Colour � Red, Standing out from the crowd

Colour plays a huge role in photography. Yes I know you can get excellent black and white photographs but the greater majority of pictures are taken in colour.

What I have found with colour, is that it can change a mundane, or basic picture, into something that is eye-catching and memorable.

For example�

would this picture catch your eye without the boy with the bright red top sat on the branch. The red transforms the subtle shades of green into a picture that says look at me.

In this next picture the simple garden path has also been transformed with colour.

The addition of the red rake in the picture adds a focal point to attract the eye to the image, before it wanders around the rest of the picture. It also adds a feeling of story to the scene and that is a key element when viewing a photograph.

Red, being one of the prime colours, is dominate in drawing your attention, even in busy traffic the addition of a red bus stands out from the rest of the scene.

The rest of the scene in this photograph may be worthy of attention in itself but it is the red bus that attracts the eye first.

Red is used by nature to attract attention, such as a flower to attract insects or an insect saying leave me alone I�m dangerous to eat. We use red in our road signs too to symbolize danger as it stands out from the rest of the scene and attracts the eye to it. Red is used in advertising as well as it�s strong colour attracts the eye.

Red = Strong colour = Attracting to the eye.

(Not always pleasing to the eye but always attracting).

By my use of colour, in this instance �Red�, to accent my photos it helps to accent the image, and hopefully for these examples you will agree it has worked to a greater or lesser extent. That doesn�t mean it will work for every photo, you still have to balance the pro�s of the boldness of the colour attracting the eye against the subtleties of the rest of the scene. A red object will nearly always steal the attention of the viewer, so if the main object has more muted tones, then try and avoid getting the strong red coloured object in the frame so it doesn�t steal the show.

Why don�t you have a go yourself photograph bold, red images.

For those followers of the header challenge I am very pleased to announce that my fellow contributors saw fit to award me Gold this week. I am as you may guess very happy and somewhat shell shocked that I received this accolade after only just joining the group two weeks ago. A very big thank you to fishing guy, imac, Lanny and Gailsman for this honour.

Why don�t you go and visit their blogs and check out their wonderful posts and headers, just click on their names or follow the links in the right column.

 

Technorati Tags: Colour,photography,pictures,example,garden,image,nature,signs,danger,Strong,photo,images,header,Gold,photos

Angles on architecture!

Sometimes when you are taking pictures of buildings so that you can admire the architecture and marvel at how they have stood the test of time unchanged you can be thwarted by things such as electricity cables.

When I took this picture in Trapani in Sicily it was one of those occasions.

With the wonders of Photoshop and a little add-on called Wire-Worm I was able to get rid of the tell tale signs of modern technology. 

I know its a bit ironic that I am using modern technology to get rid of signs of modern technology from the picture but I think it does improve it.

Some times when you take pictures of architecture it is good to be unconventional.

As you can see here I have changed the angle by getting in very close to the building and shooting straight up at the sky. I think it adds something by changing the composition. What do you think?

Everywhere around Trapani the buildings and doors had intricate carvings. Many of them depicting religious symbolism as shown in the door here.

 When we visited Trapani we arrived on board a cruise ship which berthed right alongside the main road.

This enabled me to get this shot looking straight down the water front to Mount Etna in the background (far right in picture).

Sky Pictures.

Sat at my computer I look out over the flat landscape of South Lincolnshire, England.

Because the land is so flat the sky plays a large part of the landscape.

This evening it was crying out to be photographed.

I didn't need to go far just to the boundary of our garden to get these pictures.

The constantly changing shapes of the clouds give a different picture from the same location very quickly.

Changing the format of the picture from landscape (above) to portrait gives a whole new effect to the composition.

The clouds in this picture above seem to be in three distinct layers towering over the landscape.

Unlike the landscape formatted pictures I have included the horizon in the frame. This was done to emphasise the magnitude of the sky and to give a reference point allowing the eye to pan from the ground up into the sky and clouds.

Looking out now on the same landscape there are no longer any clouds to be seen.

This goes to show that with photography half the challenge is being in the right place at the right time.

Not only that but seeing the opportunity for a photo and taking it.

