of a southern embankment in the off-season.

Photo: Irina Scherbina

Color temperature

In a previous article we mentioned that the colors of objects strongly depend on the spectral composition of light. What’s more, when you change it, the visual differences between some colors can get stronger, and between others they can get weaker. For example, blue and green tones are less distinguishable under yellowish light incandescent light, candle flame, etc. . and better in cloudy weather gray-blue light , while reds and oranges, on the contrary, are distinguished worse in cloudy weather than in yellowish light. One of the characteristics of the spectral composition of the incident radiation is the color temperature.

It is known that all heated bodies are sources of electromagnetic waves. At low temperatures, they emit only long-wavelength radiation, invisible to the eye. When heated, they begin to shine – first dark red, then fiery red, yellow, white and finally a bluish-gray light. A similar relation between the temperature of the luminous body and the chromaticity has been studied in details for the body, which absorbs all the radiation falling on it such a body in physics is called absolutely black . Without going into details, we can say that the composition of the light it emits is known for each temperature value of an ideal black body. That is, the spectral composition of light can be characterized by the temperature of a perfectly black body, at which it emits light of the same composition as the object in question. This temperature is what we call the color. It is expressed in units of absolute temperature Kelvin and characterizes the energy distribution of light radiation as a function of wavelength. The higher the color temperature of the light source, the more short-wave radiation blue, blue, etc. in it. . lower temperature – more longwave components yellows, reds, oranges .

Color temperature of some light sources

Light Source	Color temperature, K	Hue of color
Candle flame	2600-2800	orange
Incandescent bulbs conventional	2700-3000	Yellow-orange
Incandescent spotlight lamps	3100-3200	yellow-green
Impulse flash lamps xenon	6000-6500	white-blue
Sunlight after sunrise Or before sunset	3500-4500	yellow, yellow-orange
Sunlight at noon without diffused sky light	4700-4800	yellow
Sunlight at noon Together with diffuse sky light	5000-6000	white-yellow
Radiation of the sky without direct sunlight	10 000-15 000	gray-blue, light purple

From what has been said, it is clear that the concept of chromaticity applies not only to colored bodies, but also to incident radiation. Let’s note the interesting fact which shows connection between color temperature of radiation and character of its chromaticity in a scale “warm – cold”. The higher the color temperature of the light, the colder the color tone predominates see. table .

The very presence of a sky blue and white tint in the composition makes the meaning of this photograph more evident. So despite the bright sunny day, the “tungsten” white balance option was chosen.

Photo: Sergey Marchenko