COLOR HUE PERCEPTION

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

In the past, a great frustration of mine when dealing with yellow subjects was the color's propensity to shift toward a greenish color cast. This was not necessarily the fault of the subject, or the color itself; mainly it was a result of different devices (monitors, printers, scanners, cameras) interpreting colors in different ways. I find that often, but not always, subjects that appear true yellow on Mac screens have a slight greenish tinge when the same image is viewed on PC screens.

There is an entire industry centered around the quest for color consistency. If you do not have the means to purchase color calibrating tools for your monitors, you may have to do it the old fashioned way; check your image on as many different platforms, screens, and browsers as possible.

I work on Mac computers, but I also have a PC which I use to view my images for color correction purposes. For images that will be viewed on the web, I will often see what the pictures look like on Firefox, Safari, Explorer, and maybe other lesser used browsers.

Even though this may seem like a laborious process, after a few tries you will intuitively know how your own screen's colors match with your viewers around the world, and you will be able to color correct your images accordingly. For example, if your yellows appear slightly greenish, add a bit of magenta to counter the green.

It may be wise for you to memorize the color wheel, as it will speed up your editing time. You will, for example, know immediately that if your photo is too reddish, you will need to add cyan. For a quick overview of the color wheel that photographer use (different for painters!), see below:

Red is opposite to Cyan
Green is opposite to Magenta
Blue is opposite to Yellow

Thanks to Adrienn Nagy for showing me this 1960's modern cottage located on the Maros river, in Hungary.

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Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com

Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

WIDE ANGLE PERSPECTIVE

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If you desire to create a graphic, or metaphor-laden image, try using a very wide angle lens. The perspective distortion on wide angle lenses removes the subject from reality, and may take your image from documentary to illustration.

This technique is especially evident and useful when the lens focus is on a part of the subject that protrudes, or is extended radically toward the camera lens (see attached photo). That which is closest to the wide angle lens will appear accentuated and large, in relation to the background.

This illustrative photo was a group project by Sue Furlong, Lauchlan Ough, and myself, commissioned by the International Youth Media Summit, in Belgrade, Serbia.Email this Blog to a friend.

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com

Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

BLUE COLOR CAST

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

This may be obvious to most readers, but if you have subject matter that is inherently depressing, choose a blue color cast. This image of a bullet ridden building (kept un-repaired as a monument I believe) has a haunting and sad feel. I chose an incandescent or tungsten white balance setting, which on most cameras is signified by a little light bulb icon.

Give this color balance option a try, and you may find that it adds more mood and atmosphere to many of your photos.

The building is in the castle district in Budapest, Hungary.

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Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com

Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

WARM/COOL TONES

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

Yellow and Blue are opposites on the photographer's color wheel. I often try to locate images that have a mix of these two colors, similar to the attached sample image of Buda Castle. While not specifically Yellow and Blue, warm tones (yellow cast) are displayed by the interior castle lights, and the cool tones (blue cast) are displayed by the immediate frontal exterior. When the sun has set, building exteriors become cool-toned, while interiors usually maintain a warm toned, incandescent look.

Architectural photographers make use of this light color mixture frequently. You can do it too, by using a tripod with a cable or remote release. Take the photo after sunset, when the ambient sky light illuminating the building's exterior is roughly the same brightness as the interior light bulbs.

Thanks to Sue Furlong who clicked the shutter for me on this picture. Being a photographer there are very few pictures of myself, so I decided to get a photo taken in Budapest at this wonderful castle cafe. The view in the background is of the Parliament Building on the Pest side of the river.

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Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com

Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com