The advantage with modern digital cameras is that you can take as many shots as you want and it will not cost you any more than taking just one.

You may take 50 photos of one subject and if only one photo turns out to be really good then it was worth it.

 Go on take some photographs.

Bee's in Close-up.

I wandered into our garden for today's photo's.

My first choice had been to just take some pictures of flowers or plants. However, when I started taking pictures of our flowering hedgerow, the bumblebees started to fly into the frame. The photo shoot changed to that of a impromptu macro session.

I used my Canon EOS Rebel XTi camera with Canon EF 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 lens to take the photographs.

The bumble bees were constantly moving, so I had to make sure that the focal point was it and not the flower it had just moved from. 

Because the bee was flitting about so quickly, I had to set the shutter speed fairly high so that the whole bee did not become a blur. Unfortunately this also froze his wings in some of the shots.

Getting an even exposure as the bees moved around the hedgerow was another challenge. I  used both shutter priority mode and aperture priority mode, as well as manual, to try and find which gave the best shot. On this occasion shutter priority gave the better combination. It ensured a fast enough shutter speed that the bee was not blurred, but also allowed the camera to select the best aperture for the available light. I took the shots early evening, before the light started to fade, but after the harsh light of midday. This helped to create a much softer light on the subject.

I tried to use the rule of thirds, (explored in an earlier post) to compose the picture to make the composition more interesting. The depth of field has been kept short, thus enabling the background to remain out of focus. This ensures that the eye is not distracted away from the bee and the flower in the picture.

The white and subtle yellow of the flowers also help to enhance the prominence of the bee in the frame.

For an impromptu macro shoot I really enjoyed it and I hope you did too. I will try and do another close-up photo shoot in the near future. 

Why not add a comment or suggestion of what you would like to see as the subject of that shoot. I will then, if possible, carry it out and then I will post the photos on here once I have done it for you to see.

Changing seasons Project update

You would think looking at the pictures I have taken so far that the weather stays the same and doesn't change. Well so far it has. Overcast skies, mild temperatures and very little wind.

I do assure you though that the photos I take for this project are taken on the day that I post on here.

As we can see from today's photo the trees and the native hedging are still bare in this part of Lincolnshire. The grass reeds growing in the dyke though still look nice and adds a focal point before the eye leads off accross the greenery of the field.
The sky was a blanket of grey when I took this shot so unfortunately it appears a tad washed out.
I will have to experiment for future shots to improve on that.

Waddington Air Show

I have been rummaging through some of last years photos and came across a batch I took at the Waddington air show.

Here we have a World War 2 Lancaster bomber with its Spitfire escort.




As you can see I've used the rule of thirds again to try and help the photo.
Although good, this photo doesn't work as well due to the propellers being frozen in place taking away some of the illusion of movement.

The Vulcan bomber was returned to the skies in October 2007 for the first time in 14 years after its retirement following 33 years of service in the RAF.

Here we have it climbing into the sky at Waddington Air show 2008 one of its first public appearances.



And later seemingly chasing the Lancashire bomber across the sky.



By keeping the flow of the photo across the diagonal it helps to add drama to the shot. Also the cropping out of any land gives a further illusion of height to the action.




Also on display was the Euro-fighter, here doing an aerobatic display with its World War 2 counterpart the Spitfire. By taking careful notice of the angle of the shot it looks as if this photo was taken from another aircraft even though I was stood on the ground amongst a crowd of people at an air show.
It proves with some thought a photo can be changed from an ok shot to a great shot.

The Waddington Air show is a great opportunity to try various photo techniques some of which I have shown here and some which I will keep to show another day.

The art of photo composition

One of the key arts of taking a good photograph is its composition.

Have you ever had a photo like the one here that was just, well, boring!




There's no focal point. The eye has nowhere to rest. The eye may flow with the water but it doesn't lead anywhere.

If you change the perspective and perhaps add a bit of foliage you get this.




This shot gives a bit more by showing the fast moving stream with a strand of foliage.

Its better but still not brilliant.

Lets try yet another angle.



Here the stream has been framed by the tree.

This allows a good comparison with the fast movement of the water and the stillness of the tree.

Its not perfect but of the 3 it is well on its way to getting there.